Poroshenko
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">?! 4/19</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">sitcom hs tchr elected? pres gets 73% vs Poroshenko</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/biden-ukraine-recordings-oan/612454/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/biden-ukraine-recordings-oan/612454/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">many lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Is OAN the Leading Edge of Russian Misinformation?</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Biden campaign says Trump’s favorite TV network is peddling the Kremlin’s lies.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>JUNE 11, 2020</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In what appears to be a signal of intensifying political warfare ahead of the November election, One America News Network, the Trump-supporting cable channel that has been promoting anti-Biden conspiracies for several months, says it has obtained several hours of secret recordings of then–Vice President Biden’s conversations with Ukrainian officials<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> If such recordings exist, they’re likely linked to pro-Russian interests in Ukraine and a Russian intelligence operation, two former U.S. ambassadors to Ukraine and a former ambassador to Russia told me. <b>The OAN employee who claims to have the tapes would not say what was on them, other than suggesting that they will be revelatory.</b></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In the audio that has been released elsewhere so far, Biden is heard dangling the promise of financial aid to Ukraine if its government ousted a prosecutor who was seen as corrupt—which Biden has previously said publicly was his goal, as part of a push for widespread reforms.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Conspiracists have alleged that this was intended to help his son Hunter escape charges of corruption, but an audit by Ukraine’s former top prosecutor released last week found no evidence of illegal activity by Hunter in his capacity as an energy-company board member.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[MORE STORIES</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Democracy Versus Kleptocracy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FRANKLIN FOER</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Press Is Embracing False Equivalence—Again</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">JAMES FALLOWS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rudy Giuliani: ‘You Should Be Happy for Your Country That I Uncovered This’</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ELAINA PLOTT]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">What is most remarkable here is that none of this is particularly surprising. Russian interference in the 2016 election has been closely studied over the past four years, and America’s vulnerabilities have only worsened in that time. As my colleague Franklin Foer wrote recently, “Russia’s interference in 2016 might be remembered as the experimental prelude that foreshadowed the attack of 2020.” That OAN is now a player in such interference suggests an escalation that the Biden campaign has been bracing for.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indeed, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul—who has recalled being secretly recorded himself, among other forms of harassment, when he was posted in Moscow—told me, "There’s never been a moment like this in American history.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[Read Putin is well on his way to stealing the next election</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That includes 2016. McFaul said what he’s seeing now reminds him of tactics the Kremlin has used against its domestic political opponents. “It’s not to convince you of a different point of view. It’s to convince you that there is no truth,” he said. “When it feels like nobody’s telling the truth and there is no truth, the reaction to that is despondency and demobilization.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s hard not to feel some déjà vu here. In 2016, Russian intelligence agents hacked the emails of Democratic National Committee staffers and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, and delivered them to WikiLeaks, as a way to get them into the American media. Some outlets learned a lesson from that episode, and have treated new Biden recordings out of Ukraine with care. Others have not. <b>Andriy Derkach, who released the Biden tapes that have already come out, is a former member of a pro-Russian political party who graduated from a KGB-run academy in Moscow. OAN lends his efforts a veneer, however thin, of journalistic legitimacy.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The person now claiming to have more tapes is OAN’s Chanel Rion, the on-air personality who went with Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, on his December trip to Ukraine in part to find information on Biden to help Trump</span>. Rion, who has become famous for her conspiracy-inflected questions at White House briefings, emailed the Biden campaign May 29 claiming that she was working on an “in-depth report” about<b> recordings that appear to be of Biden speaking with <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Petro Poroshenko</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">,</span> then the president of Ukraine. “We have over five hours of these recordings (beyond what has been posted online by Nabu Leaks),” she wrote, referencing a Ukrainian website suspected of Russian links.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Derkach, a politician known as the “Ukrainian Putin,</span>” has been a proponent of the conspiracy theory that Ukraine was really behind the interference in the 2016 election instead of Russia.</b> And he has previously been eager to provide damaging material about Biden for Trump’s sake. Derkach released a batch of recordings three weeks ago, claiming that they had been made by Poroshenko and given to him by “investigative journalists.” <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">(<b>Poroshenko has said the audio is “fabricated.</b></span>”)<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Most mainstream-media outlets have decided that the recordings that have emerged so far offer “little new insight into Biden’s actions in Ukraine,” as The Washington Post’s Carol Morello wrote after the recordings were first released.</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Giuliani, reached by text, did not comment on suspicions that the recordings have ties to Russian interests or intelligence, or on whether he was involved in getting any of them to OAN.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Rion was until recently an illustrator. She has said she joined members of the Trump family in 2016 for the New Hampshire primary’s victory party; she has also tweeted a drawing of Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein with the hashtag #spiritcooking, which is often associated with the Pizzagate conspiracy theory</b>. On her website,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> she describes herself as “a fierce foe of anything Clinton, of everything Obama, and as a total and unrelenting enemy of academic left-liberalism and political correctness anywhere.</span>”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b> In March, she cited a “monitored source” on air who’d said that the coronavirus had been linked to a lab in North Carolina; that source turned out to be a person who’d tweeted at her.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">She has asked wild questions at White House briefings, including one about whether Trump would pardon Barack Obama for unspecified crimes, and another about whether Trump’s lawyers would like to depose Joe Scarborough, after Trump floated a baseless accusation that he’d murdered an aide.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Rion’s email, which the Biden campaign forwarded to me, suggests that OAN is “producing an in-depth report on these recordings for OAN's Special Investigates series</b>.” <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a phone call on Sunday, she told me that she now expects to acquire much more than the five hours of recordings she mentioned in her email. Rion said that Derkach was just one of the people who have been giving her material. She said she has verified, with the help of “a couple of sources on the ground,” and with sources in the U.S. as well, that the recordings have no ties to Russian intelligence or interests. She would not explain her verification process, saying, “I don't want to tip off anybody.”</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It was once unusual for the public to gain access to top-secret government documents, let alone private conversations between the American vice president and a foreign leader. But as countries around the world increase their cyberwar capabilities and their willingness to interfere in one another’s domestic politics, and as the democratization of publishing allows for the rapid spread of misinformation, media leaks of hard-to-verify and potentially doctored documents and recordings of government officials are becoming commonplace. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It is common practice for Russian intelligence to help put out information in skewed forms in Ukraine, and forensic experts have seen that this information is doctored,” said John Herbst, a former career Foreign Service officer who served as the American ambassador to Ukraine from 2003 to 2006.<b> “The Kremlin is a master at this sort of practice, and the sources in Ukraine providing this sort of information are known to be well connected in Moscow.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Herbst was one of seven former ambassadors to Ukraine who wrote an open letter to Ukrainians two weeks ago, prompted by the already-public recordings. They said they are “disheartened by efforts to involve Ukraine in America’s domestic politics as the 2020 US presidential election approaches.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This all just confirms what we knew,” said Steven Pifer, another former ambassador to Ukraine, who signed the letter.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David A. Graham: What happened in Ukraine?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Russia would love to “somehow inject Ukraine back into American politics,” Pifer said. “There will be people on the American side who play into it—OAN is one.</b>”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Biden campaign says OAN’s willingness to play along is exactly why the network received the recordings. “In 2016 and ever since, hostile foreign actors have perpetrated insidious efforts to disfigure and poison American democracy. Yesterday’s hacked emails are today’s bugged phones and deepfakes,” Andrew Bates, a campaign spokesperson, told me.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An OAN spokesperson, Krista McClelland, did not respond to a request for comment about the suggestion that the recordings have links to Russian intelligence. Nor did she respond to the Biden campaign’s charges.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Other countries are stepping up their own efforts to get involved in this year’s elections; Iran and China, for example, have been linked to attempts to hack Biden and Trump campaign computers</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> But Russia continues to lead the misinformation game. The day after Rion reached out to Biden’s team, Sputnik—the Kremlin-owned propaganda service, which American intelligence has accused of being involved in the 2016 misinformation efforts—ran an interview with a former Poroshenko aide who claimed that he was the one who’d made the recordings, and that he’d given them to his lawyers to give the Trump administration. “Because of the coronavirus,” he said,” they are waiting. But in September, closer to elections, they will begin to use them more.”</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There’s no evidence to support this. But the Trump campaign doesn’t seem to have much interest in dampening ideas like it: The communications director, Tim Murtaugh, <b>didn’t respond to multiple emails </b>I sent about whether the campaign has more materials from Ukraine featuring Biden, and neither did White House spokesperson Hogan Gidley.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Election Day is in five months. And the people best positioned to knock down the Russian misinformation apparatus seem most interested instead in propping it up</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">
