Donald Trump has pursued business deals in Russia since 1987, and has repeatedly traveled there to explore potential business opportunities. In 1996, Trump trademark applications were submitted for potential Russian real estate development deals. Trump, his children, and his partners have repeatedly visited Russia, connecting with real estate developers and Russian government officials to explore joint venture opportunities. Trump was never able to successfully conclude any real estate deals in Russia. However, individual Russians have invested heavily in Trump properties, and, following Trump's bankruptcies in the 1990s, he borrowed money from Russian sources. Both Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have said that Russia was an important source of money for the Trump businesses.
Efforts to build a Trump building in Moscow continued into June 2016 while Trump was securing the Republican nomination for the presidential election.
In January 2017, BuzzFeed News reported the existence of the then-unverified Steele dossier (also called the Trump–Russia dossier), which alleges connections between Trump associates and Russia. Trump responded the next day, and again at a February news conference, that he has no financial connections to Russia. In response to ongoing questions, White House press secretary Sean Spicer reiterated in May that Trump has no business connections to Russia. Also in May, Trump's tax lawyers sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee saying Trump had not received any income from Russian sources over the past 10 years "with a few exceptions".
Trump's pre-Presidential business dealings with Russia were scrutinized by the special counsel, Robert Mueller.
Becoming well known In 1987, Trump visited Russia to investigate developing a hotel, invited by Ambassador Yuri Dubinin whom he had met in New York the year before. British journalist Luke Harding alleged in 2017 that this trip likely began a long-term cultivation operation typical of the KGB's Political Intelligence Department, under written directives initiated by First Chief Directorate head Vladimir Kryuchkov, to recruit politically ambitious Westerners susceptible to flattery, egotism and greed.
In 1996, Trump partnered with Liggett-Ducat, a small company, and planned to build an upscale residential development on a Liggett-Ducat property in Moscow. Trump commissioned New York architect Ted Liebman, who did the sketches. Trump visited Moscow again with Howard Lorber to scout potential properties for "skyscrapers and hotels". During that trip, Trump promoted the proposal and acclaimed the Russian economic market. At a news conference reported by The Moscow Times, Trump said he hadn't been "as impressed with the potential of a city as I have been with Moscow" in contrast to other cities had visited "all over the world."
By this time, Trump had made known his desire to build in Moscow to government officials for almost ten years "ranging from the Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev (they first met in Washington in 1987) to the military figure Alexander Lebed." Moscow's mayor, Yuri M. Luzhkov, showed Trump plans for a very large shopping mall to be located underground in the vicinity of the Kremlin. The mayor complimented Trump's suggestion that this mall should have access to the Moscow Metro, and it was eventually connected to the Okhotny Ryad station. Although the 1996 residential development did not happen, Trump was by this time well known in Russia.
Projects
Trump's business strategy included Russia in ventures intended to internationally expand his brand. He transitioned in the mid-2000s from building and investing in real estate to simply licensing his name to hotels, condominiums, and commercial towers. Although a strategy of taking a percentage from the sales was successful in other countries, Trump's terms were not agreeable to Russians and conflicted with their way of doing business with American hotel chains.
From 2000 to 2010, Trump partnered with a development company headquartered in New York represented by a Russian immigrant, Felix Sater. During this period, they partnered for an assortment of deals that included building Trump towers internationally. For example, in 2005 Sater acted as an agent for building a Trump tower alongside Moscow River with letters of intent in hand and "square footage was being analyzed."
In 2006, Trump's children Donald Jr. and Ivanka, traveling with Sater, stayed in the Hotel National, Moscow for several days, across from the Kremlin, to see promising partners, with the intent of doing real estate development deals.
Trump was associated with Tevfik Arif, formerly a Soviet commerce official and founder of a development company called the Bayrock Group, of which Sater was also a partner. Bayrock searched for deals in Russia while Trump branded towers were attempting to further expand in the United States. Sater said, "We looked at some very, very large properties in Russia," on the scale of "...a large Vegas high-rise." In 2007, Bayrock organized a potential deal in Moscow between Trump International Hotel and Russian investors.
During 2006–2008, Trump's company applied for a number of trademarks in Russia with the goal of real estate developments. These trademark applications include: Trump, Trump Tower, Trump International Hotel and Tower, and Trump Home. In 2008, he said as a speaker at a Manhattan real estate conference that he feared the outcome of doing business deals in Russia, but he preferred "Moscow over all cities in the world" and that within 18 months he had been in Russia a half-dozen times.
