By JEFF HORWITZ and MARIA DANILOVA
WASHINGTON (AP) — During the special counsel's Russia investigation, Konstantin Kilimnik has been described as a fixer, translator or office manager to President Donald Trump's ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
But Kilimnik, an elusive figure now indicted alongside Manafort on witness tampering charges, was far more involved in formulating pro-Russia political strategy with Manafort than previously known, according to internal memos and other business records obtained by the AP.
The records include a rare 2006 photograph of Kilimnik, a Ukrainian native, in an office setting with Manafort and other key players in Manafort's consulting firm at the time. Some of the documents were later independently obtained by U.S. government investigators.
More than a decade before Russia was accused of surreptitiously trying to tilt the presidential election toward Trump, Manafort and Kilimnik pondered the risks to Russia if the country did not hone its efforts to influence global politics, the records show.
"The West is just a little more skillful at playing the modern game, where perception by the world public opinion and the spin is more important than what is actually going on," Kilimnik wrote to Manafort in a December 2004 memo analyzing Russia's bungled efforts to manipulate political events in former Soviet states. "Russia is ultimately going to lose if they do not learn how to play this game."
Kilimnik — who special counsel Robert Mueller believes is currently in Russia and has ties to Russian intelligence — helped formulate Manafort's pitches to clients in Russia and Ukraine, according to the records. Among Manafort's clients were Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and other mega-wealthy Russians with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kilimnik began that work in secret, the records show, even while working for the International Republican Institute — a U.S. government-funded nonprofit supporting the Western-friendly democratic movements that Manafort and his patrons sought to counter.
The records do not reveal what motivated Kilimnik's work for Manafort, though Mueller's team has alleged in U.S. court filings that Kilimnik's ties to Russian intelligence remained active through the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Kilimnik has denied that.
The records show Kilimnik helped conceive strategies that Manafort sold to clients, and that he served as a key liaison between Manafort and principal financial backers, including Deripaska.
Deripaska has denied hiring Manafort for any pro-Russian political work, and unsuccessfully sued the AP last year over reporting that he had paid Manafort more than $10 million to influence political decisions and news coverage in Eastern Europe and Western capitals. Manafort also denied to the AP last year that he had performed political work for Deripaska.
A new filing by the U.S. government in Manafort's court cases showed that Manafort acknowledged that work in a 2014 FBI interview, and files seized by the FBI showed that Deripaska was the source of a $10 million loan to a Manafort-controlled company in 2010.
At least some of Kilimnik's channels to Deripaska remained open through the 2016 presidential campaign, when Kilimnik and Manafort sought to return to the oligarch's good graces after a falling out. Deripaska has said he never received or discussed any proposal for new Manafort business during the campaign.