</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">=</span></font></div></div><div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wapo</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><a href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=91a4cb4122de0af505cbbe73314de12ff4a01553c54fdcfce3c50363f29e427e43db487e53f170404e838b0408cc8f35c70243c7a77a7ddd" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=91a4cb4122de0af505cbbe73314de12ff4a01553c54fdcfce3c50363f29e427e43db487e53f170404e838b0408cc8f35c70243c7a77a7ddd</font></a></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/07/its-own-document-fox-news-rips-fox-news-host-sean-hannity/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/07/its-own-document-fox-news-rips-fox-news-host-sean-hannity/</font></a></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" small="small" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref $</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" small="small" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;">Opinions</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;">In its own document, Fox News rips Fox News host Sean Hannity</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;">Sean Hannity on the set of his show on Aug. 7, 2019. (Frank Franklin II/AP)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;">Erik Wemple </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;">Media critic</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;">Feb. 7, 2020 at 12:06 p.m. PST</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;">Each night, Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity engage in some shallow blather during the “handoff” between their ratings-killing programs. In Thursday night’s version, Hannity told Carlson, “You know the deep-state story is even getting bigger. There’s a whole new one developing. I’ll tell you about it privately.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;">Cute, Hannity....</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;">
</div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Democracy Dies in Darkness</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Opinions</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In its own document, Fox News rips Fox News host Sean Hannity</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sean Hannity on the set of his show on Aug. 7, 2019. (Frank Franklin II/AP)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Erik Wemple </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Media critic</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">February 7, 2020 at 3:06 PM EST</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Each night, Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity engage in some shallow blather during the “handoff” between their ratings-killing programs. In Thursday night’s version, Hannity told Carlson, “You know the deep-state story is even getting bigger. There’s a whole new one developing. I’ll tell you about it privately.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cute, Hannity.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Just what could this “new” deep-state story be? A clue emerged from a strange sequence of events on Twitter. Marcus DiPaola, who formerly worked at Fox News, posted some tweets about his experience with the network, as well as the front page of an interesting internal document:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Here's the front page of the internal Fox News Trump-Ukraine timeline. I'll start tweeting some of the highlights shortly. pic.twitter.com/HWGX5sZUh8</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> — Marcus J. DiPaola (@marcusdipaola) February 6, 2020</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">That’s the title page of a dossier from the so-called Brain Room of Fox News, a long-standing research hive at the network. The full Ukrainian report, obtained by the Erik Wemple Blog, is a document of great candor and thoroughness, 162 pages of events and statements and indictments and hearings that detail every last wrinkle in the Trump-Ukraine story. Its timeline starts in February 2014 — when former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled Kyiv for Russia — and concludes in December 2019 — when Trump declared that his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, would write up a report about the findings of his Ukrainian investigation. “I hear he has found plenty,” said the president.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Brain Room report bears the name of Bryan Murphy, a senior political affairs specialist at Fox News. It also bears this withering assessment of John Solomon, former opinion contributor for the Hill who is responsible for setting in motion faulty story lines regarding Ukraine: “John Solomon played an indispensable role in the collection and domestic publication of elements of this disinformation campaign.” Another part of the document provides this assessment of Solomon: “Focus on stories from disinformation campaign, non-disclosure of conflicts, use of unreliable sources, publishing false and misleading stories, misrepresentation of sources, and opaque coordination with involved parties.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">That says it all. Even as it levels that critique, the Brain Room document discloses that Solomon is a “Fox News contributor.” Indeed, though Solomon appeared as a guest frequently on “Hannity” throughout the Ukraine story, he left the Hill in fall 2019 and was hired as a contributor at Fox News in October.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Not only does the research paper pummel Solomon, it cites a statistic that Solomon, over six months in 2019, “published 45 columns aimed at discrediting the Russia investigation, 12 of which focused primarily on Ukraine." Where did that statistic come from?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Media Matters for America! Yes, Media Matters for America, the organization essentially built to take down Fox News. Media Matters for America, the organization routinely slammed on Fox News’s air. Media Matters for America, the organization that essentially forced Glenn Beck from Fox News.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It’s a stunning juxtaposition — one that speaks to the integrity of the Brain Room report. Other faces of the Ukraine issue that surface in the report include Giuliani, the ringleader of Trump’s effort to secure an announcement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of an investigation into the Bidens, who is described as having: “High susceptibility to disinformation” from key Ukrainian actors, according to the document. Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing, a Trump-supporting husband-and-wife legal team, receive this evaluation: “Non-disclosure of financial motives and representation of [Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro] Firtash while spreading false and misleading stories.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Note: Giuliani, diGenova and Toensing appeared on “Hannity” with regularity to take the president’s side on Ukraine. All that explains, perhaps, why Hannity is making noises about a “new” deep state.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Though Fox News isn’t exactly forthcoming about its internal operations, the Brain Room isn’t a state secret. Occasionally network hosts will reference its work, as did Jesse Watters last fall, when he saw a Washington Post headline that he didn’t believe was real: “When I saw the headline afterwards, I forwarded it to our Brain Room because I thought it was an Onion” story, said Watters. There’s a great reverence among employees for the work of the room, as reflected in this comment from former host Kimberly Guilfoyle in June 2017: “Here are some doughnut facts from our Brain Room, so [they] must be true.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A 2011 story in Rolling Stone quoted a network insider as alleging that the Brain Room was where "the evil resides.” And a former network executive told Gabriel Sherman — for his biography of late Fox News chief Roger Ailes — that the room had a “Nixonian” air. That said, Sherman wrote that the “mystique” of the Brain Room faded over time as staffers realized that it was a professional operation designed to fact-check the news. It’s the Brain Room, for example, that feeds all those contextual facts that viewers see on their screens during congressional hearings and other political events.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There’s no absence of context in the Brain Room’s Ukraine magnum opus. It has everything, including key revelations and charges against Hannity. Here’s the timeline’s entry for March 26, 2019:</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Melinda Haring, the editor of the UkraineAlert blog at the Atlantic Council and a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, writes in the Washington Post:</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“The mechanics of the information operation that Poroshenko’s minions pulled off are obvious.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Lutsenko used Solomon to get to Hannity to get to Trump, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">whose Twitter feed set thousands chattering about nonexistent collusion… If a bunch of obscure foreigners few Americans have ever heard of can play Trump so easily, and so obviously, what’s to stop others from doing the same?”