Moscow: President Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen received payments of a reported half million dollars after the 2016 presidential election, from a company controlled by Viktor Vekselberg, one of Russia's richest men and a member of President Vladimir Putin's inner circle.

The reason for that payment is not clear. But the Russian billionaire has not shied away from showing his support for the American president: he attended Trump's inauguration, his spokesman confirmed at the beginning of the year. He was able to do so with tickets given him by his American cousin, Andrew Intrater, who is president of the investments firm Columbus Nova, an affiliate of Vekselberg's.

Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg Credit:AP

And in the past, Vekselberg crossed paths with other key Trump-related figures. In December 2015, he attended the now-infamous 10th anniversary gala for the Kremlin-owned RT channel, where Putin sat beside Michael Flynn, who was later -- briefly - Trump's national security adviser.

Vekselberg, who was one of two dozen Russian business executives and government officials to be sanctioned in April as part of the US response to the poisoning of a Russian double agent in London, is now under intense scrutiny.