Sergei Millian

<div>wapo</div><div>
</div><div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sergei Millian</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Belarus-born businessman</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Reportedly an unwitting source for the Steele dossier. Worked to gain access to the Trump campaign through Papadopoulos.</div></div><div>
<div>http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-russian-businessman-source-key-trump-dossier-claims/story?id=45019603</div><div>
</div><div>The source of the most salacious allegations in the uncorroborated dossier about <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/donald-trump.htm" id="ramplink_President Trump" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px !important;">President Trump</a> and the Russians is a onetime Russian government translator, according to a person familiar with the raw intelligence provided to the <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/us/federal-bureau-of-investigation.htm" id="ramplink_FBI" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px !important;">FBI</a>.</div><div>
</div><p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sergei Millian, a naturalized American citizen who most recently headed a group called the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce, said he was in Moscow at the time the dossier accuses the billionaire American businessman of being involved with Russian prostitutes. Millian claims to have helped Trump recruit Russian investors, and he posted pictures of himself attending several black tie events during last week’s inauguration.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He is the man, the people familiar with the unredacted dossier tell ABC News, who may have unwittingly described Trump’s alleged tryst, during a conversation with someone who was secretly reporting to Christopher Steele.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Steele, a former British MI-6 intelligence officer, collected much of the information in a dossier funded by Trump’s political opponents that was provided to the FBI and circulated in media and intelligence circles for months before the 2016 election.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Millian did not answer questions put to him by ABC News over the weekend and again Tuesday.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While the published dossier never names Millian, a version provided to the FBI included Millian’s name as a source, according to someone who has seen the version given to the FBI.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Millian’s place in the long-running chatter about Trump’s purported ties to Russia has been reported in bits and pieces by various news outlets for months.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The assertion that he was the source of the document’s unsubstantiated (and refuted) claims about a Russian government videotape of Trump in a compromising position was first reported online Tuesday by <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/business/the-wall-street-journal.htm" id="ramplink_Wall Street Journal" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; text-decoration: none; outline: 0px !important;">The Wall Street Journal</a>. The Journal quoted Millian saying in an email that the information in the dossier was “fake news (created by sick minds)” and was “an attempt to distract the future president from real work.”<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Millian had said little publicly in recent weeks. But after news reports appeared alleging he was referenced as a source in the dossier, Millian appeared for an interview on Russian television to deny any role.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“This is just a blatant lie,” he told a Russian television talk show called 60 Minutes, according to a translation prepared for ABC news. He called it an attempt “to show our president [Trump] in a bad light, using my name.”<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Asked directly if he had any salacious material about Trump that is described in the dossier, Millian said he did not.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“I don't have any information and I doubt it exists,” he said.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In July he told ABC News in an exclusive interview that he was well connected with both Trump and the Kremlin.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“I’m one of those very few people who have insider knowledge of Kremlin politics who has the ability to understand the Russian mentality and who has been able to successfully integrate in American society,” Millian said.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In recent weeks, Trump’s team has said that Millian is not who is says he is — that he never worked in any capacity with the Trump Organization and he had to be warned to stop describing himself as a Trump-approved broker. Millian for months granted interviews in Russian media making that claim. And he did so during his interview with ABC News in July 2016.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer, told ABC News that he exchanged emails with Millian in order to tell him to stop exaggerating his ties to the Trump Organization. Cohen said he wrote Millian to say it had become clear “that you too are seeking media attention off of this false narrative of a Trump-Russia alliance” and to ask him to stop “attempting to inject yourself into this crazy, [Hillary] Clinton campaign lie.”<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Millian told ABC News he met Trump in 2008 during a marketing meeting in Florida to help bring attention to the Trump Hollywood development. At the event he posed for a photo with Trump and, he said, was introduced to Cohen, who was then a senior attorney for the Trump Organization.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Trump team, they realized that we have lots of connection with Russian investors. And they noticed that we bring a lot of investors from Russia,” Millian said in the July interview. “And they needed my assistance, yes, to sell properties and sell some of the assets to Russian investors.”