In 2007, Trump announced that Trump Vodka would expand its distribution into Russia, his first foray into the Russian market. Trump "Super Premium" Vodka, with bottles glazed in 24-karat gold, debuted in 2007 at the Millionaire Fair in Moscow, but was only successful until 2009. Trump also attempted to create a reality show in St. Petersburg starring a Russian athlete, but the project was unsuccessful.
In a 2015 interview, Trump said that his repeated attempts to launch business deals with Russians resulted in contacts with "...the top-level people, both oligarchs and generals, and top of the government people. I can't go further than that, but I will tell you that I met the top people, and the relationship was extraordinary."
Efforts to build Trump Tower Moscow continued through June 2016, even as Trump was becoming the Republican presidential nominee. In 2018, Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress after having falsely testified in 2017 that these efforts had ended in January 2016. After June 2016, Trump denied several times having business dealings in or with Russia: in July 2016 he denied having employees or investments in Russia, and in October 2016 he said he was not doing any deals there and had nothing to do with Russia. The president's attorney Rudy Giuliani made some contrary statements about that chronology, but then backtracked.
On July 9, 2019, Sater acknowledged before the House Intelligence Committee that one real estate project between Russia and Trump was falsely presented as a joint defense agreement, but withheld documents concerning direct details and phone records. Following his testimony, Committee chair Patrick Boland announced "Our investigation thus far has revealed that Sater was not a part of any joint defense agreement, and has no basis to assert this privilege over these documents."
Trump's responses On January 10, 2017, BuzzFeed News published the Steele dossier (also called the Trump–Russia dossier), a series of reports prepared by a private intelligence source in Great Britain. The unverified dossier alleged various connections and collusion between Trump associates and Russia before and during the 2016 presidential election. The next day, January 11, Trump tweeted, "Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA – NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!" USA Today evaluated that assertion as "not exactly true". At a February 16, 2017 press conference, Trump said, "And I can tell you, speaking for myself, I own nothing in Russia. I have no loans in Russia. I don't have any deals in Russia."
On May 9, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said, "He [Trump] has no business in Russia. He has no connections to Russia."
On May 9, 2017, Trump's tax law firm, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which said a review of Trump's tax returns for the past 10 years did not find income from Russian sources during that period, save for "a few exceptions". The exceptions were the 2008 sale of a Trump-owned estate in Palm Beach, Florida, for $95 million to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who tore down the mansion shortly after and sold of the site for $34 million, as well as $12.2 million in payments in connection with holding the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013, plus a number of "immaterial" deals. No independently verifiable evidence was provided, such as tax returns, and it has been noted that even disclosure of tax returns would not necessarily disclose Russian-source income. The letter also said Trump had received undisclosed payments over 10 years from Russians for hotel rooms, rounds of golf, or Trump-licensed products such as wine, ties, or mattresses, which would not have been identified as coming from Russian sources in the tax returns. The letter was a response to earlier requests from Senator Lindsey Graham asking whether there were any such ties.
On November 30, 2018, a day after Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about Trump's business projects in Russia, Trump tweeted that it was "very legal & very cool" that he did "run for President & continue to run my business". Trump continued: "Lightly looked at doing a building somewhere in Russia. Put up zero money, zero guarantees and didn't do the project."
Timeline of Trump business activities related to Russia
1984: Russian mobster David Bogatin bought five condominiums from Trump tower for $6 million. The condos were later seized by the government, which claimed they were used to launder money for the Russian mafia. Bogatin was a convicted gasoline bootlegger, and close ally of Semion Mogilevich, a major Russian mafia boss. 1986: Soviet Ambassador Yuri Dubinin invites Trump on an all-expenses-paid trip to the Soviet Union. July 1987: Trump and his wife, Ivana, who speaks Russian, make their first visit to the Soviet Union (which included the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic [RSFSR]). They scout potential construction sites for a Trump Tower Moscow. 1996: Trump returns to Russia, visits Moscow with Howard Lorber and Bennett S. LeBow to scout potential properties for "skyscrapers and hotels", registers his trademark, and makes connections with the development company Bayrock Group (which would result in Trump Soho) and Felix Sater, who became crucial to later Trump Moscow talks. Trump subsequently announces a plan to invest $250 million in Russia and brand two luxury residential buildings in Moscow, which doesn't come to fruition. Index for Proof of Collusion . 2005: Trump gives Bayrock Group an exclusive deal to build a Trump-branded property in Moscow. 2006: At Donald Trump's request, Sater accompanies Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. on a Moscow trip, and arranges for Ivanka to sit in Putin's office chair during a tour of the Kremlin. November 2007: Trump attends the Millionaire's Fair in Moscow, where he announces that Trump Vodka will expand its distribution into Russia, his first foray into the Russian market. Around 2008: Trump Jr. travels to Russia a half-dozen times in 18 months, looking for deals.