All Things Russia & Ukraine

[runrussellrun]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... crash.html

Probably a coincidence

probably.......right out of the gate, there is TLD making comments about a NON issue. Or, is it only HUNTER?

[youthathletics]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... crash.html

Probably a coincidence

probably.......right out of the gate, there is TLD making comments about a NON issue. Or, is it only HUNTER?

He is trying to keep up with the DOW in post count.

[old salt]

FOIA request reveals second batch of communications between our Ukrainian Embassy & State Dept, expressing concerns about Burisma bribes of Hunter Biden. Amb Yovanovitch, George Kent & Victoria Nuland are all govt officials & credible sources. Why didn't we hear this from them during the impeachment hearings ? No apparent interest in our MSM. The newly FOIA released communications would probably be shared, if the MSM asked for them.

https://justthenews.com/accountability/ ... ggregators

Just before Obama left office, U.S. officials feared Hunter Biden firm in Ukraine paid second bribe

Fresh corruption allegation about Burisma Holdings was flagged to the top of State Department in December 2016, memos show.

Twenty-two days before President Obama left office, the U.S. ambassador to Kiev wrote top officials in Washington that she feared Burisma Holdings had made a second bribe to Ukrainian officials — shortly before a corruption probe against Hunter Biden's natural gas employer was abruptly closed before Donald Trump took office.

The concerns are detailed in new memos belatedly released to Just the News under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the State Department. The suit was brought on behalf of the news organization by the public interest law firm the Southeastern Legal Foundation.

Then-Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch's concerns were first raised in a Ukrainian news story about a Russian-backed fugitive lawmaker in Ukraine, who alleged Burisma had dumped low-priced natural gas into the market for officials near Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to buy low and sell high, making a bribe disguised as a profit.

The scheme was confirmed by U.S. officials before Yovanovitch alerted the top State official for Ukraine and Russia policy in Washington at the time, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, the memos show.

"There are accusations that Burisma allegedly had a subsidiary dump natural gas as a way to pay bribes," Yovanovitch wrote Nuland on Dec. 29, 2016, noting the story "mentions that Hunter Biden and former Polish President Kwasniewski are on the Burisma Board."

The alert was the second in two years in which the embassy alleged Burisma had paid a bribe while Vice President Joe Biden's son served on its board.

Back in February 2015, then-embassy official George Kent reported to the U.S. Justice Department evidence that Burisma had made a $7 million cash bribe to Ukrainian prosecutors before those prosecutors killed a separate corruption probe in the United Kingdom by failing to produce required evidence.

The second alleged bribe in December 2016 was brought to the attention of Yovanovitch and Kent, then a top aide to the ambassador, shortly after the Christmas holiday when a story appeared in the Ukrainian press.

"Lots of accusations/innuendo," Yovanovitch was told in an email. "Mentions Biden's son and Kwasniewski are on board of Burisma, which allegedly had a subsidiary dump natural gas recently as a way to pay bribes to P2 inner circle."
P2 was the shorthand State officials in the U.S. embassy in Kiev used to refer to Petro Poroshenko, the Ukrainian president, who was close to Vice President Biden.

Because the allegations were first raised by Oleksander Onyschenko, a fugitive in Ukraine who was tied to Russian sources, as well as Radical Party Leader Oleg Lyashko, embassy officials checked them out and confirmed them before telling Nuland.

"The dumping part is true," the embassy's deputy economic counselor wrote Yovanovitch a few hours after the story surfaced and before Nuland was alerted.

The official told the ambassador a major Ukrainian figure close to Poroshenko was "photographed meeting with [Burisma founder Mykola] Zlochevsky in a Vienna restaurant over the weekend, and Zlochevsky may have handed over a suitcase. You can't make this up."

Within a few days of the bribe claim, word emerged in Ukraine that the prosecutor general's office had settled their long-running corruption case against Burisma in exchange for a tax penalty. Anti-corruption activists in Ukraine quickly expressed their displeasure to American officials.

Inside the embassy, U.S. officials who had worked alongside Vice President Biden for years were resigned to the closure of the case and frustrated that a company tied to Hunter Biden had undercut U.S. efforts to fight endemic corruption in Ukraine

"The Burisma tale of getting a court to shut down a PGO investigation noted below would amount to nearly the same mechanism — rich connected businessman politician seeks to use the court/judge of unknown reputation to close an investigation of a business with a dodgy reputation," Kent wrote Yovanovitch on Jan. 13, 2017, one week before Trump took office.

Right up to Obama's last day in office, the U.S. embassy officials continued to follow and remark on Burisma's escape from prosecution.

