an off-the-books ledger described cash payments, $12.7 million. paul manafort denies he got any of that money but when those massive protests pushed yanukovych out of power, sent him running to moscow russia was not in a mood to acknowledge defeat. after all, they had stopped ukraine from going forward with that deal with the european union and sure they had lost their man in the presidential palace but they that just meant putin needed another way to show ukraine who s boss and so russia took part of ukraine for itself. ukraine axed the deal with the eu in late november, 2013, the protests went november, december, january, february. by february the protesters had won and changed yanukovych out of office. that same week they chased him back to moscow russia invaded. russia sent its troops to the part of ukraine that s called crimea. by march russia had not just invaded, they had taken over.
not thinking about marrying the european union but they at least wanted to go on a few dates. in 2013 ukraine was engaged in talks for a deal with the european union that would start with easier trade, would eventually lead to easier travel. it was a negotiated arrangement to basically bring ukraine much closer to the eu. it would be a big economic deal for ukraine, it was popular in ukraine, talks were steaming ahead. but then the leader of ukraine, president yanukovych, he bailed. he was a pro-putin leader propped up by putin and by russia and putin didn t want ukraine getting cozy with the european union and so he gave his orders and yuea yanukovych yesterday and pulled out of that deal. people poured on the street by the thousands, then tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands protesting against
yanukovych, protesting against russia controlling their country s fate. it started in november, it went on for months, by february it had turned deadly. they turned live fire on the protests, dozens of people were killed a ed and yanukovych fled russia. when he fled he left the gates of his otherwise basically secret presidential palace unlocked and ukrainians were able to stream in to see what he d been doing with their money he d been stealing, up to and including his gold toilets and car museumnd his replica anish galleon that he used as a private restaurant and all the rest. among the documents he and his political party left behind were the documents that allegedly show his off-the-books cash payments to his political guru, the political consultant who ran things for him and his party, a man named paul manafort who went on to run the donald trump for president campaign.