former pro-putin president viktor yanukovych. but manafort's lawyers pushed back, blaming it on the russian oligarchs who manafort worked for, saying they required him to pay through secret bank accounts. as the defense team arrived, they remained resolute. >> any chance he may decide to flip and cooperate? >> no chance. >> paul manafort faced the six men and six women jury who will decide whether he could spend the rest of his life in prison. the president's former campaign chairman appeared calm, wearing a dark suit as lawyers made their opening statements and the prosecution called its first witness. paul manafort's was the first indictment secured by the special counsel's team last october. his former co-defendant and deputy rick gates has already pleaded guilty and is cooperating. and in a bold move, manafort's team told the jury his defense will resolve around discredited gates who is expected to be called as one of the government's 35 witnesses. defense attorney thomas zenly claims it was gates who stole money and lied and

accused of having connections with a suspected criminal gang led by ukraine's former president viktor yanukovych. so where does all of this leave the man who was once hailed as a champion of democracy. i'm sami's a down in the dutch capital i've come to amsterdam to discuss with mr saakashvili his rise and fall and how he plans to continue his political career former georgian president mikheil saakashvili talks to algiers the. former president of georgia a former governor of a desk in ukraine thanks so much for talking to al-jazeera thank you for inviting me so you're now here in the netherlands but on april the third you spoke about how you want to return to georgia when will that happen well be or entire region we're going to change the the present artificial situation when all garcia running the show sidelining the people sidelining democracy just making fun of the whole idea of the political process it's very artificial and they know you can't return until that changes or else you would probably hear by the rest except you also bolster to change i keep your eye on the only politician maybe w

accused of having connections with a suspected criminal gang led by ukraine's former president viktor yanukovych. so where does all of this leave the man who was once hailed as a champion of democracy. i'm sami's a down in the dutch capital i've come to amsterdam to discuss with mr saakashvili his rise and fall and how he plans to continue his political career former georgian president mikheil saakashvili talks to algiers the. former president of georgia a former governor of a desk in ukraine thanks so much for talking to al-jazeera thank you for inviting me so you're now here in the netherlands but on april the third you spoke about how you want to return to georgia when will that happen well be or entire region are we going to change the the present artificial situation when all garcia running the show sidelining the people sidelining democracy just making fun of the whole idea of the political process it's very artificial and there you can't return until that changes or else you would probably go by the refs except i also ball sort of change i keep i am the only politician maybe well maybe in

it has to do with his work for another president, viktor yanukovych, former president of ukraine. the government says he made a lot of money from that, maybe $60 million, but he didn't pay taxes, and he stashed the money into foreign bank accounts, $30 million worth, failed to file required financial records about foreign bank accounts, and then when the money from ukraine dried up, they say, he fraudulent got loans on the properties he had bought with that ukrainian money by lying to the banks about what he was going to do with it and what his financial condition was. so the test today is to find a jury that either doesn't know about paul manafort or at least is willing to set aside any potential opinions it has. and the usual test for jurors, they seat 12 jurors and four alternates from this jury pool of about 70 people who live in northern virginia, around this courthouse. why virginia? because the government claims that the bank fraud happened against banks in virginia. and no matter what happens in this trial, manafort faces another one in d.c. in late september, andrea. >> a

lobbyist for severapro-russian politicians in ukraine, people like former ukrainian president viktor yanukovych. prosecutors allege manafort undered the income from that work, some $30 million, using shell companies and offshore bank accounts in cyprus, the seychelles, and st. ncent and the grenadin to hide the fact that he was bringing that money into the u.s. to fund his own lavish lifestyle. and when that income stream slowed, prosecutors allege that manafort lied to banks get access to millions of dollars more in loans. he's up against five counts of filing false tax returns, foucor ts of not reporting foreign financial accounts, four counts, of bank frnd five counts of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. manafort has pled not guilty, and his lawyers have argued previously that these charges have no obvious conneceron to the mat the heart of mueller's investigation. still, the judge has let this case go forward, and on these charges alone, manafort could spend the rest of his life in prison, if convicted. when the trump campaign brought manafort on board in 2016, itas was initially onvention m

demonstrators who had been protesting for ten days against the ukrainian president's decision viktor yanukovych's decision to move rue ukraine away fa western europe and toward russia instead. this was the guy paul manafort worked for for all those years. demonstrators have taken over independence square in kiev. the u.s. government had been try fog for days to broker some sort of peace between the two sides. after is the violent government crack down against the protests on september 10th, john kerry put out a statement expressing disgust with that government's decision to send riot police armed with batons and bulldozer into the crowds of protesters. he said "the united states stands with the people of ukraine." this is victoria newland. at the time she was america's top diplomat in europe. she had been in kiev as part of that american effort to try to broker some sort of peaceful ended to that standoff in independence square. the day after kerry's statement criticize anning the government of that country for violence towards its own people saying the united states stands with the people of ukr

accused of having connections with a suspected criminal gang led by ukraine's former president viktor yanukovych. so where does all of this leave the man who was once hailed as a champion of democracy. i'm sami's a down in the dutch capital i've come to amsterdam to discuss with mr saakashvili his rise and fall and how he plans to continue his political career former georgian president mikheil saakashvili talks to algiers the. former president of georgia a former governor of a desk in ukraine thanks so much for talking to al-jazeera thank you for inviting me so you're now here in the netherlands but on a for the third you spoke about how you want to return to georgia when will that happen well be or entire region are we going to change the the present artificial situation when all garcia running the show sidelining the people sidelining democracy just making fun of the whole idea of the political process it's very artificial and there you can't return until that changes or else you would probably buy the rights except you also bolster to change i keep your eye on the only politician maybe well m

but in 2014 his client viktor yanukovych was ousted from office in a popular uprising in ukraine.n order to keep up with his lavish lifestyle, however, manafort's accused of resorting to bank and tax fraud. those activities continued during his time working on the trump campaign. the charges brought against manafort include -- there they are. five counts of tax fraud, four counts of failing to report foreign bank accounts, four counts of bank fraud and five counts of conspiring to commit bank fraud. should manafort be found guilty he could face up to ten years in prison. manafort is also facing similar charges in federal court in washington, d.c., which he'll have to face later. here to help us break it down are cynthia oxney, a former federal prosecutor and ken dilanian, nbc news national political reporter. what are we going to learn watching this? because manafort was at that infamous meeting at trump tower. will that come up? what are we going learn about trump in this trial? >> sadly not very much. one of the prosecutors even said the word russia won't come up sxlp ukraine wi