</span></b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> (387) David Holmes, Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, later said, “The barrage of allegations directed at Ambassador Yovanovitch, a career ambassador, is unlike any anything I have seen in my professional career.” (388)</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Here’s another, absolutely devastating entry:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> September 26, 2019: John Solomon, Toensing, and diGenova all appear on Hannity again to discuss Shokin’s affidavit, filed at the request of Firtash’s attorneys. At no time during the program does Hannity, Toensing, and diGenova mention who requested the statement nor do they discuss that they are Firtash’s attorneys. Solomon also doesn’t mention that he shares attorneys with Firtash. diGenova says “we’ve known from the very beginning that Mr. Shokin was not a corrupt prosecutor.” (856) Later that night, President Trump tweets a clip of diGenova from Hannity.</span> (857)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">More: In an entry for Oct. 9, 2019, the Brain Room document notes that Andriy Derkach, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, had made a specific allegation regarding corruption by former vice president Joe Biden. The Kyiv Post, notes the Brain Room report, called the charge “dubious.” “Hours later, Giuliani appeared on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox News and parroted Derkach’s claim. (897).”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In an entry that footnotes reporting from the Erik Wemple Blog, the document even tosses shade on how Hannity introduces Solomon on his program:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> May 14, 2018: The Hill’s editor-in-chief sent out a memo to staff stating that “effective immediately” John Solomon would no longer publish stories under the banner of news but instead would be an “opinion contributor.” (218) Solomon said that the choice to have his writing classified as opinion was his. During his TV appearances, Hannity has often continued to announce Solomon as an “investigative reporter” at The Hill.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What we have here is a journalistic blowout. It is a trouncing of Hannity and his treasured contributor, Solomon — written not by some mainstream media outlet or Media Matters for America, but by Fox News itself. Turns out the network is keeping its best reporting to itself.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In a statement to the Erik Wemple Blog, Mitchell Kweit, senior vice president of the Brain Room, said: “The research division of FOX News produces a briefing book for all major stories, which serves as a standing collection of extensive data on major topics for internal use by all those in editorial functions. The Ukraine briefing book is nothing more than a comprehensive chronological account of what every person involved in the Ukraine controversy was doing at any identifiable point in time, including tracking media appearances of major players who appeared on FOX News and in many other outlets. The 200 page document has thousands of data points and the vast majority have no relation to FOX News – instead it’s now being taken out of context and politicized to damage the network.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In an interview with the Erik Wemple Blog, DiPaola commended Fox News for the separation between opinion shows and the so-called straight-news side, where he worked as a freelancer for a few months. “It did feel a lot like church and state,” he says. “They separate news from opinion pretty well.” As for the Brain Room timeline, DiPaola says, “I mean, it’s a Brain Room product, it’s meant to be unbiased. It’s evidence that Fox News Channel isn’t all bad. It’s evidence that there are honorable people working at Fox News all day.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And it’s evidence that those honorable people understand the threat “Hannity” poses to any news organization.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Read more from Erik Wemple:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sean Hannity and Fox News have normalized media corruption</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The comical hypocrisy of Sean Hannity</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Impeachment report hammers the Hill and John Solomon</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">John Solomon leaves behind lasting damage at the Hill</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Giuliani goes full conspiracy theory in insane ‘Fox & Friends’ appearance</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small;">
</div></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" small="small" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="US.2C_EU.2C_Switzerland.2C_and_Ukraine_sanctions:2014-2017"><span class="mw-headline" id="US,EU,Switzerland,and_Ukraine_sanctions:2014-2017">US, EU, Switzerland, and Ukraine sanctions: 2014-2017</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></span></font></h3><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4">After the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation_of_Crimea_by_the_Russian_Federation" title="Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">annexation of the Crimean Peninsula</a> by Russia in 2014, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_administration" class="mw-redirect" title="Obama administration" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Obama administration</a> imposed sanctions on 12 September 2014, through the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Department_of_Treasury" class="mw-redirect" title="US Department of Treasury" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">US Department of Treasury</a>'s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Foreign_Assets_Control" title="Office of Foreign Assets Control" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Office of Foreign Assets Control</a> (OFAC) by adding Sberbank and other entities to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Foreign_Assets_Control#Specially_Designated_Nationals_List" title="Office of Foreign Assets Control" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN)</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[19]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[20]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-auto_21-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-auto-21" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[21]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-treasury_22-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-treasury-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[22]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-SDNlist_23-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-SDNlist-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[23]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Sanctions_24-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-Sanctions-24" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[24]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Ukraine-EO13660_25-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-Ukraine-EO13660-25" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[25]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Ukraine-EO13661_26-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-Ukraine-EO13661-26" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[26]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Ukraine-EO13662_27-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-Ukraine-EO13662-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[27]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-28" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-28" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[28]</a></sup> This was done in concert with 31 July 2014 addition of Sberbank to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_individuals_sanctioned_during_the_Ukrainian_crisis" class="mw-redirect" title="List of individuals sanctioned during the Ukrainian crisis" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">European Union sanctions list</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-29" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-29" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[29]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-reuters2014_30-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-reuters2014-30" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[30]</a></sup> </font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4">Sanctions consist of access restriction to the EU and US capital markets.<sup id="cite_ref-31" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-31" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[31]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-32" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[32]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-33" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-33" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[33]</a></sup> After announcement of the sanctions, and by the end of July, Sberbank's market value had dropped the most market value among the world's major lenders plus investors moved $22 billion from Sberbank's market capitalization.<sup id="cite_ref-34" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-34" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[34]</a></sup> Still, during the following year Sberbank's share price grew back 89%.<sup id="cite_ref-35" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-35" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[35]</a></sup> Sberbank together with other Russian banks filed claims with the highest EU court to lift the punitive economic measures.<sup id="cite_ref-36" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-36" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[36]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">On 27 August 2014, Switzerland imposed sanctions on Sberbank and other Russian financial institutions.<sup id="cite_ref-SwissSanctions_37-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-SwissSanctions-37" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[37]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">On 22 December 2015, the United States imposed additional sanctions on Sberbank and its subsidiaries.<sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-38" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[38]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-39" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-39" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[39]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-auto_21-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-auto-21" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[21]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-treasury_22-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-treasury-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[22]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-SDNlist_23-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-SDNlist-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[23]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Ukraine-EO13662_27-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-Ukraine-EO13662-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">On 17 October 2016, Ukraine imposed sanctions against Sberbank Russia, Sberbank Leasing, and their payment systems Kolibri (Hummingbird), formerly Blitz (Ukrainian: «Колибри» стара назва – «Блиц»).