“That tells me he was in favor with the Kremlin,” said Moran of Kukes’s selection to the Yukos role. In 1982, he became an American citizen, before returning to Russia in 1996 to run several of the country’s largest oil firms - including Yukos, where he replaced Mikhail Khodorkovsky as CEO, after Khodorkovsky was arrested and jailed on charges that were widely seen as politically motivated. He moved to Houston in 1977 and worked for two American oil companies. “The end goal,” she suggested, “was not only to get Trump elected but to get Trump elected and continue to be able to exert influence, if not control, through access.They’ve bought a ticket into the West Wing.”Ī spokesperson for the Trump campaign said that neither Kukes nor Blavatnik nor Intrater had a role in the campaign other than as a donor.Īn RNC official confirmed that Kukes had attended some fundraising events, but added that all guests at fundraisers attended by the then-candidate underwent security service vetting.Ī prominent figure in the Russian oil industry, Kukes was born in Moscow in 1946. Moran, the ex-CIA officer, described the donations as part of an “operation” to influence the election and the future administration. Those gifts are now being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, several people familiar with the investigation told NBC News. investment vehicle for the Renova Group." A previous SEC filing described Columbus Nova as the U.S.-based affiliate of the Renova Group and a recently archived version of its own website specified that Columbus Nova was “the U.S. His company, Columbus Nova, manages assets on behalf of the Russian-owned mining and telecoms conglomerate Renova Group. New York businessman Andrew Intrater donated $250,000 to the inauguration. Leonard Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-born billionaire, donated $1 million to the inauguration through his company Access Industries, a sprawling firm with interests in natural resources, chemicals, and media. Kukes is one of several Americans with deep ties to Russia who donated to Trump in 2016.
Pavlovsky did not respond to requests for comment. Kukes told NBC News by email that he thought his donations would help him make contacts in Houston, but that he regrets having made them in light of the press coverage they generated. Bush, and later wrote a memoir highly critical of the agency. Moran worked at the CIA for five years under the administrations of Bill Clinton and George W. “To me this reads like an email exchange between a source and a handler, or a source and headquarters,” said Lindsay Moran, a former CIA officer, to whom NBC News showed the emails. Intelligence experts told NBC News that Kukes's communication with Pavlovsky invited questions about his involvement in the Trump campaign. Svetlana Stanovkina, Kukes's then girlfriend (and now his wife), flanked by the president and vice president, both candidates at the time, at a fundraiser on Sept. “I think his chances are very good.”Ī second photograph, taken at a different event, pictured Kukes’ then-girlfriend (now his wife) standing between the candidate and his running mate Mike Pence. “I was at a dinner with Donald Trump,” Kukes wrote. Kukes, who donated $273,000 to the Trump Victory Committee during the 2016 cycle, later sent a photograph of himself posing with Rudy Giuliani, a close associate of the president, at what appears to be a fundraising event. They cannot be independently verified, but the account from which Kukes's messages originated is one that he currently uses.
NBC News reviewed the emails in conjunction with The Guardian. The Center gathers information to try to expose high-level corruption in Moscow. The emails were obtained through the Dossier Center, a London-based investigative project funded by Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Watch "On Assignment with Richard Engel" at 10 p.m. Let me know how you are doing, and whether you want to meet.” “I will be in Switzerland July 20th till August 2nd.
“I have been actively involved in Trump’s election campaign, and am part of the group on strategy development,” Kukes wrote in the email to Vyacheslav Pavlovsky, vice president of the state-owned Russian Railways and a former Russian ambassador to Norway.
0 kommentar(er)