<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Millian said he signed an agreement “with his team so I can be his official broker.”<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“So we did a lot of marketing for Trump. We presented his team with a proposal. It’s an 11-page proposal that we wrote. And some of the items were, in fact, implemented successfully in Russia,” he said.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Both Cohen and the developer of Trump Hollywood, the Related Group, told ABC News that they never had a signed agreement with Millian. “Related has no record of having paid Sergei Millian as a broker or otherwise,” the real estate company said in a statement to ABC News.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Millian told ABC News he was in Moscow during Trump’s 2013 visit but that he did not travel with Trump or meet with him there. “He worked with some of our advisers,” Millian said, adding that he believed Trump was interested in Russia for both business and pleasure.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“He likes Russia because he likes beautiful Russian ladies,” Millian said. “He likes talking to them, of course. And he likes to be able to make lot of money with Russians, yes, correct.”<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Millian for years boasted in Russian media of his connections to Trump. In April 2016 he told one Russian newspaper that the two had a long-standing business relationship. “I think partnership is based on friendship, mutual respect and mutual understanding, and business is based on buyer-seller relationships,” he said.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cohen told ABC News those claims were untrue.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“I’ve never met the guy,” Cohen said. “I have spoken to him twice. The first time, he was proposing to do something. He’s in real estate. I told him we have no interest. Second time he called me, I asked him not to call me anymore.”<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Russian-American Chamber of Commerce had listed the Trump Organization as one of its sponsors but removed the name during the summer of 2016. Millian ran the group from an office in Atlanta before moving to New York. The group’s tax records indicate it had only a modest income and operating budget.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In November, the British newspaper Financial Times wrote that Millian’s name surfaced on the FBI’s radar after he reportedly participated in a 2011 trip to Moscow for 50 American businessmen and offered to arrange future junkets. According to the newspaper, the FBI later asked Americans participating in the trip whether Russian intelligence tried to recruit them. One of the businessmen, the newspaper reported, said FBI agents told him they suspected that some of the people who organized the trips were spies.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Intelligence experts told ABC News that aspects of Millian’s background raised concerns for them. Paul Joyal, the managing director of National Strategies, told ABC News that the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce reminded him of a “classic Soviet front organization.”<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Front organization have been a platform for spotting and assessing potential intelligence recruitment and collection targets,” he said. “They commonly used sponsored trips as a means of making contact and sometimes developing or compromising intelligence targets of interests.”<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Millian changed his name. Court records show that when he first arrived in the U.S., he went by the name Siarhei Kukuts and later Sergei Kukuts. On a 2009 resume for Sergei Kukuts posted online, he described himself as having worked in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an interpreter and translator.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Asked why he changed his name, Millian told ABC News he did so “in respect to my grandmother. Her last name, Millianovich.”<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Millian told ABC News he was not working with Russian intelligence agencies. “I’m not involved,” he said.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Asked if he ever reported to Russian officials about his work in the U.S., he said only, “If I meet top people in the Russian government — they invite me, let’s say, to Kremlin for the reception, so of course I have a chance to talk to some presidential advisers and some of the top people.” He considered ridiculous, he said, the notion that he was a Russian spy.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Of course not,” he said.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In recent months, Millian continued to work to support the Trump campaign. He told ABC News he donated money to the campaign, and he posted a photo online of a Trump “donor card,” though there is nothing in Federal Election Commission records to confirm a contribution. Millian appeared to have attended Trump’s inaugural events, posting photos on social media from the festivities in Washington, D.C.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Millian declined to talk with ABC News this week in a brief email exchange this week. But back in July, he said he was motivated to help what he thought would be a warming in the relations between a Trump administration and his birth country.<p itemprop="articleBody" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect recen<div></div><div>
</div><div>mj corn<div>
</div><div>http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/donald-trump-russia-sergei-millian
