Emin Agalarov, the Moscow pop star who arranged the now-infamous Trump Tower meeting in New York at the height of the 2016 election campaign, abruptly canceled his U.S. tour, citing the risk of being detained.
Agalarov said he's ready to answer any question as part of U.S. probes into alleged Russian election meddling but couldn't get assurances regarding freedom and safety before his now-abandoned swing through the U.S. He'd been due to perform in New York on Jan. 26, followed by shows in Toronto, Miami and Los Angeles.
"I have the feeling that the U.S. side doesn't have good intentions — that they have a desire, given this anti-Russian hysteria, to turn me, a well-known person, into a circus show," he said in an interview. The U.S.-educated singer was speaking at his family's sprawling convention center on the outskirts of Moscow, near where his father once planned to build a Trump Tower.