https://nypost.com/2022/06/25/hunter-biden-met-with-russian-oligarch-now-wanted-for-murder/?fbclid=IwAR10zxm2rXtCZVt2AQB7-b1xsJ3KRWRVfLwv1__vnlWIUPUh5dICClCWcjYHunter Biden met with Russian oligarch now wanted for murder
By Jon Levine
June 25, 2022 8:49am Updated
Hunter Biden took the meetings with several oligarchs while his father, Joe Biden, was the Vice President.
When his father was the second most powerful man in the world, Hunter Biden met in Russia with at least four oligarchs closely aligned with Vladimir Putin — including one who is now wanted for murder in the country, The Post has learned.
The meeting with Telman Ismailov took place on Feb. 17, 2012 at the Moscow headquarters of AST Group, his vast holding company which once owned a publishing house, a tour company, and had a telecom division, according to the Moscow Times.
Ismailov was accused in 2017 by Russian authorities of paying $2 million for the murder of two entrepreneurs a year earlier, Agence France-Presse reported. Vladimir Savkin, a shopping mall magnate and Yury Brilev, founder of Lyublino Motors, were both bumped off on the Novorizhskoye highway in Moscow, allegedly over a business dispute with Ismailov, according to the Investigative Committee of Russia, the country’s primary federal investigations agency.
Telman Ismailov is accused to paying for the murders of two entrepreneurs.
Telman Ismailov is accused to paying for the murders of two entrepreneurs.
PA Images via Getty Images
Biden also met with Vladimir Yevtushenkov, pictured here with Vladimir Putin In 2006.
Biden also met with Vladimir Yevtushenkov, pictured here with Vladimir Putin In 2006.
Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
A lawyer for Ismailov did not respond to request for comment from The Post about either the alleged murders or the Hunter Biden meeting, but told Radio Free Europe that the charges were bogus and “a result of political and economic persecution by the Russian Federation.” In February he was granted asylum by Montenegro.
It’s unclear what Hunter Biden wanted with Ismailov, but the trip was part of a two-day meet and greet between Hunter and wealthy oligarchs in the country — which at least in part focused on seeking foreign cash for Rosemont Realty, an offshoot of Hunter Biden’s Rosemont Seneca Partners. The investment company was co-founded by Hunter Biden, Devon Archer and Chris Heinz.
The flurry of meetings raise questions about what matters were discussed and whether the oligarchs sought any untoward access to Hunter Biden’s father. On Feb. 22, 2012 — just days after returning from Russia — Hunter Biden met with Vice President Biden at his home in the Naval Observatory, his calendar shows.
“The only reason someone — other than a crack dealer or a hooker — would want to meet Hunter Biden is to get to his dad,” said Jim Hanson, president of the Security Studies Group. “They were selling access, it was their business model. The Biden family was involved in capitalizing on Joe’s political career.”
Ironically, it was Joe Biden who lambasted President Trump over his ties to Russia.
“Donald Trump’s entire presidency has been a gift to Putin,” then-candidate Biden said in a June 2020 tweet. “Unlike Trump, I’ll defend our democratic values and stand up to autocrats like Putin,” he added in August.
The other billionaire oligarchs penciled into Hunter Biden’s calendar — which The Post found on a hard drive Hunter Biden abandoned at a Delaware computer repair store in April 2019 — included Sergey Chemezov, the CEO of the Russian state owned conglomerate Rostec (formerly Rostekhnologii); Vladimir Yevtushenkov, President of the Russian Holding company Sistema; and Samuel S. Karapetyan, a Russian real estate baron.
Hunter’s trips to Russia came before their aggression in Ukraine and at a time when the Obama administration was looking to “reset” relations between the two countries.
“When Republicans take back the House in January, the Biden family’s shady association with Russia and China must be investigated. Perhaps Hunter’s relationships with foreign nationals explain why the Biden Administration has an ‘America Last’ foreign policy,” Congresswoman Nicolle Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) told The Post.
Chemezov has been close friends with Russian President Vladimir Putin since the 1980s, when they were both young KGB agents working in East Germany. He was sanctioned by the United States in 2014 after Russia’s invasion of Crimea and again in 2022 over their subsequent attempt to overrun the rest of the country. His super yacht was seized by Spain in March.
Karapetyan — who Forbes has dubbed a “king of Russian real estate” — is known to be close to Putin and the owner of a 285-foot super yacht called Ace, has not been sanctioned by the United States.
Yevtushenkov has been sanctioned by both England and Australia over the current war in Ukraine — though has also not faced punishment from the U.S. He is married to the sister of Russian billionaire Elena Baturina, the widow of ousted Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.
Baturina wired $3.5 million for a “consultancy agreement” with an investment firm co-founded by Hunter Biden in 2014, a report released by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in 2020 alleges. Hunter Biden has denied that he was a co-founder of the company.
Yevtushenkov followed up with a breakfast with Hunter in New York City at the Ritz-Carlton off Central Park on March 14, 2012. A rep for Yevtushenkov previously told The Post the meeting was “part of a routine business trip to the US to scout potential investment opportunities.”
