Why Washington Post's Anne Applebaum warned of the 'Ukrainization of American politics'

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Washington Post 's Anne Applebaum warned in a column last year that  Donald Trump picking Paul Manafort to run his presidential campaign would have dire consequences for American democracy.

Related: Trump's campaign brings Eastern Europe's political 'tactics' to the U.S.

Applebaum covers events in Eastern Europe and has been keeping tabs on the latest twists and turns in the alleged Russian meddling connected to the 2016 U.S. election.

Before joining the Trump campaign, Manafort was a high-paid consultant to Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. In 2014, Yanukovych fled Ukraine to Russia after days of protests that left dozens of demonstrators dead. 

"Manafort was working on behalf of the pro-Russian parties and the pro-Russian candidates in Ukraine and that meant he was working on behalf of the Russian attempt to use corruption, violence and thuggery to undermine independent Ukraine," Applebaum tells The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.

"When he was appointed to be Trump's campaign manager I wrote an article saying this could bring the Ukrainization of American politics, and the use of violent rhetoric and online social media campaigns designed to divide people, and thuggery and violent political meetings, and of course that is exactly what happened."

Manafort and an associate were indicted by independent counsel Robert Mueller on numerous money laundering and tax evasion charges. 

Another Trump adviser pleaded guilty to misleading the FBI about his outreach to Russian agents hoping to get information about emails related to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. 

But if the Kremlin thought it was going to get friendly treatment from the new president, they were mistaken. 

"Putin may have overplayed his hand at the U.S. election and I don't if he knows that or not, but one of the effects of the deep Russian involvement with Manafort — and with several other people in the Trump campaign — is that it's made the U.S. Congress very wary of any Trump warming of relations with Russia," Applebaum says.

"So actually Trump is very constrained towards Russia in a way that he might not have been otherwise."

Applebaum says through all of this, there is no questions relations have worsened.

"It's made the Russian-American relationship unusual and fraught."

Applebaum on Ukraine

To understand today's politics between Russia and Ukraine, Applebaum says, it's important to look back at those terrible years in the early 1930s that saw five million Ukrainians die from starvation. 

"If you want to know what's the source of this strange competition, why Ukrainians are so ... afraid of Russia, if you want to know why Russians have this strange anger towards Ukraine, you really need to understand this background," she explains.

Applebaum's new book is called Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine.

Listen to the full conversation above.

This segment was produced by The Current's Howard Goldenthal.