Dumped documents reveal secrets of Ukraine’s ousted president

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The papers, some charred from a hurried attempt to burn them, depict back-room efforts to control the domestic media and behind-the-scenes efforts of the government to find support both in Washington and Moscow. They seem to show that Mr. Yanukovych financed his opulent lifestyle by dipping into the profits of a coal trading enterprise.

In the final months, the documents show, Mr. Yanukovych’s government reached out to a former deputy director of Russia’s military intelligence service in planning the crackdown on protesters. Years earlier, they show, the government paid U.S. legal advisers for opinions that would justify to the West the prosecution of Yulia V. Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and the president’s chief political opponent.

It had been known that the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom had compiled a largely sympathetic report in 2012 on the government’s prosecution of Ms. Tymoshenko, even though most impartial observers say it was politically motivated.

Over the weekend, however, street fighters found documents related to this prestigious U.S. law firm’s work in an unexpected spot: on the tiled floor of the sauna in an opulent residence of the deposed prosecutor general, Viktor Pshonka.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/dumped-documents-reveal-secrets-of-ukraines-ousted-president/article17132408/