The Kremlin and its media allies are using recently released documents from the US investigation into Jeffrey Epstein to promote claims of Russia's moral superiority over the West, according to analysts quoted by Poland's largest news agency, Polska Agencja Prasowa (PAP).
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“The Kremlin uses this to portray Russia as a conservative stronghold,” says Professor Roman Becker of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. “But this facade does not reflect Russian reality.”
Russian propagandists seized on the January 30 release of documents related to Epstein by the U.S. Department of Justice, reviving the narrative of President Putin as a defender of Christian values against what they call a “declining West.”
Despite this rhetoric, Russia’s own connection to the Epstein scandal is also evident in the leaked files. According to the independent Russian publication Meduza, the Epstein documents contain more than a thousand references to Putin. One 2017 FBI report cited a source as saying that Epstein managed secret financial assets on Putin’s behalf.
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The files also mention Russian businessmen and models. Maria Drokova, formerly associated with the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi, offered Epstein branding strategies and allegedly sent him nude photos. Russian businessman Vladislav Doronin reportedly invited Epstein to Moscow and helped him with visas. Perhaps most famously, Meduza reported that young women from Russian cities including Samara, Saratov, and Omsk were being sold to Epstein’s island.
One of the 2018 emails mentioned a modeling agency in Krasnodar called “Storm.” Although the agency’s founder denied any ties to Epstein, it is possible that Russian intelligence could have used the agency to gain access to Western elites.
The release of the Epstein documents has also sparked a surge in pro-Kremlin narratives aimed at Western audiences, including references to Russia’s 2024 “Shared Values” visa program, which grants three-year residency permits to Western citizens who claim to be persecuted for their conservative beliefs.
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It was previously reported that a check from Trump and a meeting at the Mar-a-Lago estate were found in Epstein's files.