Sometime in March 1986, Natalia Dubinina picks up her father Yuri Dubinin at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens. Without making any stops, father and daughter head to Trump Tower. They have to meet Donald Trump.
It’s unclear how Dubinin anticipates meeting Trump just by visiting his property, but he makes it happen. He spends the encounter propping up the assumed billionaire with praise and flattery. According to Dubinina, her father’s attempting to “hook” Trump, and it works like a charm.
Trump melted at once. He is an emotional person, somewhat impulsive. He needs recognition. And, of course, when he gets it he likes it. My father’s visit worked on him like honey to a bee.
Natalia Dubinina
Trump loves what he hears, but he’s unaware that a likely KGB operative is standing right next to him.
Yuri Dubinin works closely with the “powers that be” in Moscow, but he is not a KGB agent as far as anyone can tell. His daughter, however, might be. She holds a top position at the Dag Hammerskjold Library at the United Nations headquarters in New York. The person who held the job before her is a KGB agent, and he’s not alone. In 1985, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence identified the position as a vital resource and cover for the KGB.
Even if Dubinina is not a Russian intelligence operative, there are two red flags in her version of events. First, Dubinina’s quote is originally from an interview with a Russian media outlet known for publishing government-sponsored disinformation. The interview goes public just hours after Trump wins the 2016 election, and it’s a convenient cover story for anything that might surface about his first invitation to Moscow.
Second, Yuri Dubinin is notoriously bad at English and requires a translator when he becomes the Soviet ambassador to the US two months later. It’s extremely unlikely he could form full sentences, let alone “melt” Donald Trump with his words.
Hypothetically, maybe Yuri Dubinin is not the Soviet diplomat who meets Trump and invites him to Moscow months later. Maybe it’s his KGB-affiliated daughter, Natalia. If that’s the case, claiming he’s in talks with the Soviet ambassador adds credibility to his political views, and his political views have been very pro-Russia for the past two years… and nobody knows why.
Maybe this isn’t the first time Trump has spoken to Natalia Dubinina.
External Sources
Craig Unger, American Kompromat, p.59-60, 70-78
AFI Express – Dubinina & The Library (Archived)