Review / Trump allegedly had an infamous stay here: what’s the Moscow Ritz-Carlton presidential suite really like?
The Steele dossier about Donald Trump mentions the luxurious Ritz-Carlton suite, but it is also known for its stunning Kremlin views, a Rönisch grand piano and marble baths, writes Katie Warren
On a recent trip to Russia, I stayed in the ultra-luxurious, US$18,000-a-night presidential suite. Here's what it was like.
The Ritz-Carlton in Moscow sits on Tverskaya Street, a stone's throw from Red Square and the Kremlin.
While the Ritz-Carlton brand is known for its high standard of luxury, the Moscow location's pricey presidential suite has been in the spotlight for its mention in the infamous Steele dossier, a private intelligence report written by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer.
The report includes unverified claims that President Donald Trump stayed in the Moscow Ritz-Carlton hotel in 2013 and watched hired prostitutes “perform a 'golden showers' [urination] show in front of him” with the goal of defiling the presidential suite bed where Barack and Michelle Obama had previously slept. The dossier indicated Russian intelligence videotaped this encounter to blackmail Trump.
Buzzfeed News released the full report in January 2017, after Trump was elected president and before his inauguration.
The claims in the Steele dossier are unverified and Trump has denied that such an event happened.
The presidential suite actually costs 1 million roubles, (US$15,365) per night, a reservations supervisor told me. That does not include a 20 per cent value-added tax, which would bring the nightly total to more than US$18,000.
The Ritz-Carlton is located in the centre of Moscow, and I used Russia’s most popular ride sharing app, Yandex, to get to the hotel.
My driver inexplicably dropped me off on a side street, so I lugged my suitcase through some winding back alleys before finally arriving at the front entrance.