Set up in 2012, ECFMU ostensibly was founded to advocate for closer ties between Ukraine and the European Union. The think tank’s website is now defunct, but when it was up and running, it listed a mere two staff members. The source of the group’s funding remains unclear, but Ukrainian investigative journalists uncovered evidence indicating that it was backed at high levels by the Party of Regions. Efforts to reach its founders were unsuccessful.
In meetings beginning in 2012 with Washington officials, journalists, NGO officials, and think tank researchers, Podesta and Mercury lobbyists working for ECFMU sought to downplay human rights concerns in Ukraine — principally over the detention of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko. They also sought to portray Yanukovych as a bona fide reformer and secure support in Washington for a so-called association agreement between Ukraine and the EU, which would move Kiev out of Moscow’s orbit.
Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s deposed autocrat, could probably use his lobbyists in Washington now more than ever. The only problem at this point is that the lobbyists themselves are not sure whether they still work for him.
It's a risk built into the business of lobbying for foreign clients. Every now and again, the guys writing the checks are ousted from power. Take the government of Ukraine. Two heavyweight lobbying firms sold their services to represent an innocuous sounding think tank based in Brussels, Belgium called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECFMU). Now those lobbyists are in limbo.
On paper, the Centre represented itself as a non-partisan research institution that pressed for Ukraine’s integration with the European Union. In reality, it was closely tied to the party of Viktor Yanukovych and one of his principal financial backers, Sergei Klyuyev.
The two firms that got the ECFMU contract are the Podesta Group, which is run by the brother of White House special counselor John Podesta, Tony; and Mercury, a public relations firm staffed by former GOP Congressman Vin Weber and other Republican lobbyists.
These sources say the last major push from the ECFMU lobbyists was in the fall when they pressed lawmakers to oppose a resolution from Sen. Richard Durbin, the Senate Majority Whip, calling for the release of Yulia Tymoshenko, the former Ukrainian prime minister who was convicted and jailed in 2011 under the Yanukovych regime on corruption charges. On Feb. 22 she was released from prison.
So you see, Manafort and Podesta were already under the influence of lobbyists from Ukraine. This is pre-dating Trump. The irony is, they were never pro-Russia at all. They were under the influence of Ukranian lobbyists and money. And trying to use their power in Washington. By firing Manafort, Trump might have dodged the biggest bullet of all: someone actually using his presidency to help a foreign national.
Lobbying Discloure Act records show that Podesta billed the Centre (ECFMU) for $510,000 for 2013. Mercury earned $280,000 from the ECFMU account in 2013.
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