<div>Last week, the Senate Intelligence Committee <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/13/politics/senate-probe-into-election-hacking-to-review-possible-links-between-russia-campaigns/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">announced</a> it was commencing an investigation of Russian hacking during the 2016 campaign that would include an examination of connections between Russia and the Trump camp. And a veiled but public <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/fbi-information-investigation-trump-russia-wyden" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">exchange</a> between Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the committee, and FBI Director James Comey during a hearing on January 10 suggested the FBI has collected information on possible ties between Trump associates and Russians and may still be probing this matter. So with subpoena-wielding investigators on this beat, here's a suggestion: The gumshoes ought to talk to an American from Belarus named Sergei Millian, who has boasted of close ties to Trump and who has worked with an outfit the FBI suspected of being a Russian intelligence front. If they haven't already.Millian, who is in his late 30s and won't say when he came to the United States or how he obtained US citizenship, is an intriguing and mysterious figure with a curious connection to Trump. He is <a href="http://www.russianamericanchamber.com/contact-us" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">president</a> of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce in the USA (RACC) and the owner of a translation service. The RACC, a nonprofit that Millian <a href="http://www.russianamericanchamber.com/news/russian-american-chamber-commerce-formed-atlanta" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">started</a> in Atlanta in 2006 and that has survived on shoestring budgets, advocates closer commercial ties between Russia and the United States and assists US firms looking to do business in Russia. In 2009, the group <a href="http://archive.is/vovAj#selection-791.170-791.405" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">called for</a> the US Congress "to foster necessary political changes to produce a healthier economic environment" and grant permanent normal trade relations status to Russia. Its website <a href="http://www.russianamericanchamber.com/about-chamber" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">notes</a> that it "facilitates cooperation for U.S. members with the Russian Government, Russian Regional Administrations, U.S. Consulates in Russia, Chambers of Commerce in Russia, and corporate leaders from CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] countries."The Russian-American Chamber of Commerce's <a href="http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2011/205/769/2011-205769796-084aa90c-ZO.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">2011 tax return</a> reported the group was based in an apartment in Astoria, Queens, where Millian lived—though the group's letterhead that year listed a Wall Street address—and that year it brought in only $23,300 in contributions and grants and $14,748 in program revenue. The tax return noted that the chamber "successfully hosted four universities from Russia in New York City" and hosted a trade mission from Belarus. In 2015, Millian <a href="http://philanthropy.ru/novosti-organizatsij/2015/02/04/20243/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">received</a> a Russian award for fostering cooperation between US and Russian businesses.On his LinkedIn <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergiomillian" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">page</a>, Millian notes he is also the vice president of an outfit called the World Chinese Merchants Union Association, a group that has only a slight presence on the internet and that seems to have an address in Beijing. According to a LinkedIn <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/vice-president-world-chinese-merchants-union-official-sergei-millian" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">post</a> published by Millian in April 2016, he met that month in Beijing with a Chinese official and the Russian ambassador to the Republic of San Marino to discuss industrial and commercial cooperation between China and Russia.Millian's online bio notes he graduated from the Minsk State Linguistic University with the equivalent of a master's degree in 2000. His bio <a href="http://www.russianamericanchamber.com/contact-us" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">says</a> he is a real estate broker who works in residential and commercial properties in the United States and abroad. He used to go by the name Siarhei Kukuts—that's how he's listed on <a href="http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2008/205/769/2008-205769796-0618df3a-Z.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">tax returns</a> for the RACC—and it is unclear why he changed his name. Millian also has repeatedly claimed he had a significant business association with Trump.In an April 2016 <a href="https://ria.ru/interview/20160413/1409790646.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">interview</a> with RIA Novosti, a Russian media outlet, Millian described his history with Trump. He said he met the celebrity real estate developer in 2007 when Trump visited Moscow for a "Millionaire's Fair," where he was promoting Trump Vodka. Millian noted that Trump subsequently invited him to a horse race in Miami. "Later," Millian said, "we met at his office in New York, where he introduced me to his right-hand man—Michael Cohen. He is Trump's main lawyer, all contracts go through him. Subsequently, a contract was signed with me to promote one of their real estate projects in Russia and the CIS. You can say I was their exclusive broker."Millian said he had helped Trump "study the Moscow market" for potential real estate investments. In the April 2009 issue of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce <a href="https://issuu.com/raccintheusa/docs/newsletter_4_april_2009" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">newsletter</a>, Millian reported that he was working with Russian investors looking to buy property in the United States, and he said, "We have signed formal agreements with the Richard Bowers and Co., the Trump Organization and The Related Group to jointly service the Russian clients' commercial, residential and industrial real estate needs." Millian's claim did <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/heres-what-we-know-about-donald-trump-and-his-ties-to-russia/2016/07/29/1268b5ec-54e7-11e6-88eb-7dda4e2f2aec_story.html?utm_term=.6da30acdfef0" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">jibe</a> with what Donald Trump Jr. said at a 2008 real estate conference in New York. Trump's son noted, "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets." He added, "We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia."In the 2016 interview, Millian asserted that Trump would be good for Russia if elected president. Trump, he noted, would improve US relations with Russia and lift economic sanctions imposed by Washington on Russia. He said Trump was interested in doing business in Russia: "I don't want to reveal [Trump's] position, but he is keeping Moscow in his sights and is waiting for an appropriate time." Millian added, "In general Trump has a very positive attitude to Russians, because he sees them as clients for his business. Incidentally, he has done many projects with people from the Russian-language diaspora. For example, Trump SoHo in New York with billionaire Tamir Sapir." (Sapir, who died in 2014, was an American billionaire real estate developer from the former Soviet republic of Georgia.)Millian apparently was proud of his association with Trump. In 2014, he <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153994138778229&set=pb.712148228.-2207520000.1484778072.&type=3&theater" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">posted</a> on Facebook a photograph of him with Trump and Jorge Perez, the billionaire real estate developer in Miami who owns the Related Group.Millian seemed delighted to spin for Trump and push the impression he was a Trump insider. During the Republican convention, he <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/09/08/meet-the-man-who-is-spinning-for-donald-trump-in-russia.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">told</a> the Daily Beast that Trump was a "powerful, charismatic, and highly intelligent leader with a realistic approach toward Russia." He added, "I, personally, wholeheartedly support his presidential aspirations. It's been a great pleasure representing Mr. Trump's projects in Russia." But weeks later, as the Russia hacking controversy was heating up, Millian, in <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/09/08/meet-the-man-who-is-spinning-for-donald-trump-in-russia.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">another exchange </a>with the Daily Beast, downplayed his connection to Trump. And the website reported that after its reporter spoke him, Millian removed mentions of his Trump association from an online biography. It also appears that references to the Trump Organization working with the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce in the USA were at some point <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:tmUtSfei7OQJ:www.russianamericanchamber.com/members%3Fpage%3D1%26combine%3D+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">scraped</a> from its <a href="http://www.russianamericanchamber.com/members?page=1&combine=" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">website</a>. Millian's activities and ties to Trump have raised questions. In October, the Financial Times mounted an <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ea52a678-9cfb-11e6-8324-be63473ce146" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">investigation</a> of him and the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce. It reported:<blockquote style="margin: 2em 0px; line-height: 1.8em; padding-left: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Most of the board members are obscure entities and nearly half of their telephone numbers went unanswered when called by the Financial Times. An FT reporter found no trace of the Chamber of Commerce at the Wall Street address listed on its website. At the same time, the chamber appears to have close official ties, arranging trips for visiting Russian regional governors to the US.</blockquote>As part of its inquiry into Millian, the newspaper pointed to Millian's connection to <a href="http://rs.gov.ru/en/about" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">Rossotrudnichestvo</a>, a Russian government organization that promotes Russian culture abroad. In 2013, Mother Jones <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/10/fbi-investigating-yury-zaytsev-russian-diplomat-spy" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">reported</a> that <a href="http://rs.gov.ru/en/about" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">Rossotrudnichestvo</a> was under investigation by the FBI for using junkets to recruit American assets for Russian intelligence. Through cultural exchanges, Rossotrudnichestvo, which operates under the jurisdiction of the Russian Foreign Ministry, was bringing young Americans—including political aides, nonprofit advocates, and business executives—on trips to Russia. The program was run by Yury Zaytsev, a Russian diplomat who headed the Russian Cultural Center in Washington, DC.Americans who participated in the exchange trips and were later questioned by FBI agents told Mother Jones that the agents' questions indicated the FBI suspected Zaytsev and Rossotrudnichestvo had been using the all-expenses-paid trips to Russia to cultivate Americans as intelligence assets. (An asset could be a person who directly works with an intelligence service to gather information, or merely a contact who provides information, opinions, or gossip, not realizing it is being collected by an intelligence officer.) After Mother Jones published a story on the FBI investigation, the Russian embassy in Washington issued a statement: "All such 'scaring information' very much resembles Cold War era. A blunt tentative is made to distort and to blacken activities of the Russian Cultural Center in DC, which are aimed at developing mutual trust and cooperation between our peoples and countries." (A year later, in November 2014, Zaytsev <a href="https://ria.ru/world/20141105/1031837974.html%EF%BB%BF%EF%BB%BF%EF%BB%BF" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">spoke at a Moscow press conference and said</a>, in reference to the upcoming US presidential elections, "It seems to me that the Russian 'card' will certainly be played out." He added, "I think that this presidential election first of all will very clearly show a trend of further development" in US-Russia relations.)Millian has collaborated with Rossotrudnichestvo. In 2011, he and the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce worked with Zaytsev and the Russian group to mount a 10-day exchange that brought 50 entrepreneurs to the first "Russian-American Business Forum" in Moscow and the Vladimir region, according to a <a href="http://www.russianamericanchamber.com/Upload/Files/Official%20letter%20to%20President%20Medvedev%20from%20members%20of%20Russian-American%20Business%20Forum%20-%20Dec%2020%2C%202011%20%28by%20Sergei%20Millian%20%26%20Mike%20Costache%29.