<sup id="cite_ref-MailSanctions_40-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-MailSanctions-40" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[40]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-467Ukraine2016_41-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-467Ukraine2016-41" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[41]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Annex4_42-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-Annex4-42" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[42]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">On 15 March 2017, the president of Ukraine imposed sanctions on Sberbank </span><b>(and other Russian state-owned banks operating in Ukraine: VTB Bank, BM Bank, Prominvestbank, and <a href="https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/VS_Bank" class="extiw" title="uk:VS Bank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; background: none;">VS Bank</a> (Ukrainian: ВіЕс Банк)) as part of its continued sanctions on Russia for its <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation_of_Crimea_by_the_Russian_Federation" title="Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; background: none;">annexation of Crimea</a> and involvement in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Donbass" title="War in Donbass" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; background: none;">War in Donbass</a></b>.<sup id="cite_ref-SBoUnsf_43-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-SBoUnsf-43" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[43]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-63Ukraine2017_44-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-63Ukraine2017-44" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[44]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-March16Ukraine2017sanctionsBanks_45-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sberbank_of_Russia#cite_note-March16Ukraine2017sanctionsBanks-45" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: none;">[45]</a></sup></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>Trump Imposes New Sanctions on Russia Over Ukraine ...www.nytimes.com › 2017/06/20 › world › europe › united-states-sancti...</div><div>Jun 20, 2017 - The sanctions underscored the renewed tensions with Moscow and came as the president continues to face ... President Trump with President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine at the White House on Tuesday. ... June 20, 2017.</div><div>
</div><div>Trump meets Ukraine's president, US adds to Russia sanctionswww.reuters.com › article › us-ukraine-crisis-usa-idUSKBN19B22M</div><div>Jun 20, 2017 - President Donald Trump met with Ukraine's president on Tuesday and ... the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S. June 20, 2017.</div><div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; width: 600px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 27px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-hveid="CAQQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwirjJHfpN7nAhULv54KHcrKAP0QFSgAMAJ6BAgEEAA" style=""><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.57;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/20/world/europe/united-states-sanctions-russia-ukraine.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/20/world/europe/united-states-sanctions-russia-ukraine.html&ved=2ahUKEwirjJHfpN7nAhULv54KHcrKAP0QFjACegQIBBAB" style="cursor: pointer;">
</a></font><h3 class="LC20lb DKV0Md" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 4px 0px 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/20/world/europe/united-states-sanctions-russia-ukraine.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/20/world/europe/united-states-sanctions-russia-ukraine.html&ved=2ahUKEwirjJHfpN7nAhULv54KHcrKAP0QFjACegQIBBAB" style="cursor: pointer;">Trump Imposes New Sanctions on Russia Over Ukraine ...</a></font></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.57; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px;"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">www.nytimes.com › 2017/06/20 › world › europe › united-states-sancti...</font></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; height: 0px; visibility: hidden;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.57; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div class="yWc32e" style="display: inline-block; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 2px; visibility: visible;"><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.57;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.57; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span class="f" style="line-height: 1.57;">Jun 20, 2017 - </span>The <span style="font-weight: bold;">sanctions</span> underscored the renewed tensions with Moscow and came as the <span style="font-weight: bold;">president</span> continues to face ... <span style="font-weight: bold;">President</span> Trump with <span style="font-weight: bold;">President</span> Petro O. Poroshenko of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ukraine</span> at the White House on Tuesday. ... June 20, <span style="font-weight: bold;">2017</span>.</span></div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; width: 600px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 27px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-hveid="CAEQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwirjJHfpN7nAhULv54KHcrKAP0QFSgAMAN6BAgBEAA"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.57;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-usa-idUSKBN19B22M" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-usa-idUSKBN19B22M&ved=2ahUKEwirjJHfpN7nAhULv54KHcrKAP0QFjADegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">
</a></font><h3 class="LC20lb DKV0Md" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 4px 0px 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-usa-idUSKBN19B22M" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-usa-idUSKBN19B22M&ved=2ahUKEwirjJHfpN7nAhULv54KHcrKAP0QFjADegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Trump meets Ukraine's president, US adds to Russia sanctions</a></font></h3><div class="TbwUpd NJjxre" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.57; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px;"><cite class="iUh30 bc tjvcx" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">www.reuters.com › article › us-ukraine-crisis-usa-idUSKBN19B22M</font></cite></div><div class="B6fmyf" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; height: 0px; visibility: hidden;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; 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position: absolute; right: auto; top: 12px; white-space: nowrap; z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px; left: 0px; visibility: hidden;"><ol style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:3hrGHA9HGLMJ:https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-usa-idUSKBN19B22M+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:3hrGHA9HGLMJ:https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-usa-idUSKBN19B22M%2B%26cd%3D4%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwirjJHfpN7nAhULv54KHcrKAP0QIDADegQIARAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div></div></div><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.57;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:3hrGHA9HGLMJ:https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-usa-idUSKBN19B22M+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:3hrGHA9HGLMJ:https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-usa-idUSKBN19B22M%2B%26cd%3D4%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwirjJHfpN7nAhULv54KHcrKAP0QIDADegQIARAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.57; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="f" style="line-height: 1.57;">Jun 20, 2017 - </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">President</span> Donald Trump met with <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ukraine's president</span> on Tuesday and ... the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S. June 20, <span style="font-weight: bold;">2017</span>.</font></span></a></div></div></div></div></div><div style=""><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:3hrGHA9HGLMJ:https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-usa-idUSKBN19B22M+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:3hrGHA9HGLMJ:https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-usa-idUSKBN19B22M%2B%26cd%3D4%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwirjJHfpN7nAhULv54KHcrKAP0QIDADegQIARAG" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"></font></a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/lev-parnas-spins-wild-crazy-stories-and-most-of-them-are-true/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/lev-parnas-spins-wild-crazy-stories-and-most-of-them-are-true/</font></a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Lev Parnas spins wild, crazy stories — and most of them are true</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Heather Digby Parton / Salon January 17, 2020</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Following the rules of an anachronistic 18th-century ritual, the House managers walked in formation to the Senate to deliver the articles of impeachment on Thursday. The sergeant at arms informed the senators that if they speak during the trial they could be imprisoned, and then the chief justice arrived in his robes accompanied by four senators. He then administered the constitutionally prescribed oath to deliver impartial justice to the assembled senators, after which, one by one, they signed their names to a book. The only thing missing was the white wigs.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, the president was shriek-tweeting in all caps, “I JUST GOT IMPEACHED FOR MAKING A PERFECT PHONE CALL!”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It was weird. But then, what isn’t weird in this administration?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Only in the Trump era would we have a bombshell witness appear on the night before the trial, loaded down with pictures and video and written evidence, much of it in Russian. I’m speaking of Lev Parnas, of course, who served as Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani’s bagman in the plot to extort a political smear job against Joe Biden from the Ukrainian government.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Parnas was arrested in October for campaign finance violations, along with his partner Igor Fruman. But until federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York returned records they had seized during the arrest, and a judge cleared them to be sent to the House Intelligence Committee last week, we didn’t know specifically what he’d been up to in the Ukraine scandal.