It seems like every week brings a new bombshell report of corruption in the Trump administration. This time, however, the donor belonged to a new generation of Russian oligarchs. In May, Umar Kremlev paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to rent a private island and plan an elaborate wedding celebration, including a $70,000 fireworks display, for Donald Trump Jr. and Bettina Anderson. Beyond the absurdity of the president’s son accepting such a lavish gift from a foreign national, what were the Russians thinking?

Perhaps the simplest explanation is also the correct one: the Russian government has not given up on creating a backchannel to engage with Trump. And unlike past attempts, this approach involves overt gift-giving, a nod to the devolution in ethics practiced by the current U.S. administration. But now that this clumsy overture has been exposed, the Kremlin may have little if anything to show for it.

For the better part of a decade, Russians have tried all sorts of ways to establish informal connections to the Trump family. In 2013 it was the Agalarovs, a father and son with their own Kremlin ties, hosting Miss Universe in Moscow and dangling a Trump Tower project that never materialized. In 2016, a Russian lawyer offered dirt on Hillary Clinton during a meeting in Trump Tower, while a parallel channel through the gun lobby ended with Maria Butina in federal prison.

But with Trump's return to office in January 2025, that entire calculus changed. Trump admitted openly about his family’s foreign business deals that “nobody cared, and I’m allowed to,” opening the door to ever more elaborate displays of obsequiousness from politicians. The Qatari government donated an airplane that was later outfitted to serve as Air Force One........

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