New documents released by the US Department of Justice have revealed that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was trying to gain access to Russia’s top leaders, even President Vladimir Putin. These documents also reveal that Epstein tried to contact Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s former Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin and many other influential Russian officials.

According to the documents, in June 2018, Epstein sent an email to Thorbjorn Ygland, a senior Norwegian leader and then Secretary General of the Council of Europe, requesting that he convey a message to Putin that Lavrov could talk to him. Epstein wrote that earlier he used to communicate with Russia through Vitaly Churkin, but after his death he is looking for a new way. He claimed that Churkin had started understanding Donald Trump better after his conversation with him.

Why did Putin’s name appear 1005 times?

These emails also indicate that Epstein wanted to present himself as a kind of geopolitical power player. He tried to convey the message through Yagland that he could help Russia in getting western investment. However, it is not clear from the documents whether Epstein ever met Putin or not. In several emails he claimed that he was going to meet Putin or that he had received an invitation, but there is no official confirmation of this. In these lakhs of pages of documents, the name of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been taken at least 1005 times. Most of these are clippings of news reports, which were sent to him. It is clear from these documents that he was repeatedly trying to meet the Russian President.

What did Russia say on the allegations?

There has been a stir in Europe after these revelations. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his country would investigate Epstein’s possible ties to Russian intelligence agencies. Tusk claimed that it was possible that the Epstein scandal was conducted with the help of Russian intelligence agencies and through this, compromising material was collected against many global leaders. However, Russia has termed these allegations as nonsense. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Epstein’s claims of working for the Russian intelligence agency were not worth taking seriously.

Hungry for rise and rise among powerful people

The documents also show that Epstein had close ties to some people associated with Russia. In an email, he described Russian businessman Sergei Belyakov as a good friend, who was trained at the FSB Academy of Russia’s security agency. Epstein had also offered to introduce Belyakov to many influential people. Experts believe that it is clear from these documents that Epstein was trying to enter the corridors of power and prove himself influential, but till now there is no concrete evidence which proves that he had access to Putin.