With bribing sincerity

Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska filed a lawsuit to slander the American information agency Associated Press, TASS reports . He requires a refutation of an article about his supposedly “criminal activity” related to cooperation with Paul Manafort, the former head of the campaign headquarters Donald Trump.

"The article was written in such a way that a false idea is created that the commercial transactions of Deripaska from 2005 to 2009 had some relation to the alleged criminal acts and violations related to the campaign of the then president of Donald Trump and the 2016 presidential election in the United States, the statement says there is no reason to report that any agreement between Deripa and Manafort provided for the undermining of democratic movements.

Associated Press refused to publish a refutation of this article. The agency’s report claims that the publication “was based on an interview with people familiar with the financial receipts of Manafort”, as well as the data on the receipt of “international transfers into millions of dollars”.

On March 22, Associated Press published Jeff Horwitz and Chad Act an article that Manafort worked for Deripaska, promoting the interests of the Russian leadership. "Manafort proposed in a confidential strategic plan, presented in June 2005, that he would influence politics, business and news coverage in the USA, Europe and former Soviet republics, bringing benefits to the Russian government, despite the deterioration of relations between Moscow and Washington during the presidency of George Bush," the publication said.

The Manafort and Deripaska contract lasted at least from 2006 to 2009. The annual payment for it was $ 10 million. This is confirmed by sources of AR and financial documents studied by journalists. It was emphasized that this cooperation "contradicts the statements of the Trump administration and Manafort himself, that he never worked in the interests of Russia."

Manafort confirmed that he worked for Deripaska in several countries, but emphasized that this work had nothing to do with the political sphere. “I worked with Deripaska almost 10 years ago, presenting it in business and private issues in those countries where he had financial investments.” Manafort said. “My work for Deripaska did not include the presentation of Russian political interests.” In addition, the ex-head of the headquarters of Trump said that the media published by the media about his cooperation with Russia are “vile and incorrect” and are carried out as part of the “slanderous campaign”.

Deripaska himself posted an open letter in The Washington Post, which accused the agency for the distribution of lies, noting that he had never concluded any contacts with Manafort in order to “hide or promote” Russian interests in the United States.

On August 18, Manafort resigned from the post of head of Trump's election headquarters. The scandal around Manafort burst out after the release of the article The New York Times. It said that the political strategist was one of the key advice of the former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych. According to the publication, in the so -called "barn book" of the Party of Regions of Ukraine, entries were found on the conduct of manfort unregistered payments in cash totaling $ 12.7 million from 2007 to 2012. Manafort himself stated that "he never received a single illegal payment."