Kathrine Frich
Allegations surrounding Donald Trump’s past visits to Russia have resurfaced.
They have reignited a long-running speculation about Moscow’s leverage over the US president.
A former Soviet and Kazakh intelligence official has again put forward claims that have been repeatedly denied by Trump and dismissed by his allies.
Claims revived
Alnur Mussayev, a former KGB officer who later headed Kazakhstan’s security services, said Russia holds compromising material on Trump dating back to 2013.
In an interview with Ukraine’s Espreso TV, he claimed the files include video recordings from Trump’s stay at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Moscow during the Miss Universe pageant.
Trump visited Moscow that year before entering US politics.
Mussayev has made similar allegations in the past but said this time that Kazakhstan also possesses the same material, according to the Kyiv Post.
He alleged that Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, recorded compromising footage during Trump’s stay. He added that Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee, the KNB, also obtained copies.
Kazakh angle
Mussayev said the Ritz-Carlton was owned by Kazakh businessman Bulat Temuratov, whom he described as close to then-president Nursultan Nazarbayev.
According to his account, surveillance recordings made at the hotel “belonged to the Kazakhs.”
“These files were used by the former chairman of the National Security Committee, Karim Massimov, during a meeting with [US] Secretary of State Rex Tillerson,” Mussayev said, referring to a meeting in October 2017 during Trump’s first term.
He claimed Kazakhstan sought to use the alleged kompromat to improve relations with Washington.
“The effect was completely opposite,” Mussayev said, arguing that later political turmoil in Kazakhstan was influenced by Moscow.
Power struggles
Mussayev linked the fallout to events in Kazakhstan in 2022, when protests erupted over economic conditions and Russian troops were deployed to help restore order.
He said former intelligence chief Massimov later became a scapegoat.
In his view, Vladimir Putin “very actively influenced” events so that Massimov paid the price for attempting to use material that Putin allegedly considered his own.
Recruitment allegation
Mussayev has also claimed that Trump was recruited by Soviet intelligence decades earlier.
In social media posts dating back to 2018 and again in February 2025, he alleged Trump was groomed in 1987 as a potential asset under the codename “Krasnov.”
“Donald Trump is in the hands of the FSB,” Mussayev wrote in one post, asserting that the Kremlin had promoted Trump for years.
Disputed dossier
The claims echo allegations in the 2017 Steele dossier, compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.
That report alleged the existence of compromising videos from Trump’s Moscow stay.
Trump has repeatedly denied all such allegations, branding them a “Russia hoax.” His supporters say no evidence has ever substantiated the claims.
Sources: Digi24, Kyiv Post, Espreso TV
