Ukrainian-Americans Protest Manafort's Ties To Russia
"When people say that I was involved in a pro-Putin administration, number one, they don't understand that Yanukovych and Putin were enemies for most of the four years of his term,'' Manafort told The Courant. "Number two, the main accomplishment of Yanukovych was to set the stage for Ukraine to be in Europe, which is pro-American and pro-Western, not pro-Russian.''
The same story also identifies some of the political opposition to Manafort within the U.S. Ukranian community:
Manafort "wanted to fill his pockets with the Russians' money against the Ukrainian people,'' said Valerie Menditto of East Berlin, a Ukrainian-American who voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton in the presidential election. . .
"Manfort is the kind of guy who likes to operate behind the scenes, so we think it's important to out him,'' said Alex Kuzma of Glastonbury, who helped organize the protest. . .He added, "We're afraid there's going to be undue influence on the U.S. government from Putin and from Manafort. It's hard to tell what is not known, but as Sen. [John] McCain said a few weeks ago, 'There's a lot more shoes to drop off of this centipede.'"
Related:
Murphy addresses Ukraine in New Haven (March 2, 2014)
Last weekend during a visit to New Haven, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy predicted that Russia would never send its military into Ukraine.
“I can’t imagine Russia would use military force,” said Murphy, Connecticut’s leading politician in dealing with the crisis in that Eastern European nation. “I can’t even imagine the descent into madness that would occur if Russian marched into Ukraine.”
Murphy was back in New Haven Saturday, addressing Ukraine at St. Michael’s Ukrainian Church on George Street, after Russia had in face marched in to seize control of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
“There clearly have to be consequences to Russia,” he said. “Russia wants to be part of the global economic community.” With American military intervention unlikely, he said, economic pressure is the best to change Russia’s behavior. He cautioned, however, that the United States’ influence on Russia is limited by the relatively small amount of direct trade between the two countries; it will be up to Europe, he said, to make Russia feel economic pain.
Murphy is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on European Affairs. In December, visiting Kiev with Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Murphy addressed a mass protest rally. . .
During the visit to the church the names of the 92 protesters who died in the violence in Kiev last week were read aloud. Alex Kuzma noticed something: at least a third were Russian.
That, he told Murphy, should help disprove “the misconception that just because people speak Russian, they’re allied to Russia.”
Murphy said he would incorporate that into his talking points as he tries to rally his colleagues in Congress to support the new Ukrainian government. . .
Connecticut Rallying For Ukraine (March 5, 2014)
With President Barack Obama speaking at Central Connecticut State University this afternoon, roughly two dozen Ukrainian-Americans demonstrated, peacefully, to make certain President Obama keeps his promise.
“Now’s that time that we need to stand up for Ukraine as a country and we’re pleased with President Obama’s statements, but now that’s got to be backed up with actions,” said Alex Kuzma, of the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation.
Backed up, he says, monetarily rather than militarily. . .
“The Ukrainian people, they’ve stood up for three months in the sub zero temperatures out there on the maiden, in Independence Square, demanding their freedom and demanding a change of regime and they got it. Now, it behooves us as Americans to support their democracy,” said Kuzma. . .
In response to renewed Russian aggression, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement about the U.S. obligation to provide additional support to the people of Ukraine. . .Strengthening the Ukrainian military now, at their moment of peril, is the best way to deter Russia from taking control of further territory and forcing them to negotiate seriously.
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Vice Chair of the bipartisan Senate Ukraine Caucus and member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), member of the Senate Ukraine Caucus, joined U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), and a bipartisan group of 23 other senators in calling on President-elect Donald Trump to continue America’s tradition of support for the people of Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. . .In addition to Murphy, Blumenthal, Durbin, and Portman, U.S. Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Marco Rubio (R-Fl.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Bob Casey (R-Pa.), John Boozman (Ark.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) signed onto the letter.