Vladimir Putin wanted to give a penthouse in the Trump Moscow skyscraper

Published details of the Russian project of the President of the United States.
24.01.2019
Kommersant
Origin source
The American edition of BuzzFeed has published documents refuting the statements of the son of US President Donald Trump Jr. and personal lawyer to the head of the White House Rudolph Giuliani that talks with the Russian side about building a Trump Tower skyscraper in Moscow were limited to writing a letter of intent. According to the newspaper, the future president personally approved the project and the location of the high-rise building, and negotiations on the construction of a skyscraper continued when the 2016 election campaign in the United States was already in full swing.

Earlier this week, representatives of the “Trump team” reiterated that the project to build the Trump Tower skyscraper in Moscow was a personal initiative of former personal lawyer to US President Michael Cohen. “He was the one who tried to make a deal,” stressed the son of the US president, executive vice president of the Trump Organization Donald Trump Jr., on Fox TV. “He didn’t particularly attract anyone (to this deal. Kommersant), so I don’t think that someone took it seriously. "

Last Tuesday, the version that the talks were limited to a “letter of intent,” was repeated by the personal lawyer of the US president, the former mayor of New York, Rudolf Giuliani. “The only thing that ever happened was that (Donald Trump's team. -“ Kommersant ”) sent a letter of intent about a possible project in Moscow, which was never implemented, - he said in an interview with The New Yorker. - No money was paid, no plans were made. There were no projects, nothing on paper. ”

The personal lawyer of the US president also clarified that the project was “at a very early stage,” so it was not worth talking about any concrete steps on the part of the Trump Organization.

According to the documents that BuzzFeed managed to gain access to as a result of an investigation that lasted for almost a year, the company controlled by Donald Trump not only approved the architectural design of the construction of a skyscraper, but also selected a place for construction, calculating a possible profit of $ 300 million.

As the authors of the publication remind, Donald Trump has attempted to start a development business in Moscow for 30 years, but not one of the projects he proposed has been implemented. In 2013, after the future US president visited the Russian capital, having sold the rights to conduct the Miss Universe contest to businessman Aras Agalarov, he wrote in his Twitter account: “Trump Tower in Moscow will be next (project. -“ Kommersant ”) ".

According to published documents, two years later, the project of building the highest tower in Europe was completely ready. According to the plan prepared by the New York architectural bureau, a 100-story glass building 462 m high, which would crown the Trump logo, was to be erected within the boundaries of the Moscow-City cluster. In September 2015, the project was transferred to the Russian partner of the Trump Organization, the owner of the development company Expert Group of Companies, Andrei Rozov.
 
“The design of the building you sent is very interesting, it will be an architectural triumph and a triumph of luxury,” wrote Mr. Rozov in response, according to the documents cited. “I’m sure that the tallest building in Europe should be in Moscow, and I’m ready to to build. "

The agreement of intent, signed by Donald Trump on October 28, 2015, states that the skyscraper will contain “approximately 250 luxury first class apartments”. The building also included a 15-storey hotel “for at least 150 hotel rooms”, a fitness center, a spa, office premises “corresponding to level A”, and a “luxurious parking”. The agreement of intent emphasizes that the interior of the spa and fitness center will be handled by the daughter of Donald Trump - Ivanka, and the venues will be called The Spa By Ivanka Trump.

The parties valued the market value of the only penthouse in the skyscraper at $ 50 million, but according to the plan of one of the project participants, they did not plan to sell it. Luxury apartment was supposed to be a gift for President Vladimir Putin. “I had the idea to donate a penthouse worth $ 50 million to Putin and earn $ 250 million from the sale of the remaining apartments,” confirmed Feli Süter, a businessman and former FBI informant, in an interview with BuzzFeed last November. “All the oligarchs would have lined up in order to live in the same house with Putin. "

The authors of the publication claim that they received confirmation from two employees of the American special services that lawyer Michael Cohen discussed the possibility of such a “gift” for the Russian president with one of the Kremlin’s press secretaries, Dmitry Peskov. The agreement of intent also describes a detailed plan for making a profit by the American side of the project.

On the day of the publication of the scandalous material, the representative of the Office of Special Prosecutor Robert Muller, who oversees the investigation of possible Russian interference, called the publication’s message “not quite accurate”. The BuzzFeed management in response stated that it was ready to vouch for the published information.

Recall that in November 2018, Michael Cohen admitted that during the congressional hearings he lied that negotiations with the Russian side on plans to build a skyscraper ended in January 2016, a year before Donald Trump's inauguration. According to the official statement of the lawyer, submitted to the court, these consultations continued at least until July 2016, when the future president was already the leader of the Republican race.

The US President, answering journalists' questions, then unexpectedly admitted that he really took an active part in the “Moscow project”.

There was a very high probability that I would lose (in the elections — Kommersant), ”said Donald Tramp.“ In this case, I would return to the business and why should I have missed such opportunities? ”

Last weekend, NBC’s personal lawyer for the president, Rudolph Giuliani, said that the negotiations on the construction of a skyscraper in Moscow continued throughout 2016 "until October, November". On the same day, the lawyer told The New York Times newspaper that he was talking with Donald Trump about the Russian project, and the president admitted that the consultations continued "until the day he won the election." True, Rudolph Giuliani later refuted his own words, calling them "hypothetical and not based on conversations with the president."

The construction of the Trump Tower skyscraper in Moscow is one of the key ones in the ongoing US investigation into possible Russian intervention in the 2016 presidential campaign. At the end of last week, the same BuzzFeed edition reported that the US president personally ordered lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to members of Congress about the details of the implementation of this business project.

Lying under oath in the United States is a serious crime, and Democrats in the House of Representatives were quick to remind the head of the White House that such accusations were one of the reasons for starting an impeachment procedure against former US presidents - Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.

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