Vladimir Putin’s name appears more than 1,000 times in the latest tranche of Jeffrey Epstein files released by the US Department of Justice. The release, comprising more than three million pages of documents, emails and images, has prompted fresh scrutiny of Epstein’s international contacts.
Reports show that Epstein spent years seeking a meeting with the Russian president, discussing investment, digital currencies and geopolitics with a circle of senior Russian and European figures. There is, however, no evidence in the files that Epstein and Putin ever met. Inclusion in the documents does not imply wrongdoing by those named.
Epstein, convicted in 2008 for soliciting a minor and who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, appears in the correspondence as persistently angling for access to the Kremlin.
Visa requests and repeated overtures
According to The Independent, Epstein began exploring a Russian visa as early as 2010, writing: “do i need to get visa, ? I have a friend of putin,s [sic], should i ask him?” In August 2011, he told Emirati businessman Ahmed bin Sulayem that “putin might come to the states”, adding he would prefer to meet him there.
Emails show Epstein repeatedly pressing Thorbjørn Jagland, the former Norwegian prime minister and then secretary general of the Council of Europe, to help secure a meeting. In May 2013, Jagland told him: “You have to do it. My job is to get a meeting with him.”
That same year, Epstein told former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak he hoped to meet Putin to discuss encouraging Western investment in Russia. At one stage he claimed to have cancelled a potential meeting in St Petersburg, insisting Putin “set aside real time and privacy”.
The Washington Post reports that in a 2013 message Epstein wrote: “He is desperate to engage western investment in his country … I have his solution.” Follow-up emails suggest no meeting materialised.
In 2014, amid discussions about a possible encounter, Epstein replied to a contact: “Bad idea now after plane crash” — an apparent reference to the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17.
Kremlin-linked contacts and intelligence questions
Beyond Putin himself, the files detail Epstein’s contact with senior Russian officials and business figures. The Washington Post highlights correspondence with Sergey Belyakov, a graduate of Russia’s Federal Security Services academy and then deputy economic development minister. Belyakov invited Epstein to the St Petersburg International Economic Forum and later sought a multi-entry visa for him.
The Times reports that Epstein described Belyakov as a “very good friend” and at one point sought his help over a “Russian girl from Moscow” allegedly attempting to blackmail businessmen in New York. In a draft email, Epstein claimed he had contacted “friends in the FSB” who would deal with threats “extremely harshly”.
Epstein also maintained contact with Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s UN ambassador until his death in 2017, and suggested that foreign minister Sergey Lavrov could “get insight on talking to me”. In a 2018 email cited by The Independent, Epstein wrote: “churkin was great . he understood trump after our conversations.”
Kyiv Post reports that an FBI memorandum cited a confidential source claiming Epstein “was President Vladimir Putin’s wealth manager”, though the documents provide no supporting evidence. Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo found Putin’s name appears more than 1,000 times, with “Russia” mentioned nearly 5,900 times, much of it in news clippings.
