The Trump campaign's links to Russians are by now well-established but something that has completely evaded the attention of the American media is Trump's son in law and key aide jared kushner's links to a Russian billionaire. Roman Abramovich, who is known to be close to the Russian president and one of the most influential billionaires alive. According to a report by Bloomberg, he met with Kushner and Ivanka Trump three to four times over the past few years.
Meetings went unnoticed
Roman Abramovich is considered to be close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and remains one of the most influential billionaires in Russia with interests in a variety of countries.
Jared Kushner met with Roman Abramovich around four times dating back to 2014 and Ivanka Trump is apparently a close friend of the Russian billionaire's wife. Prior to joining the White House, they had to fill out a form in which they had to disclose any "close and/or continuing contact with a foreign national" and it was in that form that their relationship with Abramovich was revealed.
However, the media in the United States has inexplicably missed out on reporting on this close relationship between Abramovich and Jared Kushner. According to the Bloomberg report, Kushner and Ivanka Trump had been invited to Russia by Abramovich's wife and spent four days in the country back in 2014. In addition to that, Kushner had also invested in an online art business headed by Abramovich's wife Dasha Zhukova.
Abramovich's influence
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a Russian oil magnate once spoke of Abramovich's influence in Russia and his ties with Putin in an interview once. He said, “There’s no oligarch among those still accepted in the West who’s closer and more trusted by Putin than Abramovich." Abramovich, who made his billions in oil and now has interests in a variety of businesses, informed through a spokesperson that his relationship with Putin is nothing more than "formal and professional."
It is also important to keep in mind that Kushner never met Abramovich in a one on one meeting and in fact, his relationship with the Russian might have nothing to do with Trump's presidential campaign at all.
Moreover, Abramovich might not have been involved in the elaborate Russian plot to influence the election last year. Their friendship might have been simply a case of rich people becoming friends and collaborating on business deals. In such cases, the nationalities of the individuals in question do not usually matter.
