Some background on all the people involved in this smaller Trump email...
Aras Agalarov (son Emin) is Azerbaijanian born (moved to Moscow in the mid 1990s or thereabouts) developer and oligarch (worth about $1.5bn). His company is called Crocus International and he knows Trump (and his family) because he was part of the Moscow side on the hosting of the 2013 "Miss Universe" competition - which was actually held at Crocus Hall in Moscow. That year Putin also awarded him the Order of Honour (before the "Miss Universe" show I seem to recall). After that Trump wanted to have a 'Trump tower' in Moscow and Agalarov was involved in these plans until they fell through - some say because sanctions were imposed in 2014. Basically he gets Government contracts - or obtains permission (which amounts to the same process) to do developments such as the Far Eastern (Vladivostok) University campus or develop shopping malls in Moscow and this of course relies on having 'friends and influence' within the ruling kleptocracy who expect 'reciprocity' if nothing else.
His son, Emin, is essentially a rich mans son. On paper he is a deputy Director of Crocus but he wants to be pop star. He was educated in the West (the US). He performed one of his songs at the "Miss Universe" do in 2013 after which Trump (apparently) did some cameo in one of his pop videos. His publicist (for his pop career) is this Goldstone chap who wrote to the smaller Trump. Additionally Emin was married to Leyla Aliyeva, the oldest daughter of the Azerbaijanian dictator/President (since 2003) Ilham Aliyev. Leyla is said to have substantial real estate investments in Dubai that her Father in law payed for and though Emin and Layla were divorced in 2014/15 the Agalarov - Aliyev financial relationship still continues. Obviously the Agalarov connection in Moscow is useful to the Aliyev clan ruling in Baku and they have alot of oil and gas money to spend.
Natalia Veselnitskaya claims to represent, among others, some organisation called the "Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation", a US registered NGO. She claims to have done "an extensive investigation of the [Sergei] Magnitsky case", the lawyer who died in prison and who the Muscovite authorities put on trial and found guilty of money laundering AFTER his death. This all goes back to the Bill Browder business and is a long story in all; read Browder's book 'Red Notice' if you want the full details but basically this involves the theft of $230m from Muscovite tax revenue - which Browder's company Hermitage was then charged with tax evasion; Magnitsy was a lawyer hired by Browder to find out where the money went. So in 2012 the Magnitsy Act passed in the US which effectively sanctions those involved in the death of Magnitsy. In retaliation Moscow refused to alow US couples to adopt Muscovite children. She basically works for a guy called Petr Katsyv (a former vice president of Russian Railways and deputy Governor of Moscow) and his son Denis Katsyv who owns a Cyprus registered investment company called Prevezon Holdings. In 2013 'Preet' Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, froze $24m worth of Prevezon assets and alleged that some of the real estate purchases in which Prevezon had been involved involved the missing tax money which had been effectively stolen (Browder alleges) from the Muscovite treasury. Veselnitskaya was one of the lawyers acting for the defence. The case was settled on May 13th this year with Prevezon agreeing to pay $6m, two days after 'Preet' Bahara was dismissed from his post.
So the fallout and other questions... Well Trumps (the older) comments about his sons 'transparency' are clearly BS. The NYT phoned the son, told him they had the email record and asked for his comment so he shot himself rather than be shot. It is also now abundantly clear that all "no connections/no collusion", "I don't know anyone in 'Russia'", "no contacts" and all the rest of the denials was lies. Nothing can be believed - not even the younger Trump's first attempt to explain this meeting "it was about adoption"... where is adoption mentioned in the emails? Presumably he must have known of the Muscovite act of retaliation after the Magnitsy Act to connect these requests for a meeting to adoption and in that case he must have had some idea of who he was to meet. It is more likely he got some background on Veselnitskaya/Magnitsy and the Prevezon case AFTER the meeting and then linked the adoption retaliation as an excuse for the meeting. There can be little doubt that Veselnitskaya was pushing for the settlement of the Prevezon case and the withdrawal of the Magnitsy law at the very least. Did she think she could get something for nothing? She must have had something to reciprocate with. The 'wikileaks' dumps started the next month (July). Why did Kushner later ask for a secret channel to Moscow? In the emails Goldstone says that Muscovite Government is backing Trump; "This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr Trump". Was this "news"? He appears to react as if not... if it was not a new revelation how did the Trump campaign know earlier? If it was a new revelation would the son (and son in law and campaign manager Manafort) really not have mentioned it to the candidate? The sons denial of his Father's knowledge is worthless - he has lied enough already about this one meeting. The final question of course is who is leaking? Maybe the Whitehouse staff? Goldstone perhaps? Certainly none of the accounts match... or Moscow?
