A pro-Russian Ukrainian lawmaker under investigation for treason in his country is paying $30,000 a month to an evangelist preacher who backs President Donald Trump and has newly filed as a foreign agent.
The Ukrainian lawmaker, Andrii Artemenko, met with two powerful Trump associates in January to craft an agreement between Russia and Ukraine, The New York Times reported in February. The proposal outlined a lifting of U.S. sanctions against Russia, as well as Russia withdrawing its troops from eastern Ukraine and potentially allowing Russia to lease Crimea for a 50- or 100-year period. The parliamentarian has come under investigation for treason in Ukraine for his involvement in this proposal.
Dale Armstrong, the pastor who received the funds through a recently incorporated organization, is based in rural Pennsylvania and has extensive ties in Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics. The $30,000-a-month contract provides for an initial three months of "strategic counseling and representation to advance U.S.-Ukraine relations, including engagement with public officials, legislators and government agencies".
Armstrong's filing claims the deal is not financed or subsidized by any foreign government, political party or foreign principal. The filing does not make clear why Artemenko would pay from his own personal funds to finance this effort, although he was a successful businessman and sports agent before becoming a lawmaker.
Armstrong is the president of the Armada Network ministry group and an international director of the American Pastor's Network, where he is involved with the group's Ukraine Initiative, according to his LinkedIn profile. The pastor authored blog posts backing Trump last fall.
Artemenko, who reportedly met with the Trump campaign team, belongs to an opposition bloc established by Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, to oppose Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko. Artemenko told The New York Times that he and Manafort had never met.
