Donald Trump has been pursuing property development in Russia since the late 1980s, and the Trump Tower Moscow deal that Michael Cohen admitted to continuing well into the 2016 election was the fifth of five failed attempts.
The one prior involved Trump and Aras Agalarov, the oligarch who requested Donald Trump Jr. meet with Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in Manhattan on June 9, 2016.
Two Congressional aides told NBC News the Agalarov project is now drawing new scrutiny from House and Senate investigators in the wake of the revelation in court documents that Trump lawyer Michael Cohen lied to Congress about his dealings on a separate, competing Russia real estate project ...
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The Agalarov proposal was the fourth of five. The parcel on which the tower was to be built in Krasnogorsk, northwest of Moscow, remains vacant. Other development has gone forward in the area, which is known as Crocus City, after the Agalarov's company, Crocus Group. A large shopping mall opened in 2015. But the concept of a retail and hotel center seems to be sputtering — a proposed Marriott hotel on the site never materialized.
In a little-noticed interview with Forbes magazine in July 2017, Aras Agalarov's son Emin said his family and Trump had signed documents to go forward with the deal, only to abandon the plan once Trump decided to run for president.
"He ran for president, so we dropped the idea, because obviously at this point his interests are slightly different," Agalarov was quoted as saying. "But if he hadn't run for president, we would probably be in the construction phase today, because he's a great person, very trusted on our side and a great developer."
He added, "It's basically an empty piece of land to this day."
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Agalarov later denied documents were ever signed, but that denial was contradicted more recently in congressional testimony.
Ike Kaveladze, who represented the Agalarov family in the United States, testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that Trump signed a letter of intent in early 2014, and that negotiations lasted for more than a year. Donald Trump Jr. represented the Trump family, he testified.
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By 2015, Trump's focus in Russia had turned to a different Moscow deal, one being pursued by his lawyer, Cohen, and a partner, [Felix] Sater.
In November, Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the timing of that deal. He admitted that negotiations went on longer than he had first claimed — through at least June 2016, in the middle of the presidential campaign.
Trump mentioned neither Trump Tower project on the campaign trail. The closest he came was at a July 2016 press conference, when he said that "numerous developers … wanted to develop property in Moscow and other places. But we decided not to do it."
He also said, "I have nothing to with Russia. I have nothing to do with Russia — for anything."
Congress now interested in that other Trump Tower once planned for Russia (NBC News)