A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry has criticised charges against ex-Trump aide Paul Manafort, saying they had nothing to do with Russia.

Maria Zakharova described the indictment as part of political infighting in the US.

Appearing on a live talk show on Russian state TV, Zakharova was asked if Mr Manafort's activities were legitimate.

"This question has nothing to do with the Russian Federation," she responded.

When asked whether Manafort was promoting Vladimir Putin's interests by lobbying for Ukraine's former pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, Zakharova responded: "It doesn't matter, nobody is interested in that.

"It's all aimed at the mass audience, the electorate ahead of the next electoral cycle... it's a classic PR campaign.

"An external factor is needed all the time, they need an external enemy all the time."

Image source, Getty Images

Zakharova also criticised the Manafort indictment itself. "Speaking of the quality of these materials, why are they obviously part of political games? Why is there no analysis? Why is it so false?"

She pointed out that the indictment erroneously names Yulia Tymoshenko as a former Ukrainian president (she used to be a prime minister).

Via BBC Monitoring.

Image source, Reuters/ BBC

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Trump himself tweeted a photo of Papadapoulos only two weeks after the FBI says the foreign policy adviser met a London associate of Russian nationals and lied about it.

In the image of the meeting with the Trump national security team, Papadapoulos is four seats away from the future US president.

Until reporters unearthed a photo of the former foreign policy adviser that was tweeted by Trump last year, Twitter users have been bugging the wrong guy for a comment on the FBI investigation.

As one of our BBC colleagues in the Washington newsroom puts it - tough day for this dude.

Image source, Getty Images

White House chief of staff John Kelly will appear on Fox News tonight at 22:00 local time (02:00GMT on Tuesday).

The last time we heard from the former Marine general, he was defending Trump's treatment of the widow of a US soldier who was killed in Niger.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said it would be "highly inappropriate" to question any of Kelly's claims, because he's "a four-star Marine general".

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Democratic Senator Mark Warner - the vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence which is also investigating Russian meddling - called the charges "a significant and sobering step in what will be a complex and likely lengthy investigation by the Special Counsel".

"That is why it is imperative that Congress take action now to protect the independence of the Special Counsel, wherever or however high his investigation may lead. Members of Congress, Republican and Democrat, must also make clear to the President that issuing pardons to any of his associates or to himself would be unacceptable, and result in immediate, bipartisan action by Congress.

"We have also learned this morning that, during this investigation, George Papadopoulos made false statements to the FBI about his contacts with Russians at the same time he was serving as an adviser to the Trump campaign. This is just the latest in a series of undisclosed contacts, misleading public statements, potentially compromising information, and highly questionable actions from the time of the Trump campaign that together, remain a cause for deep concern and continued investigation.

"The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will continue its bipartisan probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 Presidential election."

Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos also lied about his interactions with Foreign Contact 3 (a female Russian national he wrongly believed to be Putin's niece), according to the indictment.

He told FBI investigators "she sent emails" to the effect of, "Just, 'Hi how are you?’ That's it."

When he was questioned by the FBI in January 2017, Papadopoulos said his last meeting with Putin’s niece had happened "a year ago… before I even got with Trump".

But an email search warrant found Papadopoulos' claims that he only exchanged email pleasantries a year previously with Putin’s niece were "false and misleading".

He told fellow Trump campaign officials in March 2016 that he had just met her.

On 10 April 2016, after he had joined the Trump campaign, Papadopoulos emailed Putin's niece, noting that he was "Donald Trump’s advisor" and that "it would be a pleasure to meet again".

She replied a day later that she was "now back in St Petersburg", but would be "very pleased to support your initiatives between our two countries".

On 12 April 2016, Putin’s niece said in an email to Papadopoulos: "As mentioned we are all very excited by the possibility of a good relationship with Mr Trump."

They exchanged more emails that month about arranging a possible trip to Russia.

Image source, Reuters

The BBC has learned details of an internal Ukrainian investigation which found that Paul Manafort was paid at least $28.5m, far more than the $12.5m reported last year.

That sum is said to have come from one of the "black money" funds run by the Party of the Regions in Ukraine, where Manafort was a political consultant.

There are at least two other funds, the investigation found, and maybe more, each supported by a different oligarch.

We have been told that Ukraine’s domestic intelligence service, the SBU, infiltrated Manafort’s operation at the time he was working for Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovytch, who was deposed in 2014.

An internal report stated that Manafort was paid $600,000 a month over four years, reaching a total of $28.5.

Both Mr Manafort's spokeman and Manafort himself did not return calls this morning, but our correspondent Paul Wood has spoken to Manafort in the past and he has denied any wrongdoing.

He maintains - and his friends and supporters maintain - that entries in the ledgers are forgeries.

