The Kremlin has denied that Vladimir Putin personally selected a 'very attractive' interpreter to distract ex-president Dona...
The Kremlin has denied that Vladimir Putin personally selected a 'very attractive' interpreter to distract ex-president Donald Trump at a 2019 meeting.
The extraordinary claim is from former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham in an upcoming book.
The interpreter - seen in a picture of Putin and Trump shaking hands in Osaka, Japan two years ago - can be identified as Russian foreign ministry specialist linguist Daria Boyarskaya, 36, who is also an amateur salsa dancer.
The Kremlin has denied that Vladimir Putin (centre) personally selected 'very attractive' interpreter Daria Boyarskaya (left) to distract ex-US president Donald Trump (right) at a 2019 meeting after Stehanie Grisham made the claim in an upcoming book
Pictured: Russian foreign ministry specialist linguist Daria Boyarskaya, 36, who the Kremlin has denied selecting for a meeting between Putin and Trump to distract the US president
Grisham told how Fiona Hill - the former administration's Russia expert - had seen the inclusion of the interpreter as suspicious, according to The New York Times.
'As the meeting began, Fiona Hill leaned over and asked me if I had noticed Putin's translator, who was a very attractive brunette woman with long hair, a pretty face, and a wonderful figure,' wrote the ex-press secretary.
'She proceeded to tell me that she suspected the woman had been selected by Putin specifically to distract our president.'
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov hit back at the report, denying any role for Putin in selecting Boyarskaya, a keen dancer, who he did not name, as a secret weapon.
'Interpreters are provided by the foreign ministry at the request of the presidential administration,' said Peskov. 'Putin himself is not involved in this process.'
In fact it was not the first time that Putin had used Boyarskaya to translate in a session with an American president.
Before the Trump-Putin talks in Japan, the same interpreter had been deployed in 2016 at a meeting between Putin and then US president Barack Obama inHangzhou, China.
Pictured: US President Donald Trump (right) attends a meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin (centre) during the G20 summit in Osaka on June 28, 2019. Daria Boyarskaya can be seen to the left of Putin sitting behind other delegates
Pictured: Daria Boyarskaya, who Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham claimed in an upcoming book was specifically hired by Putin to distract Trump
Pictured: Daria Boyarskaya, left and right. The meeting was not the first time that Putin had used Boyarskaya to translate in a session with an American president
This and the 2019 meeting between Putin and Trump are publicly recorded by the St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation (SCIT), part of Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, from where she had graduated in 2009.
Earlier she had studied at the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University in Kaliningrad.
She also worked for Putin at a session with US National Security Advisor John Bolton in Moscow on October 23, 2018, according to the SCIT records.
And she translated for the Russian president at a meeting he held with FIFA President Gianni Infantino in April 2016.
Boyarskaya works regularly at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to her social media.
She is believed to live at least partly in Vienna, where the assembly is based.
She is an amateur Salsa and Bachata dancer, and has trained with the MamboGROUP in Moscow, where she was seen in a video.
Copies of Grisham's book - I'll Take Your Questions Now, What I Saw at Trump White House - were obtained by The Washington Post and The New York Times. It hits bookshelves on October 5.
President Vladimir Putin's translator follows him into a meeting with President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan in 2019
Daria Boyarskaya (pictured left and right) is believed to live at least partly in Vienna where she works regularly at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and is an amateur Salsa and Bachata dancer
Grisham was a 2016 campaign aide who became First Lady Melania Trump's spokeswoman, before being elevated to White House press secretary and communications director from July 2019 to April 2020.
She then returned to the East Wing to serve as the first lady's spokesperson, again, and chief of staff.
The new book fills in some blanks about some of the most memorable moments from Trump's one term.
I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I saw at the Trump White House by Stephanie Grisham comes out on October 5
The Putin meeting in question came 11 months after the infamous Helsinki summit where Trump seemed to side with the Russian president over American intelligence agencies on whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
At the July 2018 meeting, Trump said Putin offered an 'extremely strong and powerful' denial.
At their 2019 meeting in Japan, Trump playfully scolded and wagged a finger at Putin in front of the cameras telling the Russian leader, 'don't meddle in the election,' before they met behind closed doors for 90 minutes without journalists present.
According to The Times, Grisham conversed with Fiona Hill - the administration's Russia expert turned impeachment witness - who explained that Putin was doing to throw Trump off.
'As the meeting began, Fiona Hill leaned over and asked me if I had noticed Putin's translator, who was a very attractive brunette woman with long hair, a pretty face, and a wonderful figure,' Grisham wrote. 'She proceeded to tell me that she suspected the woman had been selected by Putin specifically to distract our president.'
A brunette woman with a blue dress can be seen following Putin into the room as the Russian leader greets the American delegation in Osaka.
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