For more than a year, the Bidens, congressional Democrats and their allies in the American media have sought to portray the story of Hunter Biden's work for Burisma as a Russian-inspired conspiracy theory that had been discredited.

But the Obama-Biden era documents gathered by this news organization over more than a year under FOIA clearly show State officials believed the Bidens' behavior created the appearance of a conflict of interest because Joe Biden continued to preside over anti-corruption policy in Ukraine while his son worked for a company under investigation for corruption.

And now the latest documents show those same officials had reported not one, but two alleged efforts by Burisma to pay bribes to end the investigations while the vice president's son served on the company's board.

[njbill]

This story is by Just The News? Oh boy, there is a reliable source if there ever was one.

Even if the assertions in the story are accurate, nothing says Hunter Biden knew of or participated in the bribes.

There is no criminal investigation of Hunter Biden. If we want to look into such against the candidates’ offspring, how about if we look into the pending criminal investigation against Eric.

Much more significantly, the story has nothing at all to do with Joe Biden.

Trump badly bungled this Burisma story. Not only did it lead to his impeachment, but by getting all the play 15 months or so before the election, the story has long burned out and will have zero impact on the election.

[old salt]

This story is by Just The News? Oh boy, there is a reliable source if there ever was one.

Even if the assertions in the story are accurate, nothing says Hunter Biden knew of or participated in the bribes.

There is no criminal investigation of Hunter Biden. If we want to look into such against the candidates’ offspring, how about if we look into the pending criminal investigation against Eric.

Much more significantly, the story has nothing at all to do with Joe Biden.

Trump badly bungled this Burisma story. Not only did it lead to his impeachment, but by getting all the play 15 months or so before the election, the story has long burned out and will have zero impact on the election.

If the govt comms were released under FOIA, are they authentic, regardless of who published them ?

Would they have been relevant in the impeachment proceedings when Yovanovitch & Kent testified ?

Trump was asking Ukraine to investigate this very thing. VP Biden was our envoy to Ukraine, controlled whether or not they got US aid, & insisted the prosecutor investigating Burisma be fired, as a condition for receiving that aid. He publicly bragged about it.

[RedFromMI]

This story is by Just The News? Oh boy, there is a reliable source if there ever was one.

Even if the assertions in the story are accurate, nothing says Hunter Biden knew of or participated in the bribes.

There is no criminal investigation of Hunter Biden. If we want to look into such against the candidates’ offspring, how about if we look into the pending criminal investigation against Eric.

Much more significantly, the story has nothing at all to do with Joe Biden.

Trump badly bungled this Burisma story. Not only did it lead to his impeachment, but by getting all the play 15 months or so before the election, the story has long burned out and will have zero impact on the election.

If the govt comms were released under FOIA, are they authentic, regardless of who published them ?

Would they have been relevant in the impeachment proceedings when Yovanovitch & Kent testified ?

Trump was asking Ukraine to investigate this very thing. VP Biden was our envoy to Ukraine, controlled whether or not they got US aid, & insisted the prosecutor investigating Burisma be fired, as a condition for receiving that aid. He publicly bragged about it.

And that aim - the firing of that prosecutor - was the OPEN aim of not only US foreign policy but pretty much all of the Western European countries, because of the fact this prosecutor was stalling on investigations to remove corruption. There was nothing corrupt about this action, unlike Trump's where the goal was to help Trump out in his re-election effort.

[MDlaxfan76]

Salty knows all this...it's amazing that he keeps regurgitating the Russian propaganda, but 'it is what it is'.

[njbill]

The information should be accurate, but I question what was asked for. The government isn’t going to produce things that weren’t asked for.

How would they be relevant to impeachment? They don’t bear on the president’s illegal request for political assistance from Ukraine.

Biden was not our envoy to Ukraine. He did not control what aid was provided. The “firing of the prosecutor” incident has been explained multiple times. There is no there there.

Plus, regardless of what was produced, the author of this article could put in or leave out whatever information from the FOIA request they want.

This “new” information contains no linkage to Joe whatsoever.

[old salt]

The information should be accurate, but I question what was asked for. The government isn’t going to produce things that weren’t asked for.

How would they be relevant to impeachment? They don’t bear on the president’s illegal request for political assistance from Ukraine.

Biden was not our envoy to Ukraine. He did not control what aid was provided. The “firing of the prosecutor” incident has been explained multiple times. There is no there there.

Plus, regardless of what was produced, the author of this article could put in or leave out whatever information from the FOIA request they want.

This “new” information contains no linkage to Joe whatsoever.

They contain information about what Trump was asking Ukraine to investigate.

