From Rolling Stone · Nikki McCann Ramirez · · 1m 40s
A Putin ally paid for Don Jr.'s wedding party
ProPublica found a Russian oligarch covered $170,000 of the Bahamas celebration for Donald Trump Jr. and Bettina Anderson.
In brief
ProPublica found a Russian oligarch covered $170,000 of the Bahamas celebration for Donald Trump Jr. and Bettina Anderson. A Putin-allied oligarch with business he wants in the US quietly financed a six-figure party for the president's son, while the White House pressures Ukraine to go easy on Russia. Originally…
The father skipped it
Donald Trump missed his eldest son's May wedding on a private Bahamian island. Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, did not.
A $170,000 gift
Records reviewed by ProPublica show Kremlev paid the $100,000 rental on the second private island where guests slept, plus $70,000 for a fireworks display.
The Instagram defense
Bettina Trump posted a statement signed by both of them saying they married privately on Friday with only family, and the weekend that followed was a separate party planned long in advance.
“It was an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend.”
The friend nobody photographed
The couple call Kremlev a dear friend, but he appears in none of the 20 photos Bettina posted with her denial. Guests told ProPublica the Russian speakers off to the side were puzzling.
Who Kremlev actually is
He runs the International Boxing Association, which the IOC stripped of Olympic oversight over corruption, doping, and political influence. He sits on the Russian boxing federation's executive committee too.
He wants into America
Kremlev has been pushing IBA events into US markets, including bare-knuckle boxing. The Trump family already runs deep with the UFC and WWE.
What Russia is getting
Days after the report, Trump told Zelenskyy to stop hitting Russian oil refineries. The Kremlin keeps winning policy while its oligarchs write checks to the president's family.
“Let him go after targets but not diesel fuel because he's causing a shortage of diesel.”
In short
A Putin-allied oligarch with business he wants in the US quietly financed a six-figure party for the president's son, while the White House pressures Ukraine to go easy on Russia.