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Monday, the House released some of the documents to the public, which included text messages — lots of text messages — between Parnas, Giuliani and any number of other players. The trial starts on Tuesday so presumably, the lawyers working for the House managers are pulling all-nighters to put together the timeline based upon all the records provided by their own witnesses, FOIA requests and Parnas to both corroborate his story and present an understandable narrative of what happened in Kyiv and in Washington.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They have not interviewed Parnas, as far as I know, but he’s been giving TV interviews so they should be able to determine some of what they can corroborate and what they can’t. He’s an accused criminal, but as TV prosecutors have been saying on a loop for the past few days, it’s usually criminals who give evidence against other criminals. They’re the ones who know where their fellow criminals buried the bodies.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Parnas revealed a lot of juicy details in his interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. It’s hard to know right now what was most important. There’s a ton of color about the Trump hotel in Washington being essentially like a mobsters’ “social club” where hangers-on gather in the lobby and the bar, while insiders get invited into the inner sanctums where the real deals are made. It’s a GOP power center that just happens to put money directly into the president’s personal bank account. Imagine that.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Parnas also claimed that the shocking texts between him and a fringe character named Robert Hyde, in which Hyde indicated that he had Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, under surveillance, were all just a joke. Apparently, both the U.S. government and the Ukrainian government weren’t entirely convinced, since the FBI “visited” Hyde on Thursday and the Ukrainians finally gave Trump his investigation, although not quite the one he wanted. They have also announced they are looking into this allegation.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The new information I find most interesting at first glance is that we now know the withholding of military aid and a White House visit in exchange for the announcement of an investigation into Biden and the 2016 election was only one of three different quid-pro-quos in this plot.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s been a puzzle from the very beginning as to why the administration was so determined to push Yovanovitch out of her post. She was something of an anti-corruption crusader, but it hasn’t been clear exactly why Giuliani and his henchmen pushed so hard to get her fired.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>According to text messages provided by Parnas, it was just another transaction. Getting rid of Yovanovitch was the price they had to pay to obtain the cooperation of one of the crooked Ukrainian prosecutors, Yuri Lutsenko,</b> who agreed to investigate Biden if they delivered. Despite all their hard work getting Yovanovitch fired — and it was really hard, according to Parnas — </font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Lutsenko’s patron, then-President Petro Poroshenko, </font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">lost the election and was replaced last year by Volodymyr Zelensky. (<b>Out of office, Lutsenko later pulled a Trump and reneged on the agreement, telling the press he never found anything on Biden.</b>)</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The other quid pro quo is more sinister. Giuliani got word that Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian gas oligarch with ties to the Kremlin, had dirt on Burisma, the firm that had Joe Biden’s son Hunter on its board</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Naturally, Giuliani was excited. Firtash was being represented by Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing, two long-time GOP legal operatives who had been involved in the Ukraine plot, along with a right-wing reporter John Solomon. Firtash wanted to avoid extradition from Austria to the U.S., where he is wanted on bribery and racketeering charges. According to Parnas, Firtash agreed to share his information in exchange for having his extradition order lifted. Giuliani, Toensing and diGenova all worked together to try to make that happen.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Elements of this story were already known, but Parnas suggested in his interview with Maddow that Attorney General Bill Barr was also “on the team.</b>” He didn’t offer any direct evidence of this and the Department of Justice denies knowing anything about it. But it once more raises the question of why Trump told Zelensky during the “perfect call” to cooperate with both Giuliani and Barr.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Parnas said he came forward because he’s afraid of Barr’s Justice Department, which is astonishing considering the lowlife elements he’s been palling around with. Since Parnas is under federal indictment that seems like a reckless thing to say. But he says everyone is running scared since Trump managed to consolidate power after naming Barr, so his only real hope lies in going public.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is a crazy story but we already knew that most of it is true. As tantalizing as these new details are, they don’t entirely fill in the picture of Rudy Giuliani’s scheme and how Trump’s Washington works. What was true a month ago remains true today: The president of the United States and his personal lawyer plotted to extort the leaders of a foreign country into interfering in the presidential election by smearing his political rival. New information comes out every day and none of it will ever change that fact.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Heather Digby Parton, also known as “Digby,” is a contributing writer to Salon. She was the winner of the 2014 Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">lev and igor PAID RUDY $500K , tho he spin as his employees thus covered by exec priv /aaty client priv?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">rudy met w/ poro, nixed manafort prosecution?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">kilimnik investigated but allowed to flee to russia</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">javelin missles</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">war is boring</font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/donald-trump-russia-felix-sater-227434" target="blank" rel="nofollow noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Sater even donated the maximum amount</a> allowed to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and the White House is even using Sater <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/19/us/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-russia.html" target="blank" rel="nofollow noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word;">as a back-channel diplomatic go-between</a> for Trump’s person lawyer, Michael Cohen,</b><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-weight="font-weight" inherit="inherit" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> and a</span><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> heavily-pro-Russian/pro-Putin Ukrainian legislator, Andrii Artemenko</b><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-weight="font-weight" inherit="inherit" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">, who are discussing a Ukraine “peace plan” being pushed by close Putin aides; Artemeno also</span><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> claims he has information damaging t</b><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-weight="font-weight" inherit="inherit" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">o Petro </span><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Poroshenko,</b><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-weight="font-weight" inherit="inherit" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> Ukraine’s anti-Russian president facing off against Putin and his proxies in the Ukrainian Civil War. In an only </span><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/10/politics/russia-dossier-update/" target="blank" rel="nofollow noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-variant="font-variant" inherit="inherit" background="background" rgb="rgb" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" border="border" font-stretch="font-stretch" line-height="line-height" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" cursor="cursor" pointer="pointer" word-wrap="word-wrap" break-word="break-word">partially-verified-by-U.S.-officials</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-weight="font-weight" inherit="inherit" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> 35-page </span><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984-Trump-Intelligence-Allegations.html" target="blank" rel="nofollow noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-variant="font-variant" inherit="inherit" background="background" rgb="rgb" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" border="border" font-stretch="font-stretch" line-height="line-height" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" cursor="cursor" pointer="pointer" word-wrap="word-wrap" break-word="break-word">dossier</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-weight="font-weight" inherit="inherit" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> on Trump and his people compiled by a </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/12/intelligence-sources-vouch-credibility-donald-trump-russia-dossier-author" target="blank" rel="nofollow noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-variant="font-variant" inherit="inherit" background="background" rgb="rgb" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" border="border" font-stretch="font-stretch" line-height="line-height" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" cursor="cursor" pointer="pointer" word-wrap="word-wrap" break-word="break-word">respected ex-MI6 British intelligence officer</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-weight="font-weight" inherit="inherit" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">, Christopher Steele, Cohen is said to have </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/11/trump-russia-dossier-explainer-details" target="blank" rel="nofollow noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-variant="font-variant" inherit="inherit" background="background" rgb="rgb" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" border="border" font-stretch="font-stretch" line-height="line-height" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" cursor="cursor" pointer="pointer" word-wrap="word-wrap" break-word="break-word">secretly met with Russian government officials</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-weight="font-weight" inherit="inherit" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> during the late stages of the presidential campaign, though it is not clear if this—or what—specific information has been corroborated by U.S. officials, with journalists having been unable to thus far verify the information on Cohen, who denies playing this role.</span></font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">
