According to Politico, that's the name of the woman (incorrectly) labeled "Putin's niece" in the emails of George Papadopoulos, the former Trump advisor who pleaded guilty to making false statements. Allegedly, she was supposed to broker meetings between the Trump campaign and important Russians; Papadopoulos' contact, Josef Mifsud (an academic who has mysteriously disappeared in recent days), came under the impression that she was related to Putin, even though she isn't.
Papadopoulos's emails do not make immediately clear who Vinogradova — who could have been using an alias — worked for, where she lived, or her connection to Mifsud, POLITICO learned from one source. The surname is fairly common in Russia, and POLITICO could not independently determine who Vinogradova is.
Mifsud did not respond to requests for comment. But in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica last week, he referred to Vinogradova as "just a student, a very good-looking one." Papadopoulos's interest in her, Mifsud said, was "very different from an academic one."Based on these clues, I have a suspect.
I'm not sure that this is THE Olga Vinogradova, but she is definitely an Olga Vinogradova. She's a real estate lawyer in New York City; the image above comes from her Yelp page. According to her webpage, one of her specialties is "mechanics' liens." Convenient! I understand that more than a few people who've dealt with Trump could use the services of such a lawyer.
Is she "good looking"? I would say so.
Since Papadopoulos apparently had a romantic interest in her (that's pretty much the only way to interpret Mifsud's statement), it seems likely that we're looking for an Olga Vinogradova who was born in Russia but moved to America. We also know that we're looking for an Olga who was a "student" not long ago. In other words, the Olga we're looking for went to college to pursue a professional degree.
Now go this Russian-language social media site.
Looks like the same woman to me. The site says that she was born in February of 1981. Most of her friends seem to be Russian, though there are pictures of her on what appears to be the east coast of the U.S.
I have not found a photo of Georgie-poo on her page, so I can't yet be certain that we have the right Olga. But so far, all the signs look promising.
HOWEVER: If my tentative identification is incorrect, I offer my sincere apologies to the lawyer in NYC. At no point in this post have I claimed that this woman has done anything illegal, unethical, questionable or in any way unusual. All I've said about her is that I consider her "good looking."
2 comments:
To me, the lawyer in NYC does not look like the woman pictured below in the two FB photos. It's hard to tell if even those photos are of the same woman.
The photos aren't FB but a Russian version thereof. The social media site identifies THAT Olga as living in NYC. So how many blondes of that name and age range can be living in New York?
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