Jeffrey Epstein was on a mission to meet with Vladimir Putin when an intriguing proposal dropped into his email.
The Russian president was ready to receive Epstein, according to an October 2014 message from a correspondent on a database of more than 3.5 million files belonging to the late convicted sex offender that have roiled global politics and business.
“I spoke t= Putin,” wrote the interlocutor, whose identity has been redacted by the US Department of Justice. “He would be very glad if you were to visit and explain=financial markets in the 21 st century. Digital currency. derivative= structured finance. I would set up the meeting when you are next in=Europe. I am sure you two will like each other.”
Hours later, Epstein forwarded the message with a request for advice to Kathy Ruemmler, who’s stepping down as Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s general counsel after details of her association with the disgraced financier emerged in the files released by the Justice Department.
In his response, Epstein anticipated that her advice would be not to go “for the moment” and that was in fact the case. Ruemmler’s reply was brief: “Yes my answer is still the same,” she wrote. “Your fun i= denied.”
The caution at that point was understandable. Months earlier, Putin had sent Russian troops to annex Crimea from Ukraine, prompting wide-ranging US and European Union sanctions and sparking the geopolitical crisis that has since spiraled into the largest conflict in Europe since World War II.
Epstein’s fascination with Putin and Russia was undimmed, though, even as the documents paint a picture of a man who appeared largely clueless about who had genuine power and influence with the Kremlin leader. The files show a years-long effort to secure a one-on-one meeting with Putin, whose name appears about 1,000 times in the database.
The emails are quoted here as they appear in the DOJ release, including spelling and grammatical errors.
Ultimately, it seems, his quest was unsuccessful. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin never met Epstein as far as he’s aware, and no evidence has emerged so far to show that they did.
Earlier that year, in January, Epstein pitched former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjorn Jagland as the politician apparently prepared to meet with Putin in Sochi. The Russian Black Sea resort was shortly to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, the most expensive in history as Putin lavished $50 billion to present the games as a showcase of his country’s post-Soviet restoration.
Sport wasn’t on Epstein’s mind. “you can explain to putin , that there should be a sopshiticated russian version of bitcoin,” he wrote. “it would be the most advanced financial instrument availbale on a global basis.”
Jagland was among the most prominent European politicians at the time as secretary general of the Council of Europe for a decade between October 2009 and September 2019. Jagland met Putin on May 20, 2013, according to the Kremlin’s website, and returned to Sochi in 2014 for the opening of the Olympics.
On May 8, 2013, Epstein asked Jagland to secure him an audience with the Russian leader. “I know you are going to meet putin on the 20th, He is desperate to engage western investment in his country,” the financier wrote. “I have his solution. He needs to securitize russian investment, that means the govt takes the first loss.”
Epstein went on: “I recoginize that there are human rights issues that are at the forefront of your trip howver, if it is helpful to you, I would be happy to meet with him sometime in June and explain the solution to his top prioirty, I think this would be good for your goals. exchange somehting he really wants. for someting you want.”
In a further exchange a few days later, Jagland told Epstein “all this is not easy for me to explain to Putin. You have to do it. My job is to get a meeting with him.”
Epstein replied that Putin “is in a unique position to do something grand, like sputnik did for the space race.” He added: “I would be happy to meet with him , but for a minimum of two to three hours, not shorter.”
Apparently, a counter-offer came from Moscow that failed to enthuse Epstein. On May 21, he claimed in a message to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak that Putin had proposed a meeting during the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum the following month.
“I told him no,” Epstein wrote to Barak. “If he wants to meet he will need to set aside real time and privacy, lets see what happens.”
Days earlier, on May 9, referring to Putin, Epstein admitted to the Israeli politician that “I never met him.”
Two years later, in 2015, Barak wrote to thank Epstein for arranging his own participation at the St. Petersburg forum, where he said he held meetings with Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as well as the heads of the country’s two largest banks, Herman Gref of Sberbank and VTB Bank’s Andrey Kostin.
A spokesperson for Barak didn’t immediately offer comment.
As early as November 2010, Epstein was boasting to an unidentified correspondent that he had “a friend of Putin,s” who could help him secure a Russian visa, in response to an apparent party invitation.
Epstein noted on an application form for a year-long Russian visa in 2011 that he’d been issued with visas every year but one between 2002 and 2007, and had traveled to the country. It’s unclear from the files how many times he made use of the visas to visit Russia, though they indicate he made repeated plans to go there.
In April 2018, he received an email advising that his Russian visa was expiring and he’d need an official invitation letter to “renew for a 3 year business visa.” The visa was subsequently issued in June.
Epstein sent more emails to Jagland asking about meetings with Putin until June 2018. That last message, about a month before Putin held his first summit with US President Donald Trump in Helsinki, was the most concise.
“Would love to meet with Putin,” Epstein wrote.
Norwegian authorities started a corruption probe into Jagland this month over his links to Epstein.
Jagland is “fully cooperating with the police and has provided a detailed account of all relevant matters,” his lawyer, Anders Brosveet, said in a statement, declining to comment further. “He denies all charges against him.”
Trump’s election in 2016 gave Epstein more opportunity to cultivate Russian contacts, presenting himself as someone who could explain the political newcomer. This is what Epstein did during Trump’s first term, telling foreign officials how best to deal with the new president, according to one person who knew him at that time, asking not to be identified because the matter is sensitive.
One, apparently, was Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations in New York until his death in February 2017. Epstein claimed to Jagland that he’d coached the late Churkin on how to talk to Trump, and suggested he tell Putin that Lavrov could also “get insight on talking to me.”
Writing in June 2018, Epstein said: “churkin was great . he understood trump after =ur conversations. it is not complex. he must=be seen to get something its that simple.”
According to the DOJ files, Epstein also had regular contact with Sergei Belyakov, a former deputy economy minister and a graduate of Russia’s FSB security service who was involved in organizing the St. Petersburg economic forum. In one 2015 email, Epstein described him as a “very good guy.”
Belyakov didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Epstein bragged about his own FSB connections in another 2015 message to an unknown contact that he’d accused of attempting to blackmail him.
“I felt it necessary to contact some friends in FSB, and I though did not give them your name,” Epstein wrote. “So i expect never ever to hear a threat from you again.”
–With assistance from Ott Ummelas and Dan Williams.
