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March 2017: Moscow on the Beach....Russian elite invested nearly $100 million in Trump buildings
MIAMI/MOSCOW – During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump downplayed his business ties with Russia. And since taking office as president, he has been even more emphatic.
“I can tell you, speaking for myself, I own nothing in Russia,” President Trump said at a news conference last month. “I have no loans in Russia. I don’t have any deals in Russia.”
But in the United States, members of the Russian elite have invested in Trump buildings. A Reuters review has found that at least 63 individuals with Russian passports or addresses have bought at least $98.4 million worth of property in seven Trump-branded luxury towers in southern Florida, according to public documents, interviews and corporate records.
The buyers include politically connected businessmen, such as a former executive in a Moscow-based state-run construction firm that works on military and intelligence facilities, the founder of a St. Petersburg investment bank and the co-founder of a conglomerate with interests in banking, property and electronics.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-trump-property/
“I can tell you, speaking for myself, I own nothing in Russia,” President Trump said at a news conference last month. “I have no loans in Russia. I don’t have any deals in Russia.”
But in the United States, members of the Russian elite have invested in Trump buildings. A Reuters review has found that at least 63 individuals with Russian passports or addresses have bought at least $98.4 million worth of property in seven Trump-branded luxury towers in southern Florida, according to public documents, interviews and corporate records.
The buyers include politically connected businessmen, such as a former executive in a Moscow-based state-run construction firm that works on military and intelligence facilities, the founder of a St. Petersburg investment bank and the co-founder of a conglomerate with interests in banking, property and electronics.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-trump-property/
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https://www.ft.com/content/ea52a678-9cfb-11e6-8324-be63473ce146
Sergei Millian (l), Donald Trump and Jorge Perez in a photograph posted on Facebook by Mr Millian in 2014
When Sergei Millian was appointed head of the Russian American Chamber of Commerce in the US in 2006, the young former Soviet émigré came to typify Russia’s new projection of soft power.
He gave dozens of interviews to Russian state media as an expert on the US and appeared on US television opposing sanctions on Russia. He gadded about town with New York luxury real-estate brokers, even appearing on a reality TV programme called Million Dollar Listing, prompting one newspaper to nickname him “The Moscow Mule”.
Friends approved when he posted a photograph on Facebook in 2014 of himself with Donald Trump and Jorge Perez, the billionaire owner of the Related Group, a Miami real-estate developer, at the races. Then this year, Mr Millian, now 36, began speaking of how Russia-US relations would improve under the presidency of Mr Trump, with whose organisation he said he had worked as a real-estate broker and maintained ties. “I can assure you he is very positive and friendly,” he told the Russian state news agency, Ria Novosti, in January.
In the past, such activities might have seemed harmless. But now the US administration has formally accused Russia of attempting to interfere in the US electoral process through the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s email servers, Mr Millian’s activities — and his ties to the Republican presidential nominee — are coming under increasing scrutiny.
Sergei Millian (l), Donald Trump and Jorge Perez in a photograph posted on Facebook by Mr Millian in 2014
When Sergei Millian was appointed head of the Russian American Chamber of Commerce in the US in 2006, the young former Soviet émigré came to typify Russia’s new projection of soft power.
He gave dozens of interviews to Russian state media as an expert on the US and appeared on US television opposing sanctions on Russia. He gadded about town with New York luxury real-estate brokers, even appearing on a reality TV programme called Million Dollar Listing, prompting one newspaper to nickname him “The Moscow Mule”.
Friends approved when he posted a photograph on Facebook in 2014 of himself with Donald Trump and Jorge Perez, the billionaire owner of the Related Group, a Miami real-estate developer, at the races. Then this year, Mr Millian, now 36, began speaking of how Russia-US relations would improve under the presidency of Mr Trump, with whose organisation he said he had worked as a real-estate broker and maintained ties. “I can assure you he is very positive and friendly,” he told the Russian state news agency, Ria Novosti, in January.
In the past, such activities might have seemed harmless. But now the US administration has formally accused Russia of attempting to interfere in the US electoral process through the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s email servers, Mr Millian’s activities — and his ties to the Republican presidential nominee — are coming under increasing scrutiny.
Miami is in for an economic problem with the assets of many oligarchs being frozen.
Just sayin'. 