</font><div style=""><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Panama_Papers">Panama Papers</span></font></h2><div role="note" class="hatnote" style="padding-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">Main articles: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Papers" title="Panama Papers" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Panama Papers</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_named_in_the_Panama_Papers" title="List of people named in the Panama Papers" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">List of people named in the Panama Papers</a></font></div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Poroshenko set up an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands during the peak of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Donbass" title="War in Donbass" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">war in Donbass</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-125" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#cite_note-125" style="text-decoration: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[124]</a></sup> Leaked documents from the Panama Papers show that Poroshenko registered the company, Prime Asset Partners Ltd, on 21 August 2014. Records in <b>Cyprus</b> show him as the firm's only shareholder</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><sup id="cite_ref-Guardian_4_Apr_2016_126-0" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#cite_note-Guardian_4_Apr_2016-126" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">[125]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> He said that he had done nothing wrong, and the legal firm, Avellum, overseeing the sale of </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roshen" title="Roshen" style="background: none; text-decoration: none;">Roshen</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, Poroshenko's confectionery company, said that "any allegations of tax evasion are groundless". The anti-corruption group </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparency_International" title="Transparency International" style="background: none; text-decoration: none;">Transparency International</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> believes that the "creation of businesses while serving as president is a direct violation of the constitution".</span><sup id="cite_ref-BBC_News_2016_127-0" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#cite_note-BBC_News_2016-127" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">[126]</a></sup></font></p><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> (</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_language" title="Ukrainian language" style="background: none; text-decoration: none;">Ukrainian</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">: </span><span lang="uk" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Петро́ Олексі́йович Пороше́нко</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, </span><small style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ukrainian pronunciation: </small><span title="Representation in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)" class="IPA" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Ukrainian" title="Help:IPA for Ukrainian" style="background: none; text-decoration: none !important;">[pɛˈtrɔ ol̠ɛkˈsʲijoʋɪt͡ʃ poroˈʃɛnko]</a></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">; born 11 September 1957) is the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">fifth and current <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_Ukraine" title="President of Ukraine" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">President</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine" title="Ukraine" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Ukraine</a>, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">in office since 2014.</span><sup id="cite_ref-Inaugurated_7_June_2014_8-0" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#cite_note-Inaugurated_7_June_2014-8" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">[8]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> He served as the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minister_of_Foreign_Affairs(Ukraine)" title="Minister of Foreign Affairs (Ukraine)" style="background: none; text-decoration: none;">Minister of Foreign Affairs</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> from 2008 to 2011, and as the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Economic_Development_and_Trade(Ukraine)" title="Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (Ukraine)" style="background: none; text-decoration: none;">Minister of Trade and Economic Development</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in 2013. From 2008 until 2013, Poroshenko headed the Council of </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bank_of_Ukraine" title="National Bank of Ukraine" style="background: none; text-decoration: none;">Ukraine's National Bank</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Outside government, Poroshenko has been a prominent oligarch<sup id="cite_ref-BBC_Profile_Poroshenko_9-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#cite_note-BBC_Profile_Poroshenko-9" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">[9]</a></sup> with a lucrative career in acquiring and building assets. His most recognized ownerships are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roshen" title="Roshen" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Roshen</a>, the large-scale confectionery company which has earned him the nickname of 'Chocolate King',<sup id="cite_ref-BBC_Profile_Poroshenko_9-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#cite_note-BBC_Profile_Poroshenko-9" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">[9]</a></sup> and a TV channel <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_kanal" class="mw-redirect" title="5 kanal" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">5 kanal</a></i>, an all-news national TV broadcaster. Due to the scale of his business holdings in manufacturing, agriculture and financial industry, his political influence that included several stints at government prior to his presidency, and ownership of an influential mass-media outlet, Poroshenko has long been considered one of the prominent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_oligarch" class="mw-redirect" title="Ukrainian oligarch" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Ukrainian oligarchs</a> even though not the most influential among them.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">He was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_presidential_election,2014" title="Ukrainian presidential election, 2014" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">elected president on 10 May 2014</a>, capturing more than 54% of the vote in the first round, thereby winning outright and avoiding a run-off.<sup id="cite_ref-wp_10-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#cite_note-wp-10" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">[10]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Runners_and_risks_11-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#cite_note-Runners_and_risks-11" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">[11]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-BBCESR_12-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#cite_note-BBCESR-12" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">[12]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-CEC_election_results_13-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#cite_note-CEC_election_results-13" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">[13]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-New_Ukrainian_president_5-year_term_14-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#cite_note-New_Ukrainian_president_5-year_term-14" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">[14]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1;"><div id="toctitle" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Early_life_and_education" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Early life and education</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Business_career" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Business career</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Billionaires_lists_rankings" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Billionaires lists rankings</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Associated_businesses" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Associated businesses</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Early_political_career" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Early political career</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Secretary_of_the_National_Security_and_Defense_Council" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Foreign_Minister_and_Minister_of_Trade" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">5</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Foreign Minister and Minister of Trade</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Return_to_parliament" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Return to parliament</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#2014_Ukrainian_revolt" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">2014 Ukrainian revolt</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#2014_presidential_campaign" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">2014 presidential campaign</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Presidency" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Presidency</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Inauguration" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Inauguration</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-13" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Domestic_policy" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Domestic policy</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-14" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Peace_plan_for_Eastern_Ukraine" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.2.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Peace plan for Eastern Ukraine</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-15" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Reforms_in_Ukraine" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.2.