Biden has portrayed himself as being the Obama Admin's point man on Ukrainian policy.
We've all seen the video of his extortion demand that they fire the prosecutor. Sum'b!tch !

If you don't trust this author, what's stopping MSM reporters from reporting on the FOIA documents.

[old salt]

Salty knows all this...it's amazing that he keeps regurgitating the Russian propaganda, but 'it is what it is'.

The FOIA request was answered by the US Dept of State.
Deriding everything you find politically inconvenient as Russian propaganda is a dishonest, cowardly dodge.

[njbill]

The information should be accurate, but I question what was asked for. The government isn’t going to produce things that weren’t asked for.

How would they be relevant to impeachment? They don’t bear on the president’s illegal request for political assistance from Ukraine.

Biden was not our envoy to Ukraine. He did not control what aid was provided. The “firing of the prosecutor” incident has been explained multiple times. There is no there there.

Plus, regardless of what was produced, the author of this article could put in or leave out whatever information from the FOIA request they want.

This “new” information contains no linkage to Joe whatsoever.

They contain information about what Trump was asking Ukraine to investigate.

Biden has portrayed himself as being the Obama Admin's point man on Ukrainian policy.
We've all seen the video of his extortion demand that they fire the prosecutor. Sum'complain !

If you don't trust this author, what's stopping MSM reporters from reporting on the FOIA documents.

Point person and envoy are two different things.

Yes, we have all seen that video, which has been explained ad nauseam.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think documents produced in response to a FOIA request are made available generally. I think they are only made available to the requesting party. Now, that party could disseminate them, but I’m not aware that that has happened here.

In any event, this is a dead story at this point.

[MDlaxfan76]

Salty knows all this...it's amazing that he keeps regurgitating the Russian propaganda, but 'it is what it is'.

The FOIA request was answered by the US Dept of State.
Deriding everything you find politically inconvenient as Russian propaganda is a dishonest, cowardly dodge.

Both dishonest and cowardly now to call our Russian propaganda for what it is.

Ok, that's the new normal.

Just try and keep up, salty.

[old salt]

The information should be accurate, but I question what was asked for. The government isn’t going to produce things that weren’t asked for.

How would they be relevant to impeachment? They don’t bear on the president’s illegal request for political assistance from Ukraine.

Biden was not our envoy to Ukraine. He did not control what aid was provided. The “firing of the prosecutor” incident has been explained multiple times. There is no there there.

Plus, regardless of what was produced, the author of this article could put in or leave out whatever information from the FOIA request they want.

This “new” information contains no linkage to Joe whatsoever.

They contain information about what Trump was asking Ukraine to investigate.

Biden has portrayed himself as being the Obama Admin's point man on Ukrainian policy.
We've all seen the video of his extortion demand that they fire the prosecutor. Sum'complain !

If you don't trust this author, what's stopping MSM reporters from reporting on the FOIA documents.

Point person and envoy are two different things.

Yes, we have all seen that video, which has been explained ad nauseam.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think documents produced in response to a FOIA request are made available generally. I think they are only made available to the requesting party. Now, that party could disseminate them, but I’m not aware that that has happened here.

In any event, this is a dead story at this point.

You don't think the requestor would share them with any MSM that requested to see them ?

[old salt]

Salty knows all this...it's amazing that he keeps regurgitating the Russian propaganda, but 'it is what it is'.

The FOIA request was answered by the US Dept of State.
Deriding everything you find politically inconvenient as Russian propaganda is a dishonest, cowardly dodge.

Both dishonest and cowardly now to call our Russian propaganda for what it is.

Ok, that's the new normal.

Just try and keep up, salty.

Just keep lying about US State Dept documents, calling them Russian propaganda.

[njbill]

The information should be accurate, but I question what was asked for. The government isn’t going to produce things that weren’t asked for.

How would they be relevant to impeachment? They don’t bear on the president’s illegal request for political assistance from Ukraine.

Biden was not our envoy to Ukraine. He did not control what aid was provided. The “firing of the prosecutor” incident has been explained multiple times. There is no there there.

Plus, regardless of what was produced, the author of this article could put in or leave out whatever information from the FOIA request they want.

This “new” information contains no linkage to Joe whatsoever.

They contain information about what Trump was asking Ukraine to investigate.

Biden has portrayed himself as being the Obama Admin's point man on Ukrainian policy.
We've all seen the video of his extortion demand that they fire the prosecutor. Sum'complain !

If you don't trust this author, what's stopping MSM reporters from reporting on the FOIA documents.

Point person and envoy are two different things.

