Business projects of Donald Trump in Russia

Trump, his children, and his partners have repeatedly visited Russia, connecting with real estate developers and Russian government officials to explore joint venture opportunities.

In response to ongoing questions, White House press secretary Sean Spicer reiterated in May that Trump has no business connections to Russia.

[2] 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.

[3] 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.

"[5] 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.

"[5] 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 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.

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.

"[5][6] In 2006, Trump's children Donald Jr. and Ivanka, traveling with Sater,[5][6] 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.

[5][7][8] 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.

[14] 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.

[15] 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.