A Russian oligarch helped finance the wedding of US President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, the investigative media outlet ProPublica reported on Monday.
ProPublica named the oligarch as Umar Kremlev, the president of the IBA boxing federation, who is said to maintain good contacts with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It said that Kremlev had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the party in the Bahamas. Renting a private island alone is said to have cost around $100,000 per night, while the fireworks display reportedly cost about $70,000.
“Friendship doesn’t require a political motive. Generosity doesn’t automatically come with an agenda. And sometimes a wedding gift is simply a wedding gift,” Trump’s daughter-in-law Bettina Trump wrote on Instagram after the report was published.
“Our dear friend Umar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding,” she said. She described it as “an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend, and something for which we were and remain incredibly grateful.”
According to ProPublica, Kremlev met Trump Jr. shortly before the wedding in May, yet still attended the party with a large group of other Russian guests.
In her post, Bettina Trump described the wedding as “a private family wedding, a wonderful weekend with friends and one hell of a party.”
President Trump has repeatedly faced accusations of being close to influential Russians. In 2016, the Russian government attempted to influence the US presidential election in Trump’s favour, as revealed in a report by the Senate Intelligence Committee.