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Reforms in Ukraine</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-16" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Constitutional_reform" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.2.3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Constitutional reform</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-17" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Decentralization_of_power" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.2.4</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Decentralization of power</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-18" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Dissolution_of_Parliament" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.2.5</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Dissolution of Parliament</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-19" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Nuclear_weapons" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.2.6</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Nuclear weapons</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-20" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Decommunization_and_deoligarchization" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.2.7</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Decommunization and deoligarchization</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-21" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Anti-corruption" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.2.8</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Anti-corruption</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-22" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Foreign_policy" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Foreign policy</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-23" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#United_States" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.3.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">United States</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-24" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Russia" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.3.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Russia</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-25" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#European_Union" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.3.3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">European Union</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-26" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#NATO" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.3.4</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">NATO</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-27" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#International" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.3.5</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">International</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-28" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#International_trips" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.3.6</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">International trips</span></font></a></li></ul></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-29" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Panama_Papers" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">8</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Panama Papers</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-30" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Personal_life" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">9</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Personal life</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-31" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Cultural_and_political_image" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">10</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Cultural and political image</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-32" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Awards" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">10.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Awards</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-33" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#Notes" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">11</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Notes</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-34" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#References" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">12</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">References</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-35" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#External_links" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">13</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">External links</span></font></a></li></ul></div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-family: " linux="Linux" libertine="Libertine" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" serif="serif" line-height="line-height"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Early_life_and_education">Early life and education</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Petro_Poroshenko&action=edit§ion=1&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" title="Edit section: Early life and education" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Poroshenko was born in the city of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolhrad" title="Bolhrad" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Bolhrad</a>, in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odessa_Oblast" title="Odessa Oblast" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Odessa Oblast</a>, on 26 September 1965.<sup id="cite_ref-The_Richest_15-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#cite_note-The_Richest-15" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">[15]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Scotsman_16-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#cite_note-Scotsman-16" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">[16]</a></sup> He also spent his childhood and youth in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bendery" class="mw-redirect" title="Bendery" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Bendery</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldavian_SSR" class="mw-redirect" title="Moldavian SSR" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Moldavian SSR</a>, now officially <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldova" title="Moldova" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Moldova</a> but under <i>de facto</i> control of the unrecognised <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_with_limited_recognition" title="List of states with limited recognition" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">breakaway state</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria" title="Transnistria" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Transnistria</a>).<sup id="cite_ref-KPp71016_17-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#cite_note-KPp71016-17" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">[17]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#cite_note-18" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">[18]</a></sup> where his father Oleksiy was heading a machine building plant.<sup id="cite_ref-KPp71016_17-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko#cite_note-KPp71016-17" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">[17]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko</b> (born February 23, 1954) is a Ukrainian politician who was the third <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_Ukraine" title="President of Ukraine" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">President of Ukraine</a> from January 23, 2005 to February 25, 2010.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As an informal leader of the Ukrainian opposition coalition, he was one of the two main candidates in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Ukrainian_presidential_election" class="mw-redirect" title="2004 Ukrainian presidential election" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">2004 Ukrainian presidential election</a>. Yushchenko won the presidency through a repeat <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runoff_election" class="mw-redirect" title="Runoff election" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">runoff election</a> between him and Prime Minister <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yanukovych" title="Viktor Yanukovych" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Viktor Yanukovych</a>. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_Ukraine" title="Supreme Court of Ukraine" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Ukrainian Supreme Court</a> called for the runoff election to be repeated because of widespread <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_fraud" title="Electoral fraud" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">electoral fraud</a> in favor of Viktor Yanukovych in the original vote. Yushchenko won in the revote (52% to 44%). Public protests prompted by the electoral fraud played a major role in that presidential election and led to Ukraine's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Revolution" title="Orange Revolution" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Orange Revolution</a>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Following an assassination attempt in late<b> 2004 during his election campaign, Yushchenko was confirmed to have ingested hazardous amounts of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin" title="2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">TCDD</a>, the most potent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioxin" title="Dioxin" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">dioxin</a> and a contaminant in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange" title="Agent Orange" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Agent Orange</a>. He suffered disfigurement as a result of the poisoning</b>, but has since made a full physical recovery.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Before his election as President, Yushchenko already had a career in Ukrainian politics. In 1993, he became Governor (head) of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bank_of_Ukraine" title="National Bank of Ukraine" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">National Bank of Ukraine</a>. From 1999 to 2001 he was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister" class="mw-redirect" title="Prime Minister" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Prime Minister</a>. After his dismissal as Prime Minister, Yushchenko went into opposition to President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonid_Kuchma" title="Leonid Kuchma" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Leonid Kuchma</a> and he founded the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Ukraine_bloc" class="mw-redirect" title="Our Ukraine bloc" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Our Ukraine bloc</a>, which at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_parliamentary_election,2002" title="Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2002" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">2002 parliamentary election</a> became Ukraine's most popular political force, with 23.57% of the votes.