Suspected Spies and Mysterious Ties: George Papadopoulos’s Last Days on the Campaign
This article describes George Papadopoulos’s interactions with Sergei Millian, a mysterious individual suspected links to Russian intelligence, and his final days on the Trump Campaign.
It is part four in the series “Mysterious Misfits: the 2016 Trump Foreign Policy Team and the Russian Election Interference Campaign.”
While it is not necessary to read previous entries, it is recommended.
The first article covers the establishment of the 2016 Trump Campaign Foreign Policy team and an effort to find Hillary’s “missing emails.”
The second article covers how George Papadopoulos learned that the Russians possessed Hillary Clinton’s emails.
The third article describes how Papadopoulos revealed that the Russians had Hillary’s emails and his attempts to arrange a Trump/Putin meeting.
This article is an excerpt from my book, While We Slept: Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of American Democracy, available here.
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George Papadopoulos and Sergei Millian
While Trump Foreign Policy Advisor George Papadopoulos was attempting to connect members of the Trump campaign with the Russian contacts he made through Joseph Mifsud, the Maltese Professor who revealed to him that the Russians were in possession of Hillary’s emails, he was contacted by yet another suspicious character from the former Soviet Union.
On July 15th, Papadopoulos received a LinkedIn message from a man named Sergei Millian.
Millian introduced himself as the “President of [the] New York-based Russian American Chamber of Commerce,” and boasted that he had, “insider knowledge and direct access to the top hierarchy in Russian politics (president circle, ministers, governors level).”
Born in Belarus under the name Siarhei Kukuts, Millian attended Minsk State Linguistic University. According to an online Russian language biography, he studied to be a military translator.
At some point in the early 2000s, Millian immigrated to the United States, changed his name and established himself in Atlanta.
He initially worked in real estate and, according to a resume posted online, set up a translation company that counted the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs among its clients.
In 2006, Millian founded the Russian American Chamber of Commerce (RACC). According to tax filings, RACC received less than $50,000 in annual donations and revenue.
In the course of an investigation into RACC published in late October 2016, The Financial Times found that “of the board members are obscure entities and nearly half of their telephone numbers went unanswered when called by the Financial Times.”
An FT reporter,” the report continued, “found no trace of the Chamber of Commerce at the Wall Street address listed on its website. At the same time, the chamber appears to have close official ties, arranging trips for visiting Russian regional governors to the US. In January 2015, the Russian government awarded Mr. Millian a prize for his work developing ties between Russian and American businesspeople.”
“The Committee notes that much about Sergei Millian resembles activities by a Russian intelligence officer or cooptee,” the Senate Intelligence Committee later noted.
“In attempting to interview Millian, the Committee found that his organization, the RACC, has several listed addresses but no apparent actual offices. Millian also has four names-Sergei Millian, Sergio Millian, Sergey Kukuts, and Sarhei Kukuts. Further, Millian publicly professed his non-involvement in the 2016 campaign, then departed the United States for China.”
Shortly after he founded RACC, Millian claims to have met Donald Trump. According to comments he made to the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti, Millian was first introduced to Trump after a “mutual acquaintance” facilitated Trump’s attendance at the 2007 Millionaire’s Fair in Moscow.
Despite these claims, the Senate Intelligence Committee was unable to find evidence that Trump ever visited Moscow in 2007. While their initial introduction remains shrouded in mystery, Trump did apparently invite Millian to join him at a horse race at Gulfstream Park in Florida.
Millian posted photos of him at the race with Trump on Facebook as well as using them in RACC promotional literature.
Following that meeting, Millian claimed that he traveled to New York and Trump put him in touch with Michael Cohen, at which point he signed a contract with the Trump Organization to sell units in Florida.
“You can say that I was their exclusive broker,” Millian, speaking in Russian, boasted to RIA Novosti. “Back then, in 2007–2008, Russians by the dozens were buying apartments in Trump’s buildings in the USA.”
“We have signed formal agreements with… The Trump Organization,” read an April 2009 RACC newsletter, claiming “to jointly service the Russian clients’ commercial, residential and industrial real estate needs.”
