A Russian-American businessman who donated a substantial sum to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election effort boasted to a senior figure in Moscow that he was “actively involved” in the Republican candidate’s campaign. 🚨 theguardian.com/us-news/2018/s…
Simon Kukes told Vyacheslav Pavlovsky, a career Kremlin official, he was helping Trump with “strategy development” and shared photos of his 29-year-old Russian girlfriend posing with the future president. 
Kukes’s donations began two weeks after the meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016, when Donald Trump Jr, Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner discussed “dirt” on Hillary Clinton with a Russian lawyer. In total Kukes gave $273,000 to the Trump Victory Committee.
Mueller is reportedly looking at Russian-born Americans who gave money to Republican political causes. They are US citizens but have deep ties to Moscow. They include Kukes, Len Blavatnik, and Andrew Intrater. Collectively they contributed $2m to funds supportive of Trump.
In 2002 Kukes was sued by a rival firm in New York. It claimed he lived in the US and had bought a $1.7m luxury apartment in the Trump Parc building in Manhattan. The suit included a CIA document which alleges Kukes bribed local Russian officials.
Kukes seems to be part of a “soft-power network” of well-off Russian emigres. The Russian government and its security services were able to exert leverage on expatriates living abroad, and sometimes made use of them in sensitive projects for reasons of “plausible deniability”.
I found the Norex complaint and apparently Kukes was involved in a massive racketeering and money laundering scheme with Leonard Blavatnik, Viktor Vekselberg, German Khan and the Alfa Group. 👀 enforcement.trade.gov/download/russi…
