Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly sought a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and offered the Russians information, including: about Donald Trump – according to case files published by the US Ministry of Justice.
The disclosed documents suggest that Epstein had extensive contacts with Russians in government circles over the years and repeatedly planned to meet with Vladimir Putin, although they do not clearly indicate whether such meetings took place.
“Vlad has a friend Putin”
In one of the leaked e-mails from 2010, the financier accused of exploiting minors – in response to an invitation to a party from an unknown person signed as “Vlad” – asks whether he will need a visa, and then added: “I have a friend Putin, should I ask him for it (visa)?”
In the following years, Epstein discussed his plans for meetings with Putin several times with his interlocutors – mainly the former Prime Minister of Norway and then Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland. The emails show that Epstein considered Jagland to be a man with good contacts with the Russian leader who could act as an intermediary. It also appears that the relationship between Jagland and Epstein was intimate (Epstein called him a “good friend”) and the Norwegian repeatedly visited him at his estates and stayed with him overnight.
In an email to Emirati businessman Sultan bin Sulayem in 2011 – the full context of the exchange is unknown – Epstein suggested he would prefer to meet Putin in the United States, adding that “Sochi is unlikely.”
In May 2013, Epstein set an email reminder saying “Jagland Putin Sochi.” A day later, he wrote in a message to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak – with whom he also had frequent contacts – that Putin had asked Epstein to meet him during the annual forum in St. Petersburg.
I told him no. If (Putin) wants to meet, he will have to reserve real time and privacy. We'll see what happens, Epstein added.
Dinner with Gates and Russian Bitcoin
In June of the same year, he wrote to an unknown addressee that Microsoft founder Bill Gates would be staying overnight at his place in Paris, adding that “Putin is welcome to join us for dinner.”
In January 2014, the billionaire wrote to Jagland asking him to organize a meeting with Putin, adding that he could not do it in Davos, Switzerland, because there were too many people there.
“Besides: You can explain to Putin that there should be an advanced Russian version of Bitcoin. That would be the most advanced global financial instrument,” Epstein wrote. In other messages, he repeatedly brought up the topic of Russian cryptocurrency.
Canceled meeting in the shadow of the MH17 tragedy
Messages exchanged between Epstein and Silicon Valley investor Joichi Ito show that Epstein planned to meet Putin in July 2014 – together with billionaire Reid Hoffman – but the meeting was canceled due to the Russians shooting down flight MH17 over Donbas at that time. Epstein said the meeting was a “bad idea considering the plane crash.”
A year later, however, he wrote to Jagland again that ““I would still like to meet Putin and talk about the economy.”adding that he would be very grateful to him for organizing the meeting. He once again asked the Norwegian to arrange a meeting with Putin on June 20, 2018, less than a month before Donald Trump was scheduled to meet Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.
Epstein: The Russian ambassador understood Trump after our meetings
On June 24, he wrote for Jagland to “suggest to Putin that (Russian Foreign Minister) Lavrov may have some observations” from the conversation with him. He added that he shared such information with Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, who died a year earlier..
“Churkin was great. He understood Trump after our conversations. He (Trump) is not complicated. He must show that he has received something. It's that simple,” Epstein added in a conversation with Jagland.
It is unclear whether any of the meetings took place. However, the documents show that he planned to visit Russia during the 2018 FIFA World Cup and applied for a visa to come to Moscow in April 2019.
Contacts with special services, including the FSB
As revealed last year by the Dossier Center group associated with the Russian opposition businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Epstein maintained close contacts with Sergei Belyakov, who was responsible for organizing the international economic forum in St. Petersburg (SPIEF), and according to the Dossier, he was in fact an agent of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). When Epstein informed him in 2015 that Russian model Guzel Ganieva was trying to blackmail “a group of influential businessmen in New York,” Belyakov sent him a detailed report on the woman. In a newly disclosed email to billionaire Tom Pritzker, Epstein praises Belyakov as a “very good guy.”
In one 2014 email, Epstein wrote that he wanted to seek the opinion of Bill Burns – former US ambassador to Moscow and later head of the CIA – on whether he should meet with the deputy head of Russia's Central Bank, whom he described as the man responsible for Russia's response to Western sanctions. According to Epstein, the Russians wanted to seek his advice on attracting foreign investment.
The billionaire's messages may also suggest that Epstein had confidential information about the internal situation in the Kremlin. In an e-mail to Ehud Barak in 2013, Epstein informed him that Putin planned to reshuffle the Kremlin and rely “only on very trusted people.”
More information by phone or face to face – he added.
In a text message to an unknown person in 2013, the billionaire informed her that Putin would appear in Davos, although this ultimately did not happen. In a 2019 text exchange about Ukraine with Barack Obama's former finance minister and economic adviser, Larry Summers, Epstein said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was “looking for help,” but added that Putin was dismissive of him, “saying he is being controlled by the Israelis.”
From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)
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