Based on U.S. media story (https://cnn.it/2idxM24) on alleged meeting of Trump aides with Russian intelligence in Prague, let us share what we know right now:
- U.S. media published a report saying that a delegation of Trump aides, led by Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, allegedly travelled to Prague in late August or early September 2016, to meet with Russian intelligence to discuss hacking of the Clinton campaign. (page 18 of the report: https://bzfd.it/2ibTqsp)
- The report also states that Mr. Oleg Solodukhin, a representative of Russian MFA-linked organisation “Rossotrudnichestvo”, served “an interlocutor” of those meetings. What we can add, as a security-oriented European Values Think-Tank, is that Mr. Solodukhin is well know in Prague diplomatic circles and that he has been repeatedly gathering intelligence at our public events. Mr. Soloduhkin has denied that he “met any American citizen during last five years”, when he asked on this story by Czech weekly Respekt.
- What we know on alleged meeting of Mr. Cohen in Prague: Czech weekly Respekt (https://bit.ly/2j0wPfj) learned that there is no record of Mr. Cohen arriving to Prague by plane. So if this meeting took place, he would have probably came to Prague by flying to other European airport and then moved by car to Prague. As there are no border check within Schengen Area, nobody would have noticed and no record into police databases would have been taken.
- Mr. Cohen tweeted that he has never been to Prague, stating that “between August 23 – 29 I was in Los Angeles”. He did not say what he was doing in early September.
- Czech Counter-Intelligence Agency BIS spokesperson said: “We will not comment on this”.
Jakub Janda
Head of Kremlin Watch Program
Deputy Director of European Values Think-Tank
