Torshin said in the interview he stayed clear of then-candidate Trump at last year’s N.R.A. event to avoid controversy, dining with Donald Trump Jr. instead..... What was scheduled, though, was a private dinner for Torshin and his Russian colleagues that was hosted by Rockefeller heir George O’Neill Jr. and included Republican lawmakers Dana Rohrabacher of California and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, as well as a longtime lobbyist, a Hollywood director and editors from The National Interest and the American Conservative magazines.

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O’Neill said Russians need to be reassured that “very serious” Americans understand the “obvious benefits” of better relations.

Rohrabacher, who’s visited Moscow several times, said he’s interested in “lowering the temperature” of U.S.-Russia relations and finding ways to cooperate in combating “our mutual, overarching enemy: radical Islamic terrorism.” Trump invited him for a private talk in the White House this week.


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Ronald Maxwell, who directed the 1993 Civil War film “Gettysburg” and wrote for Breitbart News when it was run by senior White House adviser Stephen Bannon, said the Americans urged their Russian guests to let the Kremlin know that Putin can help Trump by “being patient.” “Trump needs to lock up some major domestic victories,” Maxwell said by phone. “Then he’ll be in a better position to do the things internationally he wants to do.”


In the meantime, Russian businesses are pushing ahead with projects to try to bring the two countries closer together. Russia’s top lobbyist is organizing a road show for entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas to investors across America this summer. And the co-owner of a leading for-profit university, Synergy, plans to hire Mike Tyson to promote a business conference in New York in October, followed by one in Moscow in November.
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Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-06/trump-s-russian-fans-won-t-take-nyet-for-an-answer-in-washington