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">letter</a> Millian sent to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev after the initiative. In that letter, Millian praised Rossotrudnichestvo, and he added, "My entire staff, fellow participants, and I, here at the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce in the USA, very much look forward to assisting Rossotrudnichestvo with the preparations for next year's trip." (Millian now says, "We are not affiliated with [Rossotrudnichestvo] in any way.")Toward the end of the presidential campaign Michael Cohen, the Trump lawyer, told the Financial Times that Millian's claims of working with Trump were "nothing more than a weak attempt to align himself with Mr. Trump's overwhelmingly successful brand." But the newspaper reported that Cohen "did not respond to questions about whether he interacted with Mr. Millian or why Mr. Millian is one of only 100 people he follows on Twitter." (Cohen no longer follows Millian on Twitter.) Hope Hicks, Trump's campaign spokeswoman, told the paper that Trump had "met and spoke" with Millian only "on one occasion almost a decade ago at a hotel opening."Cohen, Hicks, Sean Spicer, Trump's designated White House press secretary, and the Trump presidential transition team did not respond to a request for information regarding Millian's interactions with Trump and his associates.Reached by telephone this week, Millian said he would not discuss his relationship with Trump and requested he be sent questions via email. Mother Jonessubsequently sent him a list. Millian responded in an email with answers to a different set of questions, and he noted he would not answer any queries about his personal background or provide any details beyond what was in this reply. He said in the email, "I have a solid reputation with businesses around the world. It's a common practice for immigrants to change name upon immigrating to the USA. I am US citizen and do not have and never had Russian citizenship. I live and work in NYC."In the email, Millian asserted, "I have never said that I worked personally for Trump. I said I was a broker for one of his many real estate projects. There are several brokers who work on such real estate projects. I never represented Mr Trump personally and I am not working with Mr Trump." He added, "I have signed an official contract with talks of exclusivity that authorized me to represent Trump name project in Russia and CIS." But he said he had never been paid by Trump for any work. He maintained that the last time he spoke to Trump was in 2008.Millian insisted he had "never worked for Russian Government or Russian military as a translator or in any other capacity." He said, "We never got any business with Rossotrudnichestvo." And he made this point: "I'm a member of the Presidential Trust of NRC-GOP and supporter of Mr Trump who contributed to his campaign just the same way as many millions of Americans. I'm proud that Mr Trump became our president. I'm sure he will rebuild our great nation to the highest standards just as he did with his distinguished buildings. We desperately need better infrastructure, airports, railways in this country. Also, high time starting paying off national debts. I feel upset that press tries to distracts him from making our country great again by distributing fake news." (A search of campaign finance records revealed no contribution from Millian to the Trump campaign or the Republican National Committee; a contribution of $200 does not have to be itemized.)Millian's response ignored several questions Mother Jones sent him. He would not say when he left Belarus or explain how he became an American citizen. He would not discuss the details of the deal he previously claimed to have struck with the Trump Organization. He would not say how many times he worked on projects or exchanges with Rossotrudnichestvo. (His response seemed to suggest he had nothing to do with the Russian organization, yet the 2011 letter he wrote indicated his Russian-American Chamber of Commerce had collaborated with Rossotrudnichestvo.) He did not explain why references to the Trump organization had been scraped from the RACC's website and his bio. And he did not answer this question: "In the last year and a half, have you had any contacts with Donald Trump or any of his political or business associates?"Various media outlets that have examined links between Trump and Russia have focused on Carter Page, a Moscow-connected foreign policy adviser for Trump 's presidential campaign (whom Trump spokesman Sean Spicer recently <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/11/politics/donald-trump-news-conference-fact-check/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">falsely claimed</a> Trump did not know) and Paul Manafort, Trump's onetime presidential campaign manager who had <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fbi-making-inquiry-ex-trump-campaign-manager-s-foreign-ties-n675881" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-position: 0% 90%; background-image: url(" sites="sites" all="all" assets="assets" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" white="white" px="px">business ties</a> to Russians and Putin-allied Ukrainians. Any official investigators would likely be interested in these two men. They also should schedule a sit down with Millian.==</div></div></div></div>