Who are the Russians named in the latest Epstein files? Vladimir Putin, for one. — Meduza
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Last week’s release of roughly three million additional documents from the U.S. Justice Department’s years-long investigation into the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has shed new light on the late financier’s connections with powerful people around the globe. While references to Donald Trump have predominated headlines, journalists have also identified several high-profile Russian politicians, businessmen, and public figures mentioned in the Epstein files — including President Vladimir Putin himself. Here’s what we know so far.

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The documents released as part of the Epstein files repeatedly mention young women and girls from Russia. This includes specific references to people from the cities of Samara and Saratov, Nizhny Novgorod, Omsk, and the Chelyabinsk region. One of them may have met the then–Prince Andrew while transiting through London on a flight from the U.S. to Russia in 2010.

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Epstein’s interest in young women and girls from Eastern Europe also appears in his correspondence with Steve Tisch, a co-owner of the New York Giants. In 2013, the two discussed Ukrainian and Russian girls whom Tisch had met through Epstein. Their ages are not specified, and Tisch has publicly insisted that the discussions concerned “adult women.”

In one email to Tisch with the subject line “Re: Ukrainian Girl,” Epstein wrote, “she is a little freaked out by the age difference but go slow and wati [sic], i will try to convince her not to return to ukraine , having her crying worked.”

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The Russians mentioned by name

Vladimir Putin, President of Russia

Vladimir Putin’s surname appears in more than a thousand documents from the latest batch of Epstein files. In correspondence with various people … the files include a 2017 FBI report quoting a source who alleged that Epstein had been involved in managing Putin’s shadow assets. Sources cited by the British tabloid The Daily Mail have gone further, speculating that Epstein may have acted as an intelligence asset for the Russian authorities.

Maria Drokova, Former press secretary of the Kremlin-sponsored youth organization Nashi

Maria Drokova’s name appears in an email Epstein received in the spring of 2017 from a sender whose identity was redacted. The sender described her as an “outstanding very successful for her young age lady who will be glad to meet you and show you her current plan to conquer the world.”

Later that summer, Drokova herself wrote to Epstein, pitching ideas for promoting his personal brand — including making a film about him, creating an “Epstein Prize” modeled on the Nobel Prize, or launching a foundation to combat “women’s harassment.” Two years later, in a separate exchange, Epstein asked Drokova to send him nude photographs of herself.

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Ilya Ponomarev, Former State Duma lawmaker

Boris Nikolic — a venture capitalist, former adviser to Bill Gates, and named as an executor in Epstein’s will — wrote to Epstein … that Ponomarev would eventually [replace Putin] and become Russia’s president — “if he d=es [sic] not killed before.”

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