Kremlev linked to group sanctioned over child abductions from occupied Ukraine
In their Instagram statement, the couple wrote that the trip was “an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend, and something for which we were and remain incredibly grateful,” according to The Wall Street Journal, which obtained the statement and reviewed photographs of the events. The statement was accompanied by photographs showing President Trump’s adult children and their friends celebrating after the wedding.
Photographs of the Bahamas celebration reviewed by the Journal showed guests posing under a heart-shaped display, dancing under disco balls, and Donald Trump Jr. holding his new wife in his arms as fireworks erupted in the background. One photograph showed a white cake topped with figurines of a bride and groom; another showed a DJ stand painted white with black text reading “B & D” — for Bettina and Donald. One guest captioned her social media post “the wedding of the century.”
In an interview with the Journal, one wedding guest recalled seeing a group of people who were speaking Russian but said she did not know who they were.
President Trump did not attend his son’s wedding celebrations, which were held over Memorial Day weekend, and first lady Melania Trump was also not present. A spokesman for Mrs. Trump told the Journal that “Mrs. Trump does not, and has never had, a relationship with Mr. Kremlev” and that “Mrs. Trump played no role whatsoever in organizing the wedding event and was not privy to any aspect of its financial planning.” The White House and Kremlev did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the paper.
In their statement, the couple said they were married in a small ceremony with only their family present and later celebrated with a larger group. They said the Memorial Day weekend trip had been previously planned and was not initially intended to be a wedding celebration. ProPublica earlier reported that Kremlev financed the celebration.
Kremlev has led the International Boxing Association since 2020 and has worked to expand the organization’s reach and influence, the Journal reported. He started boxing in his home city of Serpukhov, south of Moscow. Since President Trump’s 2025 inauguration, Kremlev has had a handful of meetings with Donald Trump Jr.
In 2025, Kremlev sat next to Donald Trump Jr. at a conference panel in Istanbul alongside Rasheda Ali Walsh, Muhammad Ali’s daughter. After the conference, the IBA said in a statement that “President Kremlev and Donald Trump Jr made it clear — this alliance will not remain symbolic.”
On May 24, amid the Bahamian celebrations he was funding, Kremlev posted a photograph of himself walking through the woods wearing a T-shirt bearing an image of Vladimir Putin with the text “Who Took Berlin by Storm?”
Earlier in the summer, Kremlev’s IBA hosted its first bare-knuckle tournament inside the United States, a 10-bout card of boxing, mixed martial arts, kickboxing and bare-knuckle matches. The event was set to be hosted by Andrew Tate, who had returned to the U.S. “See you all tomorrow night,” Tate said at a promotional event the day before the tournament, according to a video on an IBA Instagram account. Tate was arrested outside the venue after the United Kingdom sought his extradition on dozens of charges, including rape and sex trafficking.
The Russian native has reshaped the IBA since taking it over, rebranding the organization and often placing himself at the center of its events, according to the Journal. Shortly after taking over the association, he changed its name and logo and began a partnership with Gazprom that turned the Russian state-owned gas giant into the body’s biggest sponsor.
Ukraine has sanctioned Kremlev for his links to Putin, accusing him of acting as a conduit of Russian influence. According to the Journal, Kremlev has long acted in the interests of the Kremlin and a small group of politicians, businessmen and security agents with whom he is associated.
Kremlev is also associated with the organization Healthy Fatherland, which Ukraine has sanctioned for its role in the mass abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia.
Kremlev’s first brush with Kremlin politics came after he joined the Night Wolves, Russia’s most prominent motorcycle club, which sought to boost nationalism and public support for Putin following the first round of Western sanctions imposed on Moscow after its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea. He wore a leather vest with a Russian tricolor, participated in the group’s publicity stunts and met another boxing enthusiast, Alexei Rubezhnoy. The two remain friends and still pose together in boxing gear online.
Eventually Rubezhnoy, a barrel-chested fighter, would take over as the head of Putin’s Federal Guards’ Service, Moscow’s equivalent of the Secret Service, a position with proximity to the country’s most powerful figure.
Kremlev would likewise see his star rise, going from president of the Russian Boxing Federation to head of the international amateur boxing association in 2020. That same year, Putin invited him to the Kremlin to award him the Medal of the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland” for his contributions to sport. Since then, the IBA has expanded its ties to Russia, with Russians in its leadership and many matches held in the country. The body suspended the membership of the Ukrainian Boxing Federation in 2022; the federation ultimately withdrew from the IBA entirely.
Shortly after President Trump’s 2025 inauguration, Kremlev published an open letter congratulating the new U.S. president on his election win and expressing hope that he would “look into” the International Olympic Committee’s decision not to include boxing in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, the Journal reported. Kremlev has also repeatedly spoken out against a ban on Russian athletes competing under their country’s flag.