The family business · Before politics · № 9

Family business

Putin sends Trump a letter and a lacquer box after the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow

“My father just received a letter and gift for your dad from Mr. Putin.” Emin Agalarov
Date
, Email to Donald Trump Jr., November 21, 2013, quoted in the Senate intelligence committee's 2020 report
Subject
Russia
Benefit
Gifts and payments
Government
Russia Freedom House: Not Free (2013)
Beneficiary
Donald Trump
Topic
Ethics & conflicts
Era
Before politics

What happened

On November 21, 2013, Emin Agalarov emailed Donald Trump Jr. images of a letter and a gift that he said his father, Aras Agalarov, had received from President Vladimir Putin for Donald Trump, according to the Senate intelligence committee's 2020 report. The gift was a Fedoskino-style lacquer box; the report gives no value for it. The letter, dated November 19, 2013, congratulated Trump on holding the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and said Putin hoped they could talk on a future visit, after a meeting planned during the pageant did not take place. The committee reported that Agalarov's wife, Irina Agalarova, brought the package to the United States and that Trump Jr. appeared to have passed the email and photographs to his father.

Sources

  1. Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence, United States Senate, on Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election, Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Aug 18, 2020
  2. Country and Territory Ratings and Statuses, 1973-2024 Freedom House, 2024