Does President Trump use VK, the Kremlin-controlled Russian social network?
Does President Trump have an account on the Russian social network VK?
We cannot say for sure, but that is what the tag in newly unearthed social media post by the son of a Russian oligarch could indicate.
There is a post tagging a Donald Trump account on the Russian social network VK, which was made by 35 year-old musician Emin Agalarov, whose British music manager set up a secret Trump Tower meeting with Russian agent during the 2016 campaign.
Emin Agalarov, who posted a short, celebratory video onto Instagram on November 10th, 2016, congratulating Donald Trump on winning last year’s election, and tagging his official account.
Agalarov’s Instagram account is connected to VK, and he must’ve chosen to cross post his video, because that’s when his tag on Trump’s official account resulted in this VK account being linked in the new post: https://vk.com/realdonaldtrump
VK is a Facebook clone formerly known as Vkontakte, based in St. Petersberg, Russia. VK accounts are similar to Facebook accounts, but also feature an extensive file sharing service, alongside the social network’s public sharing and private messaging service.
Last December the Washington Post reported executives of Vkontakte reached out to the Trump campaign directly in 2016, and there were other campaign overtures by Rob Goldstone — who manages Emin Agalarov’s musical career — to link the campaign with Vkontakte.
If this truly is Donald Trump’s VK account, it would represent a digital channel to him and his campaign controlled by Igor Sechin and Alisher Usmanov, two of the oligarchs closest to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Here is a screenshot of Emin Agalarov’s Instagram and VK posts side by side, originals are at the bottom of the story:
In 2013, Emin’s father Aras Agalarov paid Trump $20 million dollars to bring Miss Universe to his Moscow mega-development Crocus City.
That is when the two men publicly announced that a new Trump Tower in Russia was financed by Sberbank, and would be built.
Donald Trump also appeared in one of Emin Agalarov’s music videos, and has been photographed associating with the Azeri-Russian social media maven at Trump Doral National Golf Club.
There is no way to firmly prove that this is Donald Trump’s personal VK account.
But it would be a very convenient method to transfer files and a communications link on Russian-based servers that is beyond the reach of American courts and criminal investigations seizure powers.
President Trump reportedly still uses his personal cellphone as recently as a few weeks ago, so it’s entirely possible that could have the VK app on his phone, even today.
Here are Emin Agalarov’s original social media posts:
Research for this story provided by Olga Lautman.
