Trump allies push Ukraine peace plan
A week before Michael Flynn resigned as national security adviser, a sealed proposal was handdelivered to his office that outlined a way for President Donald Trump to lift sanctions against Russia.
Flynn is gone, having been caught lying about his discussion of sanctions with the Russian ambassador. But the proposal, a peace plan for Ukraine and Russia, remains, along with those pushing it: Michael Cohen, the president’s personal lawyer, who delivered the document; Felix H. Sater, a business associate who helped Trump scout deals in Russia; and a Ukrainian lawmaker trying to rise in a political-opposition movement shaped in part by Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort.
At a time when Trump’s ties to Russia, and the people connected to him, are under heightened scrutiny — with investigations by U.S. intelligence agencies, the FBI and Congress — some of his associates remain willing and eager to wade into Russia-related efforts behind the scenes.
Trump has confounded Democrats and Republicans alike with his repeated praise for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his desire to forge a U.S.-Russian alliance. Although there is nothing illegal about such unofficial efforts, a proposal that seems to tip toward Russian interests might set off alarms.
The amateur diplomats say their goal is simply to help settle a grueling, three-year conflict that has cost 10,000 lives. “Who doesn’t want to help bring about peace?” Cohen asked.
But the proposal contains more than just a peace plan. Andrii V. Artemenko, the Ukrainian lawmaker, who sees himself as a Trump-style leader of a future Ukraine, claims to have evidence — “names of companies, wire transfers” — showing corruption by the Ukrainian president, Petro O. Poroshenko, that could help oust him. And Artemenko said he had received encouragement for his plans from top aides to Putin.
“A lot of people will call me a Russian agent, a U.S. agent, a CIA agent,” Artemenko said. “But how can you find a good solution between our countries if we do not talk?”
Cohen and Sater said they had not spoken to Trump about the proposal and have no experience in foreign policy. Cohen is one of several Trump associates under scrutiny in an FBI counterintelligence examination of links with Russia, according to lawenforcement officials; he has denied any illicit connections.
The two others involved in the effort have somewhat questionable pasts: Sater, 50, a Russian-American, pleaded guilty to a role in a stock-manipulation scheme decades ago that involved the Mafia. Artemenko spent 2 years in jail in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, in the early 2000s on embezzlement charges; they were later dropped, and he said they had been politically motivated.
It is unclear whether the White House will take the proposal seriously, but the diplomatic freelancing has infuriated Ukrainian officials. Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., Valeriy Chaly, said Artemenko “is not entitled to present any alternative peace plans on behalf of Ukraine to any foreign government, including the U.S. administration.”