INTRIGUING

Report: Russian Social-Media Exec Sought to Help Trump Campaign

Vkontakte pitched Trump Jr., Scavino on making candidate Trump “top news in Russia.”

An executive at Russian social-media giant Vkontakte reached out to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 with an offer to launch a page to win Trump support among Russian Americans and Russians, The Washington Post reports. Konstantin Sidorkov, VK’s director of partnership marketing, told Donald Trump Jr. and social-media director Dan Scavino that Trump’s presence on the platform would be “top news in Russia” in an email sent days before the November 2016 election, according to the report. The overture was reportedly brokered by none other than British music promoter Rob Goldstone, who had also asked Trump Jr. to meet with a Kremlin-connected lawyer ahead of the presidential election. Trump Jr. said he could not recall VK’s offer ever receiving further discussion after he first forwarded the pitch to Scavino, according to the report. Scavino had initially responded enthusiastically, but it wasn’t clear from the emails whether Trump’s campaign ever followed up. “Please feel free to send me whatever you have,” Scavino wrote to Goldstone after the suggestion was first made in January 2016. “Thank you so much for looking out for Mr. Trump and his presidential campaign,” he was quoted as saying.