“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. President Trump is a Russian asset. Guilty or innocent?”
I’m not a fan of conspiracy theories, perhaps an unexpected admission given I write thriller novels. The world’s — and especially America’s — obsession with conspiracy theories has played its part in destroying Truth. There are many different kinds of truths these days, but the one I’m talking about is the one based on the foundation of verifiable, provable facts. I’m pretty fond of that one and it seems to be on life support. Call me old-fashioned. With this in mind, I present the evidence underpinning the “Krasnov” theories whispered about Trump. Is there any substance to them? You decide.
Barely two months into his second term, Donald Trump has thrown the Western alliance into disarray. Long-standing allies have been alienated, Ukraine abandoned, and even close partners like Canada, Mexico, and Norway threatened. Across Europe and beyond, governments are quietly reassessing their ties to Washington—especially when it comes to intelligence-sharing — fearful that the United States is no longer a reliable partner, but a security risk led by loyalists who swear fealty to a president with questionable allegiances rather than the Constitution.
Of course, dismay and uncertainty in one corner can be received with unbridled joy in another. There’s only one such corner that stands to gain from President Trump's specific actions, and it isn’t found in Canada. It has been reported that Trump’s statements viewed on television have actually caused bottoms to physically rise from seats and applause to ring out down the Kremlin's corridors.
Personal power is everything to this president, which is why he prefers to sign executive orders in front of TV cameras. They are decrees, and those who demur are traitors
Trump’s disdain for NATO and the democratic nations of Europe, as well as Japan, Ukraine, South Korea, and Taiwan, and conversely, his demonstrated high regard for the autocrats of Russia, North Korea, Hungary, and China, can possibly be explained away as mere features of a sociopathic narcissistic personality disorder. It has been said many times that Donald J. likes dictators and wants to be one. Personal power is everything to this president, which is why he prefers to sign executive orders in front of TV cameras. “Witness my power and be awed.” So yes, perhaps you can make a case for Trump’s foreign policy actions here. But what better seems to fit the pattern playing out in front of the rest of the planet’s disbelieving eyes on an almost daily basis is that Trump is a Russian asset ticking off the Kremlin’s wish list. And given his overwhelming self-importance, the only person who could possibly be “handling” him is someone he sees fittingly at his level — the former KGB colonel-turned-president Vladimir Putin.
Indeed, various social media platforms and some mainstream media considered fringe are circulating an assertion that the code name on Trump’s personnel folder in Putin’s filing cabinet is “Krasnov”
Indeed, various social media platforms and some mainstream media considered fringe are circulating an assertion that the code name on Trump’s personnel folder in Putin’s filing cabinet is “Krasnov.”
This accusation has been put to Trump himself. He denies it, and, of course, he would. But is it true? Is there any evidence to support it? Is there, for example, a KGB employment document featuring Trump’s sprawling signature floating around? Perhaps there is, but it would be in that filing cabinet, and Putin has the key. So, no – no smoking gun, none that anyone can produce.
MAGA Republicans would say, therefore, “Fake news, nothing to see here, move on.”
But wait. Let’s say you, a prosecuting attorney, have an individual charged with murder on the stand. You have the murder weapon, a knife. And while you’ve also got the body, there’s no physical evidence, such as DNA, directly linking the accused to the crime. And the accused vociferously denies committing it.
However, what you do have are three separate witnesses unrelated to the accused or the deceased in any way, who, from different observation points with a clear view of the crime scene, all swear under oath that they saw the defendant stab the deceased multiple times. Would that be enough to convict?
The defendant’s advocate will, of course, try to impeach the character of those witnesses to discredit their testimony. But what if their credentials and accounts of the murder they saw in the clear light of day stand up to cross-examination? Would the jury convict on the strength of their eyewitness testimony alone? Juries are notoriously fickle. You wouldn’t want to bet against a guilty verdict, would you? Perhaps consider a plea deal?
Let’s now put President Trump in the dock. His crime isn’t murder. The charge against him is that he’s a Russian asset, defined as someone willing to do favors for the Kremlin, and the prosecution produces its first witness
Okay, so now we’ve established how reasonable doubt would likely play out in this situation, let’s put President Trump in the dock. His crime isn’t murder. The charge against him is that he’s a Russian asset, defined as someone willing to do favors for the Kremlin, and the prosecution produces its first witness.
His name is Alnur Mussayev, a native of Kazakhstan, the man who originally posted the claim that Trump is Putin’s stooge with the codename “Krasnov,” on Facebook on February 21st, 2025.
The Prosecutor begins by establishing Mussayev’s bona fides. His Intelligence career began in 1979 when he was conscripted into the Soviet Army. The following year, he graduated from the KGB “school” in Minsk, Belarus.
By 1986, Mussayev transitioned to a leadership position in the 8th Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, the division responsible (among other things) for Russian Spetsnaz Forces.
Through subsequent years, he rose through the ranks of Soviet espionage, a career he continued to build on after the fall of the communist regime in his native Kazakhstan, eventually climbing to head the Kazakhstan National Security Committee.
