Russian President Vladimir Putin’s name appears 1,005 times in the 3.5 million pages of correspondence linked to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, released by the US Department of Justice, which has renewed scrutiny over his alleged ties with Moscow. Documents show Epstein was seeking a meeting with Putin.
The files show Epstein expressed a desire to meet Putin on multiple occasions.
There is, however, no evidence in the files suggesting the two ever met.
Till 2017, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, was Epstein’s regular contact from Moscow. Documents released by the Department of Justice show they both met regularly, and Epstein even offered to help Churkin’s son, Maxim, get a job at a wealth management firm in New York.
However, nearly a year after his death in June 2018, Epstein reached out to Norwegian politician Thorbjorn Jagland, then the secretary general of the Council of Europe, seeking a meeting with Putin’s close aide and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
On June 24, 2018, email, the disgraced financier wrote, “I think you might suggest to putin, that Lavrov, can get insight on talking to me. vitaly churkin used (to) but he died. ?!”
Jagland replied, saying he would meet with Lavrov’s assistant the following Monday and suggest it.
Epstein replied, “churkin was great. he understood trump after [our] conversations. it is not complex. he must be seen to get something its that simple.”
In another June 2018, Jagland emailed Epstein that he hoped to stay at his residence in Paris following his Moscow visit, where he planned to meet with Putin, Lavrov and Dmitry Medvedev, then Russian prime minister.
“I am just sorry im not with you to meet the Russians,” Epstein replied.
Documents show that some of Epstein’s communications with prominent Russians happened during a sensitive time in US-Russia relations—after the US intelligence community accused Russia of interfering in the 2016 presidential election, which Donald Trump won.
His previous conversations show that on May 9, 2013, Epstein wrote to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak that Jagland “is going to see putin in sochi “ on May 20 and that the Norwegian politician has asked if Epstein would make himself available to meet with the Russian president “to explain how russia can structure deals in order to encourage western investment.”
“I never met him, wanted you to know,” Epstein added in his email to Barak.
Days later, on May 14, 2013, Jagland told Epstein that he planned to tell Putin that Epstein could be useful. “I have a friend that can help you to take the necessary measures (and then present you) and ask [whether] it is interesting for him to meet with you,” Jagland wrote to Epstein.
“He is in a unique position to do something grand, like sputnik did for the space race, You can tell him that you and I are close , and that i advise Gates . this is confidential, . I would be happy to meet him , but for a minimum of two to three hours, not shorter,” Epstein replied.
Over a year later, in July 2014, Epstein, in an email, suggested that he had a meeting scheduled with Putin and had invited the LinkedIn founder to join. Joi Ito, then the director of the MIT Media Lab, wrote to Epstein, “I wasn’t able to convince Reid to change his schedule to go to meet Putin with you. ;-)”
While Epstein’s interest in scouting models from Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe had been known in the past, the latest release of documents indicates the disgraced financier sought closer ties to high-ranking Russian officials, including Putin, giving fire to theories that he may have spied for Moscow.
Probe In Poland
As the new tranche of documents came to light, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that his country will launch an investigation into Epstein’s possible ties with Russian intelligence.
“More and more leads, more and more information, and more and more commentary in the global press all relate to the suspicion that this unprecedented paedophilia scandal was co-organised by Russian intelligence services,” Tusk said.
Russia’s Response
The Kremlin last week dismissed suggestions that Epstein was a Russian intelligence asset.
“The theory that Epstein was controlled by Russian intelligence services can be taken in any way, but not seriously,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“I’m tempted to make a lot of jokes about that theory, but let’s not waste our time,” he told reporters.
- Agencies
