Konstantin Kilimnik
Konstantin Viktorovich Kilimnik (Russian: Константин Викторович Килимник; Ukrainian: Костянтин Вікторович Килимник, romanized: Kostiantyn Viktorovych Kylymnyk; born 27 April 1970) is a Russian–Ukrainian political consultant. In the United States, he became a person of interest in multiple investigations regarding Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, particularly due to his ties with Paul Manafort, an American political consultant, who was a campaign chairman for Donald Trump.
Konstantin Kilimnik | |
|---|---|
| Константин Килимник (Russian) Костянтин Килимник (Ukrainian) | |
| Born | 27 April 1970 Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union |
| Citizenship | Ukraine Russia Soviet Union |
| Occupation | Political consultant |
| Known for | Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections |
Kilimnik was reported by CNN, The New York Times and The Atlantic to be "Person A" listed in court documents filed by the Special Counsel against Manafort. He is also believed to be Person A in court documents filed in the criminal indictment of Alex van der Zwaan. The April 2019 Mueller Report concluded Kilimnik was connected to Russian intelligence agencies, while the August 2020 final report on 2016 election interference from the Senate Intelligence Committee characterized him as a "Russian intelligence officer". In 2017, Kilimnik said he had no connection to Russian or any other intelligence service. Kilimnik was indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's grand jury on 8 June 2018 on charges of obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice by attempting to tamper with a witness on behalf of Manafort.
United States intelligence community analysis released in March 2021 accused Kilimnik of being one of the proxies of Russian intelligence who promoted and laundered misleading or unsubstantiated narratives about Joe Biden to US media organizations, US officials, and prominent US individuals, including some close to former President Trump and his administration" to benefit the 2020 Trump presidential campaign. In April 2021, the US Treasury Department sanctioned Kilimnik for providing Russian intelligence with "sensitive information on polling and campaign strategy" provided to him by Manafort from the Trump campaign, and for making the unjustified claim that Ukraine, rather than Russia, had interfered in the 2016 election.