The Defense attorney is dismissive and, with a flourish, summarizes: When Trump was supposedly being recruited in 1987, Mussayev was not engaged in these kinds of recruitment operations. How would Mussayev possibly know anything about it?
In his re-direct, the Prosecutor repeats the question: How would Mussayev know anything about it? This time, the question is not rhetorical.
Mussayev replies that he spent a year in the 6h Directorate of the KGB, the unit specifically responsible for identifying and “turning” foreign businessmen in Russia. And that specific year was 1987, the year Trump was recruited.
The Defense returns. “Do you know how Donald Trump was recruited?”
Mussayev admits that he’s not aware of the exact means used as he wasn’t the agent working Trump, but it was well-known amongst the directorate, something of a departmental victory.
“In other words,” says the Defense attorney, “this is all rumor.” Is this a gotcha moment? It’s the Prosecutor’s turn, and Mussayev elaborates.
He tells the court that it was well known among the agents that this American businessman, 40 years old at the time, was extremely egotistical and that he responded well to flattery
He tells the court that it was well known among the agents that this American businessman, 40 years old at the time, was extremely egotistical and that he responded well to flattery. He was fed a diet of possibilities that would appeal to his ego — that he was clearly a great businessman and that he should leverage his ambition into politics. There was no telling how high a man like him could rise.
Mussayev leaves the stand. Next witness.
Sergei Zhyrnov takes the stand. He is another ex-KGB officer now living in France. He categorically endorses Mussayev’sallegations. He says that as soon as Trump’s susceptibility had been identified, his every move would have been observed by KGB agents posing as hotel maids, cab drivers, waiters, and so forth. Trump’s every utterance would have been recorded and documented. Trump liked beautiful women, and he believed beautiful women liked him, and “honey trapping” was a common practice. Every prostitute working with foreigners was a KGB agent. (In the Prosecutor’s mind, there’s also the rumor about Trump and “golden showers,” but the decision has already been made to let that go.) Alternatively, Zhyrnov concludes, perhaps his desire to build a hotel in the Soviet capital was stroked – promises of easy money and approvals, et cetera.
The Defense wants to know if Zhyrnov had any contact with the KGB 6th Directorate.
The answer is no. He worked as a foreign intelligence officer operating abroad, focusing on political and strategic intelligence targets.
“So you were not personally involved in any operation targeting Trump and had no access to files confirming recruitment?” the Defense attorney asks.
“No,” is the reply.
It’s a no-brainer that the KGB would have quickly identified Trump’s vulnerabilities and worked hard to leverage those. Trump was flamboyant, young, boisterous, and obviously sought fame and notoriety
The Prosecution re-directs, cementing Zhyrnov’s credentials as a spy. He had an intimate knowledge of spy craft and, in particular, KGB methodology. It’s a no-brainer, the former agent says, that the KGB would have quickly identified Trump’s vulnerabilities and worked hard to leverage those. Trump was flamboyant, young, boisterous, and obviously sought fame and notoriety. Along with his other tastes, especially those concerning wealth and women, he was the perfect target. And no one was better at this kind of work than the KGB. “So, yes,” says Zhyrnov, “I have no doubt that Mussayev’s account is accurate.”
The Prosecution is not done. Enter witness number three. This is Yuri Shvets, a former Major in the KGB who was stationed in Washington during the 1980s.
In his CV, Shvets says he studied at the KGB academy alongside Putin, where he obtained a master’s in international law. He then relates how he worked undercover as a journalist for the Soviet news agency Tass and how Trump first came to the attention of Soviet intelligence when he married Ivana Zelnikova, a Czech model. The union facilitated surveillance by the Czech intelligence service, an agency with close ties to the KGB.
Shvets observes that 1980 saw Trump’s first major real estate project: the Grand Hyatt Hotel near New York’s Grand Central Station. The New York businessman purchased 200 television sets for the hotel from Joy-Lud Electronics on Fifth Avenue, which happened to be co-owned by a Soviet émigré — Semyon Kislin.
Under oath, Shvets says Joy-Lud served as a KGB front, with Kislin acting as a “spotter agent,” identifying promising figures in business and politics who might be ripe for KGB cultivation. [1]
Shvets continues that when Trump and Ivana traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg for the first time in 1987, the KGB orchestrated the visit. While in Russia, they fed Trump tailored messaging and flattered him with the potential of political ambitions — a classic tactic to groom a potential source, another confirmation of Mussayev’s testimony.
Shvets reiterates that Trump was the ideal KGB target for recruitment, that he had “the perfect combination of extremes: extreme vanity, extremely low IQ, extreme vulnerability to flattery, and of course, he was extremely greedy…”
Shvets explains, “They [the KGB] played the game as if they were immensely impressed by his personality and believed this is the guy who should be the president of the United States one day — it is people like him who could change the world. They fed him these so-called active measures soundbites, and it happened (ie: Trump lapped it up). It was a big achievement for KGB active measures at the time.”