Both Paul Manafort and Rick Gates are at the US District Court in Washington, where they will both make initial court appearances.

They are due to appear before US Magistrate Judge Deborah A Robinson for "pre-trial services" at 1:30 local time (17:30 GMT).

One of the BBC's feature writers in Washington, Jessica Lussenhop, wonders if anyone out there has stayed at Manafort's property in Soho, New York City.

The residence was used "from at least January 2015 through 2016 as an income-generating rental property, charging thousands of dollars a week on Airbnb, among other places", according go the FBI charge sheet.

Preet Bharara, who served as the top prosecutor in New York until Trump fired him, says it is "significant" that Papadopoulos pleaded guilty.

Across Washington today, people are speculating whether the former foreign policy aide has any incriminating evidence against Trump campaign officials that he has handed over to the FBI.

Papadopoulos acknowledged he knew a professor of diplomacy based in London who is a citizen of a country in the Mediterranean and an associate of several Russian nationals, according to the indictment.

Papadopoulos said the contact had told him that in early 2016 that the Russians had "dirt" on Clinton and that they have "thousands of [Clinton’s] emails".

The timing is potentially significant because the hacked Democratic National Committee emails were leaked in July 2016 and the hacked emails of Clinton campaign chief John Podesta were leaked in October.

Papadopoulos told FBI investigators he did not tell anyone on the campaign about the "dirt".

But the investigators soon found out Papadopoulos was lying.

On 24 March 2016, just after joining the campaign, Papadopoulos emailed campaign officials to say: "Just finished a very productive lunch with a good friend of mine, [Foreign Contact 1], who introduced me to both Putin's niece and the Russian Ambassador in London."

Papadopoulos later learned that the female Russian national was not in fact a relative of Putin at all, according to the indictment.

Papadopoulos also wrote: "The topic of the lunch was to arrange a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under Trump.

"They are keen to host us in a 'neutral' city, or directly in Moscow. They said the leadership, Including Putin, is ready to meet with us and Mr Trump should there be interest.

"Waiting for everyone’s thoughts moving forward on this very important issue."

The indictment says that Papadopoulos hoped the professor and the woman he believed to be Putin's niece would introduce him to the Russian ambassador in London, but they never did.

According to the indictment, after speaking to the FBI in February this year, Papadopoulos was "reiterating his purported willingness to co-operate with the FBI’s investigation".

But the next day he shut down his Facebook account, which contained communications he had with Russian nationals and other contacts during the campaign.

Papadopoulos created a new Facebook account.

The indictment says Papadopoulos had "a negative impact" on the FBI inquiry by "concealing links to individuals and intermediaries associated with the Russian government".

Image source, Getty Images

The BBC's Russian service correspondent in Washington has noted an error in the grand jury's charging sheet.

Julia Tymoshenko has not served as president of Ukraine.

She was defeated in a 2009 election by Viktor Yanukovych, for whom Paul Manafort worked.

Profile: Yulia Tymoshenko

Image source, Getty Images

In a press release to announce Manafort's hiring last year, Trump called him "a great asset and an important addition" to his team.

"Paul Manafort, and the team I am building, bring the needed skill sets to ensure that the will of the Republican voters, not the Washington political establishment, determines who will be the nominee for the Republican Party," Trump said during his primary campaign, highlighting Manafort's "dozens of international political campaigns".

Image source, Getty Images

After his 19 August resignation, Trump said: "I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process.

"Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success."

After the FBI launched a pre-dawn raid of Manafort's home in July, Trump said that it came to him as a surprise.

"I've always found Paul Manafort to be a very decent man," the president told reporters.

"He's like a lot of other people, probably makes consultant fees from all over the place, who knows, I don't know."

Ever since winning the election, the Trump team has sought to distance the president from their former campaign manager.

Sean Spicer - Trump's first White House spokesman - said in March that Manafort "played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time" in the campaign.

The statement raised eyebrows among the press corps, and fact checkers rated it False.

A tweet by conservative Fox News host Sean Hannity from last year is making the rounds on Twitter.

Carissa Hessick, a law professor at the University of North Carolina, notes that since Manafort will have a mountain of legal fees to pay, the seizure of his properties will heap pressure on him to co-operate with government investigations.

On 27 January 2017, not long after the president took office, ex-Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos "made false statements and omitted material facts to the FBI regarding his interactions during the Campaign with foreign contacts, including Russian nationals", the FBI charges read.

He admitted lying about his contacts with a London-based professor and a representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The full charging document can be found here, external

George Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI, the federal special counsel just announced.

Papadopoulos, who was a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign team, pleaded guilty in a case that has just been unsealed now.

The Chicago-based international energy lawyer becomes the third adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign to face criminal charges in the investigation.