Aras Agalarov (son Emin) is Azerbaijanian born (moved to Moscow in the mid 1990s or thereabouts) developer and oligarch (worth about $1.5bn). His company is called Crocus International and he knows Trump (and his family) because he was part of the Moscow side on the hosting of the 2013 "Miss Universe" competition - which was actually held at Crocus Hall in Moscow. That year Putin also awarded him the Order of Honour (before the "Miss Universe" show I seem to recall). After that Trump wanted to have a 'Trump tower' in Moscow and Agalarov was involved in these plans until they fell through - some say because sanctions were imposed in 2014. Basically he gets Government contracts - or obtains permission (which amounts to the same process) to do developments such as the Far Eastern (Vladivostok) University campus or develop shopping malls in Moscow and this of course relies on having 'friends and influence' within the ruling kleptocracy who expect 'reciprocity' if nothing else.
His son, Emin, is essentially a rich mans son. On paper he is a deputy Director of Crocus but he wants to be pop star. He was educated in the West (the US). He performed one of his songs at the "Miss Universe" do in 2013 after which Trump (apparently) did some cameo in one of his pop videos. His publicist (for his pop career) is this Goldstone chap who wrote to the smaller Trump. Additionally Emin was married to Leyla Aliyeva, the oldest daughter of the Azerbaijanian dictator/President (since 2003) Ilham Aliyev. Leyla is said to have substantial real estate investments in Dubai that her Father in law payed for and though Emin and Layla were divorced in 2014/15 the Agalarov - Aliyev financial relationship still continues. Obviously the Agalarov connection in Moscow is useful to the Aliyev clan ruling in Baku and they have alot of oil and gas money to spend.
Natalia Veselnitskaya claims to represent, among others, some organisation called the "Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation", a US registered NGO. She claims to have done "an extensive investigation of the [Sergei] Magnitsky case", the lawyer who died in prison and who the Muscovite authorities put on trial and found guilty of money laundering AFTER his death. This all goes back to the Bill Browder business and is a long story in all; read Browder's book 'Red Notice' if you want the full details but basically this involves the theft of $230m from Muscovite tax revenue - which Browder's company Hermitage was then charged with tax evasion; Magnitsy was a lawyer hired by Browder to find out where the money went. So in 2012 the Magnitsy Act passed in the US which effectively sanctions those involved in the death of Magnitsy. In retaliation Moscow refused to alow US couples to adopt Muscovite children. She basically works for a guy called Petr Katsyv (a former vice president of Russian Railways and deputy Governor of Moscow) and his son Denis Katsyv who owns a Cyprus registered investment company called Prevezon Holdings. In 2013 'Preet' Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, froze $24m worth of Prevezon assets and alleged that some of the real estate purchases in which Prevezon had been involved involved the missing tax money which had been effectively stolen (Browder alleges) from the Muscovite treasury. Veselnitskaya was one of the lawyers acting for the defence. The case was settled on May 13th this year with Prevezon agreeing to pay $6m, two days after 'Preet' Bahara was dismissed from his post.
So the fallout and other questions... Well Trumps (the older) comments about his sons 'transparency' are clearly BS. The NYT phoned the son, told him they had the email record and asked for his comment so he shot himself rather than be shot. It is also now abundantly clear that all "no connections/no collusion", "I don't know anyone in 'Russia'", "no contacts" and all the rest of the denials was lies. Nothing can be believed - not even the younger Trump's first attempt to explain this meeting "it was about adoption"... where is adoption mentioned in the emails? Presumably he must have known of the Muscovite act of retaliation after the Magnitsy Act to connect these requests for a meeting to adoption and in that case he must have had some idea of who he was to meet. It is more likely he got some background on Veselnitskaya/Magnitsy and the Prevezon case AFTER the meeting and then linked the adoption retaliation as an excuse for the meeting. There can be little doubt that Veselnitskaya was pushing for the settlement of the Prevezon case and the withdrawal of the Magnitsy law at the very least. Did she think she could get something for nothing? She must have had something to reciprocate with. The 'wikileaks' dumps started the next month (July). Why did Kushner later ask for a secret channel to Moscow? In the emails Goldstone says that Muscovite Government is backing Trump; "This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government's support for Mr Trump". Was this "news"? He appears to react as if not... if it was not a new revelation how did the Trump campaign know earlier? If it was a new revelation would the son (and son in law and campaign manager Manafort) really not have mentioned it to the candidate? The sons denial of his Father's knowledge is worthless - he has lied enough already about this one meeting. The final question of course is who is leaking? Maybe the Whitehouse staff? Goldstone perhaps? Certainly none of the accounts match... or Moscow?
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