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After Yushchenko's election in 2004 to the presidency, this alliance was unable to continue this success, garnering only 13.95% of the votes in 2006 and 14.15% of the votes in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_parliamentary_election,2007" title="Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2007" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">2007 parliamentary election</a>. Yushchenko failed to secure a run-off spot during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Ukrainian_presidential_election" class="mw-redirect" title="2010 Ukrainian presidential election" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">2010 Ukrainian presidential election</a>; gaining 5.5% of the vote. During the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_parliamentary_election,2012" title="Ukrainian parliamentary election, 2012" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">2012 Ukrainian parliamentary elections</a>, Yushchenko headed the election list of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Ukraine(political_party)" title="Our Ukraine (political party)" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Our Ukraine</a>. The party won 1.11% of the national votes and no <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constituencies" class="mw-redirect" title="Constituencies" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">constituencies</a>, and thus failed to win parliamentary representation.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1;"><div id="toctitle" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Early_life" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Early life</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Central_banker" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Central banker</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Prime_minister" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Prime minister</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#.22Our_Ukraine.22_leader" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">"Our Ukraine" leader</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Presidential_election_of_2004" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">5</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Presidential election of 2004</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Dioxin_poisoning" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">5.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Dioxin poisoning</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Unprecedented_three_rounds_of_voting" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">5.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Unprecedented three rounds of voting</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Presidency" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Presidency</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Inauguration" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Inauguration</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Presidency_2" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Presidency</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Dismissal_of_other_Orange_Revolution_members" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6.3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Dismissal of other Orange Revolution members</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#First_dissolution_of_Parliament" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6.4</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">First dissolution of Parliament</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-13" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Second_dissolution_of_Parliament.282007.29_and_conflict_with_Tymoshenko.282008.E2.80.932009.29" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6.5</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Second dissolution of Parliament (2007) and conflict with Tymoshenko (2008–2009)</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-14" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#2010_presidential_election_and_later_career" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">2010 presidential election and later career</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-15" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#2010_presidential_election" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">2010 presidential election</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-16" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Later_career_including_2012_parliamentary_elections" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Later career including 2012 parliamentary elections</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-3 tocsection-17" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Euromaidan_and_2014_election" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7.2.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Euromaidan and 2014 election</span></font></a></li></ul></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-18" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Political_positions" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">8</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Political positions</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-19" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Family_and_private_life" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">9</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Family and private life</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-20" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Cultural_and_political_image" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">10</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Cultural and political image</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-21" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Public_opinion_polls" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">10.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Public opinion polls</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-22" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#Honours_and_awards" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">11</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Honours and awards</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-23" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#See_also" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">12</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">See also</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-24" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#References" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">13</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">References</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-25" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#External_links" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">14</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">External links</span></font></a></li></ul></div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span class="mw-headline" id="Early_life" style="">Early life</span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko was born on February 23, 1954 in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoruzhivka" title="Khoruzhivka" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Khoruzhivka</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumy_Oblast" title="Sumy Oblast" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Sumy Oblast</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_SSR" class="mw-redirect" title="Ukrainian SSR" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Ukrainian SSR</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Soviet Union</a>, into a family of teachers. His father, Andriy Andriyovych Yushchenko (1919–1992), fought in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Front_(World_War_II)" title="Eastern Front (World War II)" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Second World War</a>, was captured by German forces and imprisoned as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POW" class="mw-redirect" title="POW" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">POW</a> in a series of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camps" title="Nazi concentration camps" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">concentration camps</a> in the German Reich, including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz-Birkenau" class="mw-redirect" title="Auschwitz-Birkenau" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Auschwitz-Birkenau</a>. He survived the ordeal, and after returning home, taught English at a local school. Viktor's mother, Varvara Tymofiyovna Yushchenko (1918–2005), taught physics and mathematics at the same school. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumy_Oblast" title="Sumy Oblast" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Sumy Oblast</a> region where he was born is predominantly Ukrainian-speaking, and this differentiated him in later life from his political counterparts, for whom Russian was the mother tongue.<sup id="cite_ref-BBCProfileYushchenko_2-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko#cite_note-BBCProfileYushchenko-2" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">[2]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Viktor Yushchenko graduated from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternopil_National_Economic_University" title="Ternopil National Economic University" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Ternopil Finance and Economics Institute</a> in 1975 and began work as an accountant, as a deputy to the chief accountant in a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkhoz" title="Kolkhoz" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">kolkhoz</a>. Then, from 1975 to 1976, he served as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscript" class="mw-redirect" title="Conscript" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">conscript</a> in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcaucasian_Military_District" title="Transcaucasian Military District" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Transcaucasian Military District</a> on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Soviet</a>–<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey" title="Turkey" style="text-decoration: none; background: none;">Turkish</a> border.</font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">==</font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>