Millian came to the attention of the FBI in 2011, through his affiliation with Rossotrudnichestvo, a Russian government organization dedicated to promoting Russian culture abroad.
The US director of Rossotrudnichestvo, Yury Zaytsev, also served as the head of the Russian Cultural Center in Washington, DC.
Zaytsev was investigated by the FBI for attempting to recruit American intelligence assets through cultural exchange trips to Russia.
An American who attended one of these cultural exchange trips told the investigative outlet Mother Jones, “[t]he FBI disclosed to me that Yury Zaytsev is a Russian Foreign Intelligence officer and a professional spy, acting as the Director of the Russian Cultural Center in Washington, D.C.…only so that he can maintain a residence here in the United States.”
In 2011, Millian and RACC collaborated with Rossotrudnichestvo and Zaytsev, helping them organize a 10-day exchange trip that took 50 American entrepreneurs to a “Russian-American Business Forum” held in Moscow.
Following the trip, Millian wrote a letter to then-Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. “My entire staff, fellow participants, and I, here at the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce in the USA, very much look forward to assisting Rossotrudnichestvo with the preparations for next year’s trip.”
Prior to reaching out to Papadopoulos in July of 2016, Millian attended several conferences and events in Moscow where he was photographed with senior Russian government officials and business leaders.
In April 2016, he attended the Russian government-sponsored Oil & Gas Week, as well as the Russian-Chinese Energy Investment Forum. At one of the events, Millian spoke on a panel featuring the Vice Presidents of Rosneft, Lukoil and Gazprom.
The panel was moderated by Sergey Belyakov, a Russian military veteran who was trained by Russian intelligence and worked for six years as a “Chief Specialist” at Oleg Deripaska’s company Basic Element.
In June of 2016, Millian attended the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the same event that Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko invited Trump to earlier that March, though he wasn’t able to attend due to time commitments related to the presidential campaign.
Read my article about Deripaska’s interactions with Prikhodko and the Belorussian escort Nastya Rybka in August of 2016 here.
While at the Forum, Millian was photographed speaking with Oleg Deripaska and Alexander Novak, the Russian Minister of Energy who sits on the boards of Rosneft and Gazprom and is known to be a member of Putin’s inner circle.
In the same month he contacted Papadopoulos, Millian was also in contact with an author and theologian with connections to the Russian government named Mikhail Morgulis, one of the main backers of the Russian American Chamber of Commerce.
Born in Belarus, Morgulis had broadcasted Christian themed radio programs in the Soviet Union before immigrating to the United States in the 1980s. Morgulis passed away in 2021.
A resident of Florida, Morgulis lead a Christian ministry and served as an Honorary Consul to Belarus.
Between 2014–2018 he sat on the coordinating council of the Russian Community Council of the USA, described as a nonprofit cultural enrichment organization for Russians living in the USA.
Morgulis was also the President of the Spiritual Diplomacy Fund. The legal counselor to Fund, Frank Abernati, served as election monitor in the elections held by pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine.
Morgulis was quoted praising both pro-Putin dictators Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus and Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine, even having been photographed with the latter.
In a July email to Morgulis, Millian said that he would shortly be meeting with the Trump campaign.
“The meeting will be strictly confidential,” Millian wrote to Morgulis. “I won’t be able to invite you to it. If you want me to pass them any information, I will do it, and if they get interested, I will ask them to meet you.”
“Maybe the main thing for them is this,” Morgulis replied. “We can organize the Russian community to vote for Trump. If you are interested in getting 5 million people, I am ready to participate in this campaign, together with you.”
After the election, Morgulis would boast to the Russian state funded outlet Sputnik that he helped organize Russian-Americans to vote for Trump and had visited eleven cities in Florida where he told people that “if you want our new president to be a homosexual . . . vote for Hillary.”
In the same interview he also claimed, without providing evidence, to have briefly met both Donald Trump and Jared Kushner.
In a later interview with The Washington Post, Morgulis refused to comment on the claim he made to Sputnik and downplayed Millian, suggesting that he had over-exaggerated his significance.
