A Russian boxing boss who travels with armed guards from the National Guard helped pay for the president’s son’s wedding party — and two sources say the two men talked business in Kazakhstan.
Two sources familiar with the meeting told Important Stories — the independent Russian outlet and partner of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) reporting network — that a trip to Kazakhstan earlier in 2026 brought Donald Trump Jr., President Donald Trump’s eldest son, together with Umar Kremlev, the Kremlin-linked head of the sanctioned International Boxing Association, who allegedly used the occasion to discuss potential business deals. The outlet published its report on Oct. 30, 2026, describing Kremlev as the oligarch who helped bankroll Trump Jr.’s Bahamas wedding party.
The boxing body Kremlev runs helped pay for Trump Jr.’s lavish May wedding to Bettina Anderson. Anderson has called Kremlev a "dear friend" of the couple.
President Trump has said his son repaid Kremlev the money spent on the Bahamas wedding celebrations, and the U.S. attorney general has said she does not intend to investigate the matter.
The Hunting Trip With No Photographs
Kremlev joined the president’s son on a hunting trip in western Mongolia in August. Trump Jr. was apparently at pains to avoid being photographed alongside him — a detail that sits awkwardly beside his own account of an ordinary friendship.
Trump Jr. has insisted there is nothing untoward about the friendship. A representative for him told Important Stories that the two share a personal friendship, have never made deals together and have no plans to.
Those denials land against Kremlev’s standing in Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin counts him as a close confidant, by most accounts, and he is an alleged member of the leader’s inner circle; sources said Putin regards him as an intermediary in relations with the U.S. president’s family. Claims of prospective business dealings are likely to sharpen security concerns about how close the president’s son is to a man of that standing.
Kremlev travels with armed guards in vehicles supplied by Russia’s National Guard, sources who know him personally told Important Stories. That level of federal protection is reserved for powerful state officials or figures designated by the Russian president himself. Alexei Rubezhnoi, who heads Russia’s presidential security service, is close to him, his associates have said, and those associates credited Rubezhnoi with helping him build and protect his business empire.
Tungsten, Bookmakers and a “Brother”
Both sides hold business interests in Kazakhstan. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are linked through an investment in Skyline Builders to a tungsten mining project, while Kremlev is tied to the Kazakh payment company Nomapay, whose owner — a Kazakh sports blogger — has called himself Kremlev’s “brother.” Nomapay was selected to service the bookmaker-transaction accounting system.
Trump Jr. and Eric Trump invested in Skyline Builders in 2025, and the firm later bought a 20% stake in the tungsten mining company Kaz Resources. Six days after that purchase, the U.S. and Kazakhstan signed a deal granting a firm in the Kaz Resources group access to Kazakh tungsten deposits.
$85 Million for Tbilisi Land
Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. plan to build a 70-story skyscraper in Tbilisi, Georgia. One developer involved in the tower has ties to Bidzina Ivanishvili, the billionaire former prime minister, reporting in May revealed; Washington sanctioned Ivanishvili in 2024 for helping the Kremlin undermine democracy in the country.
Biograpi Living supplied a second Russian connection to the same project, a further investigation found. The firm has been publicly identified as a partner on the tower and is partly owned by Paata Gamgoneishvili, a Georgian oligarch who made his fortune in Moscow. In September it emerged that the developers behind the tower paid $85 million to a foundation owned by Ivanishvili for the land beneath the project. The relatives overseeing that foundation are not themselves under U.S. sanctions. Biograpi denied that it or Gamgoneishvili had any stake in the development.
Even a Republican Wants Answers
The first family is already under intense scrutiny over claims of cashing in on its influence during the second Trump presidency, and the political ground shifted when Democrats swept both chambers in the November midterms.
Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah repeated his call for Congress to scrutinize Donald Trump Jr. in a statement. “My position hasn’t changed …” Curtis said, adding: “Congress has a responsibility to examine whether presidential family members are using their access for personal financial gain, regardless of party.” On Friday, Nov. 6, he added, “Any investigation should follow the facts and focus on restoring public trust.”
The incoming Democratic chair of the House Oversight Committee has set four investigative priorities: corporate corruption, allegations of DHS and ICE abuse, the Epstein files cover-up and Trump’s family dealings. Rep. Robert Garcia warned the Trump family to “lawyer up” while outlining plans to investigate their business dealings, ICE abuses and the Epstein files.
President Trump has spent most of a decade answering for his own connections to the Putin government. U.S. investigators concluded that Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help him win, and his company pursued plans for a skyscraper in Moscow deep into that campaign. During that race, someone offered Trump Jr. damaging material about Hillary Clinton, his father’s opponent in the election, and he took a meeting with a Russian lawyer. Special counsel Robert Mueller later documented extensive contacts between Trump associates and Russian-linked figures, but he did not establish that the 2016 campaign conspired or coordinated with the Kremlin.