Lawmaker: ‘I got confirmation’ my Russia-Ukraine plan was delivered to White House, despite what Trump lawyer says
The Ukrainian lawmaker who met with President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, and businessman Felix Sater in New York last month to discuss a controversial peace plan for Ukraine “got confirmation” from Sater that his plan was delivered to the White House, he told Business Insider.
Andrey Artemenko, a member of Ukrainian parliament and former member of the country’s far-right Radical Party, said he met with Cohen and Sater at the Loews Regency New York on January 27 to discuss Artemenko’s proposal for solving the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The meeting was organized by Sater, who knew Cohen through his work with the Trump Organization and was introduced to Artemenko by a mutual friend named Yan Aronov, Artemenko said. (Aronov did not respond to a request for comment.) The plan they discussed involved lifting sanctions on Russia and allowing Moscow to lease Crimea for either 50 or 100 years, he said. In return, Russia would have to withdraw its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Controversy erupted earlier this month after The New York Times reported that Cohen said he had “hand-delivered” the plan in a sealed envelope to former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn before Flynn was forced to resign over a separate Russia-related firestorm. Cohen’s initial account largely aligned with what Artemenko and Sater said Cohen told them he would do after their meeting.
But Cohen quickly walked back his initial story, telling The Washington Post hours after the Times story was published that he hadn’t delivered the plan to Flynn or discussed it with anyone in the White House. The White House has said it has “no record” of receiving the document.
Both Artemenko and Sater have disputed Cohen’s revised account, however. Artemenko told Business Insider, and Sater has told the Post and CNN, that Cohen explicitly said he would show the plan to Flynn.
The Times, meanwhile, stood by its reporting.
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Ukrainian official says Russia plan delivered to White House, despite Trump atty denial https://t.co/W8QvrJUUds pic.twitter.com/WqPICRzBJm
— Henry Blodget (@hblodget) February 27, 2017
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