1986 | Trump sits next to Russian Ambassador Yuri Dubinin at a luncheon hosted by Leonard Lauder, the oldest son of Estée Lauder who managed the sprawling cosmetic business at the time. Read more
1987 | Trump visits Moscow and tours various sites in an effort to strike real estate deals in Soviet-era Russia. He stays in a hotel overlooking the Kremlin, and tells Playboy that Russian jets escorted his own on the way to the airport. Read more
December 1988 | Trump invites Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and his wife to visit Trump Tower in New York, but the meeting never materializes. Read more
1996 | Trump says he will hold a press conference with a Miami-based tobacco company in Moscow announcing plans to build an office and apartment complex similar to Trump Tower in New York. Read more
2005 | Trump gave the development company Bayrock a one-year deal to find a site for a Trump Tower. Felix Sater later testified that he identified a former pencil factory as a site for the project, before the deal fell apart. Read more
Nov. 9, 2013 | While in Moscow for his Miss Universe competition, Trump meets with Russian businessmen, including real estate developer Aras Agalarov, an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Before the pageant, Trump said to MSNBC, "I do have a relationship" with Putin. Read more
May 2014 | Trump tells a group at the National Press Club that while he was in Moscow, he spoke with Putin "indirectly and directly."
April 2015 | Alexander Torshin, a former Russian senator from Putin's party who now heads Russia's central bank, told Bloomberg News that he had a friendly exchange with Trump at the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association of America. A White House official said Trump does not recall the exchange. Read more
July 2015 | At a town hall in Las Vegas, Trump tells an audience that he knew Putin. "I don't think you'd need the sanctions. I think that we would get along very, very well," he said. Read more
September 2015 | Putin and Trump are on the season premiere of "60 Minutes." Although Trump would later say in a debate, "I got to know him very well because we were both on '60 Minutes.' We were stablemates," Time magazine revealed that they were interviewed in separate cities. Read more
December 2015 | Putin says Trump is “colorful" and "talented." Trump calls the compliment an “honor.” Even as ties to Russia become a campaign issue in 2016, Trump refuses to renounce Putin: “A guy calls me a genius, and I’m going to renounce? I’m not going to renounce him.” (Putin has not publicly called Trump a genius.) Read more
April 2016 | Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak attends a speech in Washington in which Trump vows to seek better relations with Russia. The president of the think tank that invited Kislyak said he introduced the two in a receiving line. Read more
July 2016 | In news conferences and tweets, Trump says he has “nothing to do with Russia,” and "I don't know who Putin is. ... I've never spoken to him." He also tweeted, “For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia.” At the same time, at a news conference, Trump encouraged the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton's email. Read more
Nov. 10, 2016 | Two days after the election, a Russian official tells a reporter in Moscow that the Kremlin had been in contact with Trump’s campaign. Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks denies it, saying, “There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.” Read more
Nov. 10, 2016 | President Barack Obama personally warns Trump against hiring Michael Flynn as his national security adviser when the two meet in the Oval Office, current and former administration officials said. Read more
Jan. 20, 2017 | Inauguration Day. Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. He designates the day as “National Day of Patriotic Devotion.” Read more
Jan. 30, 2017 | Trump fires acting attorney general Sally Yates for not defending the travel ban. Just days before — on Jan. 26 and Jan. 27 — Yates warned White House counsel Don McGahn that Flynn was misleading Vice President Pence on his contacts with the Russian ambassador and that he could be blackmailed by Russia. Read more
Jan. 28, 2017 | President Trump and Putin speak on the phone for an hour. Read more
March 2017 | One of Trump's personal lawyers, Marc E. Kasowitz, is named to the legal team defending Russia’s largest state-run bank in a corporate-raiding case, BuzzFeed reports. Read more
May 9, 2017 | Trump fires FBI Director James B. Comey, who was leading the investigation into Trump team's ties to Russia. The stunning decision sparked fears that the investigation might be upended now that Trump himself can handpick a new supervisor. Read more
May 10, 2017 | A day after Trump fires Comey, The Post reports the former FBI director sought more money for the investigation. Read more
