User:Valjean/Page travels to Moscow

There seems to be some confusion about the exact dates for Carter Page's trips.

Timeline of Carter Page’s Contacts with Russia


 * Travels and some other events relevant to Trump campaign:

July 7 and 8, 2016 – Page gives a rambling Power Point presentation and Q&A on “the future of the world economy” in Moscow (justsecurity)

July 20, 2016 – Page meets with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. (justsecurity)

Sept./Oct. 2016 – According to ABC News, Page travels to Hungary to hold high-level foreign policy meetings with senior Hungarian officials, exchanges that eventually draw the attention of congressional investigators, given Hungary’s role as a Russian intelligence hub. (justsecurity)

Oct. 21, 2016 – The Justice Department and the FBI apply for and obtain a FISA probable cause order to surveil Page’s electronic communications (justsecurity)

Dec. 8 through 13, 2016 – Just one month after the election, Page travels to Russia again, telling state-operated RIA Novosti news service, “I am meeting with business leaders and thought leaders.” But he would later testify before the House Intelligence Committee that on this trip, he had private meetings with both Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and Rosneft investor relations chief Andrey Baranov. Page adds that an unnamed banker attended his lunch with Baranov. (justsecurity)

On December 12, at a public lecture in Moscow, Page admits that he met with a Rosneft official, and touts his connections to President Trump (justsecurity)

Feb. 15, 2017 – In an interview with PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff, Page says that he had no meetings with Russian officials in 2016:
 * "I had no meetings, no meetings…I might have said hello to a few people as they were walking by me at my graduation — the graduation speech that I gave in July, but no meetings." (justsecurity)


 * Brokerage of Rosneft privatization

Dossier source(s) allege that Sechin "offered PAGE/TRUMP's associates the brokerage of up to a 19 per cent (privatised) stake in Rosneft" (worth about $11billion) in exchange for Trump lifting the sanctions against Russia after his election.

According to Harding, Sechin and Divyekin set this offer up as a carrot and stick scheme, in which the carrot was the brokerage fee ("in the region of tens and possibly hundreds of millions of dollars"), and the stick was blackmail over purported "damaging material on Trump" held by the Russian leadership.

November 9, 2016: Election

About December 9, but apparently before the announcement of sale on December 7

About a month after Trump won the election, according to The Guardian, Carter Page traveled to Moscow "shortly before the company announced it was selling a 19.5% stake" in Rosneft. He met with top Russian officials at Rosneft, but denied meeting Sechin. He also complained about the effects of the sanctions against Russia.

On December 7, 2016, Putin announced that a 19.5% stake in Rosneft was sold to Glencore and a Qatar fund. Public records showed the ultimate owner included "a Cayman Islands company whose beneficial owners cannot be traced", with "the main question" being "Who is the real buyer of a 19.5 percent stake in Rosneft?... the Rosneft privatization uses a structure of shell companies owning shell companies."

December 8, 2016: "The day after the sale was announced, Carter Page flew back to Moscow, but this time he was subject to a FISA warrant and under constant surveillance. The timing of his second visit is unlikely to be a coincidence." (Longman)

Dec. 8 through 13, 2016 – Just one month after the election, Page travels to Russia again, telling state-operated RIA Novosti news service, “I am meeting with business leaders and thought leaders.” But he would later testify before the House Intelligence Committee that on this trip, he had private meetings with both Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and Rosneft investor relations chief Andrey Baranov. Page adds that an unnamed banker attended his lunch with Baranov. (justsecurity)

On December 12, at a public lecture in Moscow, Page admits that he met with a Rosneft official, and touts his connections to President Trump (justsecurity)

Luke Harding wrote that "Steele's Rosneft source was right" about the sale: "This was one of the biggest privatizations since the 1990s... Steele's mole had known about the plan months before Rosneft's management board was informed. The board only discovered the deal on December 7, hours after Sechin had already recorded his TV meeting with Putin revealing it. Even the Russian cabinet had been kept in the dark."

"It is evident that Steele’s sources knew what they were talking about even if they unsurprisingly were not omniscient about the details. Vladimir Putin was looking for investors to buy up 19 percent of Rosneft but it was difficult because of Western sanctions. One solution was to convince America to lift the sanctions, and offering the Trump team the brokerage fee on the sale was their enticement. The day after the sale was announced, Carter Page flew back to Moscow, but this time he was subject to a FISA warrant and under constant surveillance. The timing of his second visit is unlikely to be a coincidence....

"It was also in 2013 when the FBI visited Carter Page to warn him that he was being cultivated by Russian spies. He responded by telling the FBI that they should focus on tracking down the people behind the Boston Marathon bombings and leave him alone. I assume the FBI is very interested to learn that he was describing himself as an advisor to the Kremlin at the time.

"When we try to assess whether the Steele Dossier is “fake news,” as the president insists that it is, we should keep this Rosneft deal in mind. Someone who was just making things up and didn’t have real sources could never have invented something so close to the truth."