As Millian left the United States and refused to cooperate with the various investigations that followed the 2016 election, and Papadopoulos’ cooperation with investigators can only be described as problematic at best, much of the interactions between the two are not public record.
On July 22nd, roughly a week after Millian had first reached out to him, Papadopoulos sent a Facebook message to Ivan Timofeev asking if he had ever heard of Millian. Timofeev replied that he had not.
Regardless, on July 31st, Papadopoulos met with Millian in New York City. While the contents of their meeting remain unknown, the next day Papadopoulos reached out to Trump campaign official Bo Denysyk, informing him that he had been contacted “by some leaders of Russian-American voters here in the US about their interest in voting for Mr. Trump,” and asked if he wanted to be put in touch “with their group (US-Russia chamber of commerce).”
Denysyk thanked Papadopoulos for “taking the initiative,” but asked that he “hold off with outreach to Russian-Americans” because there were “too many articles” painting the campaign, it’s chairman Paul Manafort and Trump himself as “being pro-Russian.”
Regardless, Denysyk’s warning didn’t stop Papadopoulos from meeting with Millian again on August 1st.
Four days later, Papadopoulos emailed Anthony Livanios, the CEO of Energy Stream, a company Papadopoulos had briefly worked for in 2015. In the message, which Millian was copied to, Papadopoulos suggested to Livanios that they have a Skype call with his “friend” Sergei Millian.
Three days after that, Millian sent Papadopoulos an email that contained the details and agenda for an energy conference in Moscow. Over the course of their conversations, Millian invited Papadopoulos to speak at two international energy conferences, one of which was located in Moscow. “I need your bio as the conference organizers requested it.”
“Thanks my friend,” Papadopoulos replied. “Let me talk to the campaign and get back to you tomorrow.”
That same day, he wrote to Trump campaign official Rick Dearborn, stating that he ‘’was invited to Russia’s largest energy conference of the year to talk about global energy market dynamics …. lf Mr. Trump believes it’s in the US interest to cooperate with Russia, something I wholeheartedly believe as well, I’m happy to represent the campaign’s ideas as well.”
“George,” Dearborn replied, “I can’t authorize you to go on behalf of the campaign.”
Just under a week earlier, Dearborn had complained about Papadopoulos’s interactions with the press in an internal campaign.
Papadopoulos continued to communicate and interact with Millian.
On August 9th, likely after the Skype call with Livanios, Millian emailed Papadopoulos the following message:
“It will be my pleasure and honor to arrange energy meetings, extensive briefings from top energy experts in Russia and Europe (including top executives and government decision makers) scheduling your speaking arrangements and anything else that is within my scope of connections and business experience. Nevertheless, handling NATO documentation is outside of my expertise and interests. If your Boss held the office, it would be a reasonable request if authorized by [the White House]. I am willing and confident that I can be of great assistance to you in your private or public goals in Russia. Hope you understand me and my concerns.”
It’s unclear what Millian meant by “handling NATO documentation.”
On August 22nd, Millian sent Papadopoulos an email with the subject US Russia relations, it contained a link to the 2013 Joint Report of the US-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission, writing that “this is a good link to start reviewing regarding the topics of political, security, and energy relationship.”
The next day, Millian emailed Papadopoulos and said that he would “share with you a disruptive technology that might be instrumental in your political work for the campaign.”
What Millian meant by “disruptive technology,” and whether or not he ever shared anything along those lines with Papadopoulos is, again, unknown. Papadopoulos told later investigators that he couldn’t recall the interaction.
Later, on September 12, Millian was scheduled to pick Papadopoulos up from LaGuardia Airport.
The next day, Millian emailed Michael Cohen, writing “I’m friends with Greek American George Papadopoulos, who says he is now your official compaign [sic] advisor on foreign policy from Ben Carson group. He asks questions about you. Do you know George?”
This wasn’t the first time Millian had reached out to Cohen in the context of the campaign. On March 15th, 2016, Millian emailed Cohen at his Trump Org email address asking about joining Trump’s foreign policy team.
