What the Giuliani raid meant for Ukraine's political orbit
A look back at the 3 May 2021 news landscape, when a US investigation reached into Ukraine-related lobbying.
What was Kyiv's place in the news on 3 May 2021? Not at the centre of the agenda, but still tied to a story that had reached Washington's courts.
Five days earlier, on 28 April 2021, federal investigators had raided the home of Rudy Giuliani, the former personal lawyer of former President Donald Trump. The reported suspicion was illegal lobbying of the federal government on behalf of Ukrainian officials. The raid became part of the wider story known as the 2019 Trump–Ukraine scandal.
The scandal behind the raid
That scandal arose from attempts by Trump to press Ukraine into investigating his political rival Joe Biden, with the aim of damaging Biden's campaign for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination. Giuliani was one of the surrogates Trump enlisted, alongside Attorney General William Barr. Trump also blocked payment of a congressionally mandated $400 million military aid package, seeking cooperation from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Contacts between the White House and the Ukrainian government culminated in a phone call between Trump and Zelenskyy on 25 July 2019.
A busy regional picture
Elsewhere in the former Soviet space, attention on 3 May 2021 also turned to Central Asia. On 1 May 2021, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan had agreed a new ceasefire after border clashes, including the withdrawal of troops from the border. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged both countries to honour the agreement.
The two stories were unconnected, but together they showed how events in the region were being followed abroad in early May 2021.