“Then, on September 1st, 1987, he took out a full-page advert in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe headlined: ‘There’s nothing wrong with America’s Foreign Defense Policy that a little backbone can’t cure’…”
The Prosecutor continues: “It was no coincidence that soon after Trump returned to the US, he began exploring a run for the Republican nomination for president. He even held a campaign rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Then, on September 1st, 1987, he took out a full-page advert in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe headlined: ‘There’s nothing wrong with America’s Foreign Defense Policy that a little backbone can’t cure.’ (A copy of the advertisement is entered as an exhibit). The attorney explains: “The advertisement is in the style of an open letter and signed by Trump. In it, he offers some extremely unorthodox opinions at a time when the Cold War was the main geopolitical concern in Ronald Reagan’s America. He accuses US ally Japan of exploiting America, he’s skeptical about US participation in NATO, and he goes on about how the US should stop paying to defend countries that can afford to defend themselves.”
“That was Trump in 1987,” the Prosecutor reminds the jury. “Sound familiar?”
It’s the Defense’s rebuts: “Mr Shvets, you have a book released recently, yes? Authored by journalist Craig Unger, “American Kompromat.”
“Yes.”
“Making your claims public now couldn’t possibly have anything to do with your marketing strategy?”
Shvets points out that the only authors who make any money out of writing books are the ones who write about wizards, which raises a laugh from the gallery.
“The fact is,” says the Defence attorney, “you can’t hold up a shred of hard evidence that verifies any aspect of your story. Show the court a solitary verifiable fact and perhaps we might believe the rest.”
Shvets says, “I personally saw a cable in 1987 while at KGB headquarters at Yasenevo, Moscow, congratulating operatives on the successful active measures of influencing Trump to place his supportive newspaper ad. This cable specifically referred to Trump as a new KGB asset.”
“Hearsay!” snaps the Defence attorney. “Do you have a copy of this cable?”
“No.”
The attorney can’t hide the sense of triumph. “Your witness.”
The Prosecutor stands. “Your honor, a document has come to light from the Czech Republic, declassified recently.
The Defence attorney, upset, objects. There is back-and-forth about discovery and a visit to the judge’s bench. The judge reviews the document and its verified translation and allows it to be entered into evidence.
The Prosecutor holds the document aloft. “As I was saying, the Czech Republic has declassified a raft of documents from the former Soviet-aligned communist regime and this has only just come to light. It’s a file from the Czechoslovakian secret police documenting the monitoring of Ivana Trump and her family with the addendum that this information was shared with the Russian KGB in the late 1970s and 80s.”
The gallery erupts.
“What was it you said,” shouts the Prosecutor over the din, “about a shed of evidence proving the truth of Mr Shvets testimony?”
*
There has been no court probing these depositions about Trump. That much of the above is creative license. But the three former Soviet KGB agents and their claims have been accurately recorded here without embellishment. Do you believe their accounts to be true? If you’re a Republican or MAGA, as I said, it’s all fake news. Ulterior motives have also been claimed. However, aside from Unger’s book, “Russian Kompromat,” and some questionably effective marketing spice to rev up the sales, there’s no real advantage accruing to these men coming forward with their information. Ego might be another claim, a desire to be seen as influencing the narrative about Trump, except that Mussayev, Zhyrnov, and Shvets are — or were — professional spies, wired for secrecy. They are not the sort of men with a pent-up desire to spill the beans.
Although the Soviet Union is gone, there’s a real heartbeat of that regime in Putin’s Russian Federation. Perhaps that’s their motive, to raise the specter of those bad old days returning, days they personally witnessed, even contributed to, while on the inside.
Coming forward and “Deep Throating” Trump doesn’t seem to carry any advantage. And what might Putin be capable of in the defense of protecting the asset that has become the world’s most powerful man? There’s always a handy hotel window or balcony he can call on when the world has moved on. In Shvets’s case, the man has witnessed Putin’s wrath firsthand. He was a business partner of ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko and provided evidence in the investigation of his 2006 assassination in London following exposure to polonium-210.
These three ex-Soviet spies are all serious men.
As an exercise, I asked AI the following question: "Given the statements of the three former KGB agents who say Trump is a Russian asset, and given Trump's foreign policy actions during his second term, in your view, what is the probability that Trump is indeed a Russian asset?"
This was its response:
I have seen results attributed to AI as high as 95%. If I were Trump, I would take that plea deal.
[1] Kislin has denied any involvement with Soviet intelligence.
A few weeks back, I reviewed the “paused” NGAD fighter program, the United States initiative to develop and field the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter to replace the undisputed king of contested air space, the F-22 Raptor (also an American fighter aircraft). Trump recently announced that the NGAD program was progressing with Boeing and that it would be designated the F-47 in homage to himself, the 47th president of the United States (be surprised). This news has made the military aviation world giddy with expectation. Several details of the plane were also released by the president: “…the plane has secretly been flying for almost five years, and we're confident that it massively over-powers the capabilities of any other nation, there's no other nation…we know every other plane…I've seen every one of 'em and it's not even close.” Various pundits in this space have been speculating the details, but I’ll wait until something solid materializes before reporting further. In the meantime, if you want to know why another $20 billion is being spent on top of the billions already thrown at the aircraft’s development thus far, it’s all about bogeyman China.
Great and believable story here David Rollins! Well done.
Interesting speculation, but surely not!