“Please feel free to incorporate me in the Russian direction,” Millian wrote to Cohen, “as you know I have an insider level knowledge on what is happening in Russia after 10 years of hosting Russian ministers, governors, businessman [sic] and public leaders. Now, I’m a US citizen after my name having been cleared by national security and FBI.”
Cohen appears to have ignored Millian’s request. For reasons not yet clear, Jared Kushner was copied to Millian’s later email correspondence with Cohen. There is no evidence that Cohen replied either to Millian’s September 13th email asking if he knew George Papadopoulos.
Cohen later told the FBI over the course of their communications Millian suggested that he, Cohen, should bring Trump to an event in Switzerland, which he dismissed out of hand.
Bolstering Millian’s claims of connections to the Trump campaign, Deputty Campaign Director Rick Gates told the FBI that Millian’s name was on a special access “Friends and Family” list existed that granted access to Trump campaign events to individuals selected by the Trump children as well as close friends and staff of immediate Trump family members.
Gates didn’t know who added Millian’s name to the list but noted that Michael Cohen would have been able to. The list was maintained by Trump’s personal assistant, Rhona Graff.
Sometime in September, Papadopoulos attempted to put Millian in touch with senior Trump Campaign advisor Boris Epshteyn, describing him in an email to Epshteyn as a friend.
It is unknown whether Millian and Epshteyn ever spoke or met.
As described in a previous article, earlier that Spring Epshteyn had attempted to put Trump in contact with associates of his in Moscow to discuss a potential Trump Tower Moscow deal.
Curiously, the section that describes the interactions related to this building proposal is heavily redacted in the Senate Intelligence Report on counterintelligence.
In one of the few unredacted footnotes, the organization that Millian collaborated with in 2011 and that was suspected of being a front for Russian intelligence, Rossotrudnichestvo, is mentioned.
Why it is mentioned, what it has to do Boris Epshteyn, and whether there is any connection whatsoever to Millian, is not known.
Papadopoulos’ Communications with Steve Bannon and His Final Days on the Campaign
As Summer turned to Fall, Papadopoulos’ activity seemed to slow somewhat, but it didn’t stop.
On September 9th, he reached out to Trump campaign Deputy Communications Director Bryan Lanza, bringing his attention to “a request from interfax Russian news agency with ksenia baygarova on USRussia [sic] ties under a president trump …. If the campaign wants me to do it, can answer similar to the answers I gave in April while in Israel.”
“You should do it,” Lanza replied the next day “The Russia/US Syria agreement is a good example of why we want a partnership with Russia.”
Papadopoulos also was in regular contact with the new campaign CEO Steve Bannon during this period. Between September 16th-18th, they exchanged dozens of emails regarding a potential meeting between candidate Trump and Egyptian President EL-Sisi.
Papadopoulos had been in touch with Egyptian officials at least as far back as his May trip to Greece. Papadopoulos explained to Bannan that “while in Athens over dinner with Greek defense minister [Kammenos] last May, he personally introduced me to the Egyptian defense minister and the rest became monthly consultations with the Egyptians in DC.”
Bannon, whose full communications with Papadopoulos have never been fully made public, told later investigators the somewhat incredible story that he mistook Papadopoulos for someone else on the campaign during these interactions.
Bannon was later criminally referred to the Department of Justice for suspicion of lying under oath to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Trump met with El-Sisi on September 19th, and Bannon asked Papadopoulos to email a briefing prior to the meeting.
On September 29th, Interfax published it’s interview of Papadopoulos in which he was quoted as saying, “[s]anctions have done little more than turn Russia towards China.”
The quote caused consternation within the campaign and a flurry of emails between Sam Clovis, Trump campaign Director of Coalitions Alan Cobb, Rick Dearborn, Policy Director John Mashburn and Bo Denysyk.
According to the Report by the Special Counsel, Papadopoulos was dismissed because of this interview.
However, this isn’t entirely correct.
Denysky emailed Papadopoulos and, in relation to a potential Greek-Americans for Trump Coalition that he was working on, wrote “please remove your title as Foreign Policy Advisor to the campaign. Rick and Sam confirmed that you have been an informal resource and not an Adviser.”
