The big unanswered question: How did Ukraine/Zelensky respond to the initial shakedown attempt?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

Zelensky is a political neophyte--he was an actor with no prior political experience. Ran on an anti-corruption platform, which is a very real thing in Ukraine.

Russia seemed to favor him in the presidential elections, probably not for who he is but who he was running against--the incumbent Poroshenko, who had been fighting hard against Russian sponsored military activity in Eastern Ukraine for basically all of his term.

However, I get the sense that Zelensky was not an official Russian stooge/puppet like Yanukovych or Trump was, but that the Russians preferred him simply because he was so inexperienced and would be in over his head and Putin could take maximum advantage.

And he may very well be in over his head. But maybe not.

I have relatives in Ukraine and when I visited them several months ago, they saw Zelensky as a great unknown. That he wasn't necessarily a bad or corrupted guy himself, but they couldn't speak for some of the people around him. They simply had no clue how things would play out, and probably still don't.

Of course, they live in the area of Ukraine that went for Poroshenko, so their skepticism isn't necessarily surprising.

So the real question is, how did Zelensky respond when Trump threatened the aid package over demands to investigate Biden?

Did he waffle? Did he acquiesce?

Or did he tell Trump to go pound sand, which in turn caused Trump to call Putin and tell him he could have at Ukraine without any further consequence? And perhaps after that, maybe he let Ukraine know that he did so, in the hopes of shaking them loose?

I just can't say. My hope is that Zelensky is stronger than people give him credit for and he didn't just fold to Trump's demands immediately. That Ukraine knows very well that Trump is a tool of Putin and that giving into Trump means giving into Putin. I hope that is what happened.

But like my relatives see him, he is simply a great unknown.

I suppose only time will tell.

[Dennis Donovan]

1. This story answers it partially

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212479172

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ukraine-is-ready-to-investigate-bidens-sonbut-only-if-theres-an-official-us-request

Ukraine officials see no indication Biden or his son broke their laws. If Trump wants them investigated in Kyiv, his government will need to say why and what for.

Anna Nemtsova Updated 09.20.19 9:17AM ET / Published 09.20.19 9:10AM ET

KYIV—Ukraine is ready to investigate the connections Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden had with the Ukrainian natural-gas company Burisma Holdings, according to Anton Geraschenko, a senior adviser to the country’s interior minister who would oversee such an inquiry.

Geraschenko told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview that “as soon as there is an official request from the Trump administration, we’ll look into it,” but “currently there is no open investigation.”

“Clearly,” said Geraschenko, “Trump is now looking for kompromat to discredit his opponent Biden, to take revenge for his friend Paul Manafort, who is serving seven years in prison.” Among the counts on which Manafort was convicted: tax evasion. “We do not investigate Biden in Ukraine, since we have not received a single official request to do so,” said Geraschenko.

His remarks last week came amid widespread speculation that U.S. President Donald Trump had made vital U.S. military aid for Ukraine contingent on such an inquiry, but had tried to do so informally through unofficial representatives, including his lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Giuliani’s adviser on Ukraine, Sam Kislin.

But Geraschenko spoke before the appearance of a Washington Post story on Thursday that implied that an intelligence-community whistleblower may have reported the untoward quid pro quo was put forth directly by Trump in a phone call with Ukraine’s recently elected president last July.

Geraschenko reconfirmed his statements in a phone call on Friday.

</snip>

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. I read this as....

...."If you guys have a legitimate claim, act legitimately. Don't act like a shakedown artist, because we won't have that."

I mean, this part of the story does not seem like the Ukrainians hold Trump in high esteem:

“Clearly,” said Geraschenko, “Trump is now looking for kompromat to discredit his opponent Biden, to take revenge for his friend Paul Manafort, who is serving seven years in prison.” Among the counts on which Manafort was convicted: tax evasion. “We do not investigate Biden in Ukraine, since we have not received a single official request to do so,” said Geraschenko.

I want to say it is a good thing. Just how I read it.