Yes, we have all seen that video, which has been explained ad nauseam.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think documents produced in response to a FOIA request are made available generally. I think they are only made available to the requesting party. Now, that party could disseminate them, but I’m not aware that that has happened here.

In any event, this is a dead story at this point.

You don't think the requestor would share them with any MSM that requested to see them ?

I would think so, but I don’t know for sure. Of course, you would be giving away for free something that you paid for.

[old salt]

The information should be accurate, but I question what was asked for. The government isn’t going to produce things that weren’t asked for.

How would they be relevant to impeachment? They don’t bear on the president’s illegal request for political assistance from Ukraine.

Biden was not our envoy to Ukraine. He did not control what aid was provided. The “firing of the prosecutor” incident has been explained multiple times. There is no there there.

Plus, regardless of what was produced, the author of this article could put in or leave out whatever information from the FOIA request they want.

This “new” information contains no linkage to Joe whatsoever.

They contain information about what Trump was asking Ukraine to investigate.

Biden has portrayed himself as being the Obama Admin's point man on Ukrainian policy.
We've all seen the video of his extortion demand that they fire the prosecutor. Sum'complain !

If you don't trust this author, what's stopping MSM reporters from reporting on the FOIA documents.

Point person and envoy are two different things.

Yes, we have all seen that video, which has been explained ad nauseam.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think documents produced in response to a FOIA request are made available generally. I think they are only made available to the requesting party. Now, that party could disseminate them, but I’m not aware that that has happened here.

In any event, this is a dead story at this point.

You don't think the requestor would share them with any MSM that requested to see them ?

I would think so, but I don’t know for sure. Of course, you would be giving away for free something that you paid for.

Solomon calls out the MSM for not covering this. I sense that he'd welcome their interest.

[njbill]

I reread the article. The “new” information concerns an alleged bribe made in December 2016, one month before Biden left office. What in God’s name does this new information have to do with Joe Biden?

[old salt]

Twenty-two days before President Obama left office, the U.S. ambassador to Kiev wrote top officials in Washington that she feared Burisma Holdings had made a second bribe to Ukrainian officials — shortly before a corruption probe against Hunter Biden's natural gas employer was abruptly closed before Donald Trump took office.

The alert was the second in two years in which the embassy alleged Burisma had paid a bribe while Vice President Joe Biden's son served on its board.

The second alleged bribe in December 2016 was brought to the attention of Yovanovitch and Kent, then a top aide to the ambassador, shortly after the Christmas holiday when a story appeared in the Ukrainian press.

Within a few days of the bribe claim, word emerged in Ukraine that the prosecutor general's office had settled their long-running corruption case against Burisma in exchange for a tax penalty. Anti-corruption activists in Ukraine quickly expressed their displeasure to American officials.

Inside the embassy, U.S. officials who had worked alongside Vice President Biden for years were resigned to the closure of the case and frustrated that a company tied to Hunter Biden had undercut U.S. efforts to fight endemic corruption in Ukraine

"The Burisma tale of getting a court to shut down a PGO investigation noted below would amount to nearly the same mechanism — rich connected businessman politician seeks to use the court/judge of unknown reputation to close an investigation of a business with a dodgy reputation," Kent wrote Yovanovitch on Jan. 13, 2017, one week before Trump took office.

Right up to Obama's last day in office, the U.S. embassy officials continued to follow and remark on Burisma's escape from prosecution.

[MDlaxfan76]

Salty knows all this...it's amazing that he keeps regurgitating the Russian propaganda, but 'it is what it is'.

The FOIA request was answered by the US Dept of State.
Deriding everything you find politically inconvenient as Russian propaganda is a dishonest, cowardly dodge.

Both dishonest and cowardly now to call our Russian propaganda for what it is.

Ok, that's the new normal.

Just try and keep up, salty.

Just keep lying about US State Dept documents, calling them Russian propaganda.

nope, I'm not criticizing the State dept docs, just your repeating Russian propaganda talking points.
You know better, but ahh well.

[old salt]

Salty knows all this...it's amazing that he keeps regurgitating the Russian propaganda, but 'it is what it is'.

The FOIA request was answered by the US Dept of State.
Deriding everything you find politically inconvenient as Russian propaganda is a dishonest, cowardly dodge.

Both dishonest and cowardly now to call our Russian propaganda for what it is.

Ok, that's the new normal.

Just try and keep up, salty.

Just keep lying about US State Dept documents, calling them Russian propaganda.

nope, I'm not criticizing the State dept docs, just your repeating Russian propaganda talking points.
You know better, but ahh well.

With Ratcliffe as DNI, the documents are finally coming out. STFB.