“More broadly,” Denysyk continued, “Rick [Dearborn] has asked me to thank you for the policy activities you have been involved with but you cannot any longer speak on behalf of the campaign or publicly comment on what the campaign position is on any issue. You can refer people to the campaign website. We have had numerous complaints about your Interfax interview. I hope you understand.”
“Not an issue, Bo,” Papadopoulos replied before emailing Steve Bannon, who later claimed not to know Papadopoulos.
“I’m effectively off the campaign,” Papadopoulos wrote to Bannon, “for giving an interview on US policy in the Middle East/Russia after I was approved to do it and spoke on my behalf (not the campaigns [sic]). Can you confirm/deny the validity of this please? You are the CEO so I wanted to make sure I asked you before moving back to London to take up my work placement again.”
The next day Papadopoulos responded to Denysyk at greater length.
“I have been predominantly working with the leadership in NY over the past months on numerous initiatives. As far as they told me, they did not give or were aware of an order to effectively sideline me from the campaign for the interview I gave. Will wait for their instructions on me continuing as a surrogate/advisor before I decide on the [Greek-Americans for Trump] coalition.”
“Up to you and will pass this along to Rick and Sam,” Denysyk replied.
Please do, Bo,” Papadopoulos responded. “I was informed by top people in the campaign that the buck stops with Steve Bannon on this issue. Steve and I coordinated Mr. Trump’s high level meetings during UN week. If he tells me he wants me off the team, of course, I will immediately step down. In the interest of the team, however, I will refrain from any other interviews or appearances until there is a final verdict.”
After receiving Papadopoulos’ email, Bannon forwarded it to senior communications adviser Jason Miller with the message, “What’s up with this???”
Miller replied that he had never heard of Papadopoulos.
Bannon replied to Papadopoulos, “Who told you that[?]”
After Papadopoulos mentioned Dearborn, Clovis and Denysyk we have no further records of communications between him and Bannon on the matter. The situation over the next few days remained confused.
Clovis emailed Papadopoulos on October 5th asking him to refrain from presenting himself as spokesperson or representative of the campaign.
When Boris Epshteyn, who had been corresponding with Papadopoulos, asked Alan Cobb whether Papadopoulos was still on the campaign he first indicated that he was, before backtracking and explaining that Papadopoulos had been asked not to represent himself as such.
Despite this, Papadopoulos emailed Epshteyn on October 9th with the subject line Russia strategy, writing, “It’s obvious Mr. Trump has expressed that it’s important to cooperate with Russia in Syria . … I support this completely. I’m free to discuss this week with you about how to articulate it even more with your help if it’s in the interest of the principal.”
Ten days later, on October 19th, Mifsud resumed communications with Papadopoulos, inviting him to speak at a session of the European Council of Foreign Relations on “any issue or topic related on the Trump campaign, putting your views forward.”
He continued, “the attendance to this meeting is strictly by invitation and normally has top politicians, journalists, diplomats in London and will be curtailed by number.”
In a further indication that he was at least representing himself as still being affiliated with the Trump Campaign, Papadopoulos claimed that he wasn’t sure that he would be able to return to London as he had “decided to go back on the campaign until the end.”
“[L]et us start thinking of the post-US elections — anything you can/wish to share?” Mifsud wrote on November 1st, with just days before the election. “I hope it goes well for you.”
Four days later, on November 5th, Papadopoulos received an odd message from Sergei Millian, who had just written a response to an article about his contacts with Trump authored by Catherine Belton of The Financial Times titled “The shadowy Russian emigre touting Trump.”
Millian wrote to Papadopoulos, “I just wanted you to know that I wrote this for Mr. Trump. I have no doubt that forces that invested so much into H will try to steal the elections. Otherwise, all the money they paid will go to waste.”
He continued, “Please be very cautious these last few days. Even to the point of not leaving your food and drinks out of eye sight. I saw you in my dream with two men in black with angry faces hiding behind your back.”
Three days later Donald J. Trump was elected President of the United States.
The next entry will describe the background of yet another Trump Campaign Foreign Policy Advisor, Carter Page, and his connections to Russian intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency.