As one of his first actions as president, on his second working day in office, Donald Trump issued executive orders that cleared the way for two major, controversial oil pipeline projects, the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access pipeline. This generated some controversy because Trump has a minor financial stake in companies involved in the projects, but mainstream media has so far missed a dramatically more inflammatory issue :
According to a meticulously researched February 13, 2017 report from DeSmogBlog, a watchdog effort which exposes fossil fuel industry efforts to prevent action to address anthropogenic climate change, Trump’s pipeline executive orders will also facilitate the flow of profits to one of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, a Russian billionaire oligarch whose company manufactures pipelines used in the projects (note: additional details on the pipeline scandal can be found at Native News Online.)
Amplifying that explosive revelation is the fact that president Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump is a personal friend of that Russian oligarch’s wife and invited her to Trump’s January 20th, 2017 presidential inauguration.
Yet more astonishing : last September 2016, that oligarch’s wife could be seen with Ivanka Trump, watching a US Open tennis match, alongside Ivanka’s husband Jared Kushner and a good friend of the three who has widely been rumored to be romantically involved with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
But first, back to the pipelines for a bit :
Along with his January 24th pipeline project executive orders, Trump signed a memorandum directing that new pipelines built in America shall, “use materials and equipment produced in the United States, to the maximum extent possible and to the extent permitted by law.”
Originally, the White House had advertised that the Keystone XL project would be constructed with U.S.-made steel pipelines — a stipulation Trump has mentioned in his speeches, such as at CPAC 2017. Up into late February, 2017, Donald Trump was still pushing the requirement.
But, by early March 2017 the Trump White House had dropped the demand, and according to the DeSmogBlog report, by Steve Horn and Itai Vardi, it appears that a sizable portion of the pipelines for the two projects will come from U.S. and Canadian subsidiaries of the Russian company EVRAZ.
A part owner (31 percent) of EVRAZ is one of Vladimir Putin’s closest confidantes, billionaire oligarch Roman Abramovich, who has been extremely close to Putin from the start of his reign as the dominant political force in Russia. Abramovich’s wife Dasha Zhukova is a friend of Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka.
Abramovich, whose estimated fortune of over $9 billion dollars makes him one of the richest men in Russia, is reported to have been the first influential Russian figure to suggest to president Boris Yeltsin that Vladimir Putin should become Yeltsin’s successor. Abramovich helped Putin set up his new governmental cabinet in 1999, and the two men frequently appear in public together.
On January 20th, 2017, according to Politico reporter Jake Sherman, Abramovich’s wife Dasha Zhukova attended Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration at the invitation of Trump’s daughter Ivanka ; last September 2016 the two were photographed sitting together, along with Ivanka’s husband Jared Kushner, in the bleachers at the Men’s Singles Final at the US Open tennis competition.
Other guests in the small knot of celebrities seated with Kushner, Trump, and Zhukova included Wendi Deng, the Chinese-born former wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and who has been rumored to be romantically involved with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Another was billionaire David Geffen, who had purchased a huge private yacht from Roman Abramovich, after the oligarch and Putin confidante upgraded to a new, even bigger yacht.
Wendi Deng has been credited with reuniting Ivanka and Jared Kushner after a 2008 breakup, through a Hollywood movie-like reunion plot in which she separately invited each (unbeknownst to the other) for a getaway on Rupert Murdoch’s yacht. In Summer 2016, Ivanka and Deng (also a close friend to Dasha Zhukova) could be found vacationing together in Croatia. In August 2016, Ivanka Instagramed out that Deng,
“is one of those friends that inspires you to work hard, be better and laugh louder. She is a remarkable woman whose story is beautifully told in this month’s @voguemagazine. Be sure to check it out!”
Adding to the Deng/Putin rumor, in late December 2016, Wendi Deng was spotted boarding the 533 foot yacht of Zhukova’s husband Abramovich, while the several hundred million dollar vessel — one of the world’s largest privately owned yachts and which boasts several heliports, its own mini-submarine and (it’s rumored) a missile-defense system — was moored off the Caribbean island of St. Barts.