Jeffrey Epstein’s Petersburg Connections

In documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice in the case of Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of sexually trafficking minors, the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences of St. Petersburg State University [aka Smolny College] is mentioned about thirty times.

Bumaga has examined some of the so-called Epstein files. Read how the American was invited to the graduation ceremony at Smolny and how the financier himself recommended the Petersburg university to fashion models.

How Epstein was invited to a graduation ceremony at St. Petersburg State University

In May 2013, Alexei Kudrin, then dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, sent an invitation to Leon Botstein, president of Bard College, to attend the graduation ceremony. Botstein, in turn, invited Jeffrey Epstein to accompany him to Petersburg. Faculty co-founder Valery Monakhov also emailed an invitation to the American financier to visit St. Petersburg State University.

The program included an official ceremony in St. Petersburg State University’s auditorium on University Embankment and a ball at the Bobrinsky Palace [the home of Smolny College]. During the graduation ceremony, Leon Botstein planned to introduce Epstein to Kudrin, who was not only the head of the faculty but also a former Russian finance minister. The financier himself had already been convicted of trafficking minors.

Epstein never went to St. Petersburg State University, however: his assistant, Lesley Groff, responded to the invitations by saying that her boss was busy.

How Epstein partly financed Bard College

Bard College is a private tertiary educational institution in the United States that collaborated with St. Petersburg State University for over twenty years. The Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences was established with its involvement. The collaboration continued until 2021, when Bard College was declared an “undesirable organization” in Russia. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office declared that the work of the university “poses a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order and security.” Russian academics and artists decried the sanctions against the college as yet another blow to research and education in Russia.

In 2023, Wall Street Journal reporters revealed that, in 2016, Epstein had donated $150,000 to Bard College President Leon Botstein and transferred $270,000 for Professor Noam Chomsky. Epstein had previously donated funds to the college on several occasions, including $75,000 in 2011.

According to media reports, Bard College scholars met with Epstein on several occasions after the financier was charged with soliciting prostitution from minors in 2008.

Meanwhile, according to journalists, Botstein sat on the advisory board of Epstein’s foundation. The president of Bard College, however, has claimed that he did not perform any work for the foundation.

How Epstein advised young female models to apply to Smolny

The Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences—Smolny College—appears several times in Epstein’s correspondence with women who mention that they work in the modeling business. We do not know whether Epstein was corresponding with one young woman or several. The names of potential victims have been redacted in most of the files.

In 2018, Epstein met with the “President of Smolny” (whether this was Alexei Kudrin or officials at Bard College is not known) to discuss the process of applying to St. Petersburg State University and subsequently transferring to Bard College.

Epstein then counseled his female acquaintance as follows:

“first year smolny but the credits are us credits transferable to any us school,” he writes.

“I’m afraid to leave USA now,” she replies.

“I understand however the transfer program is great,” he writes.

Epstein also sent links to Smolny’s programs to a model in 2019. He had invited his correspondent to visit him in Paris, while the young woman suggested they sleep together that night. “you can visit for 30 minutes. I want to know more about university desire , I will let you go early to get some sleep,” Epstein replied.

In 2018, a young Russian woman named Anna is mentioned in Epstein’s online correspondence. The financier tried to connect her with his acquaintances from Bard College so that they could “help her make a decision about Smolny.” Epstein’s assistants booked tickets for the young woman to Paris, Tel Aviv, and the United States.

Bumaga noticed that the information about Anna as contained in the correspondence coincides with the biographical details of a model from Petersburg. Judging by the young woman’s age, she was not a minor at the time of her interactions with Epstein. In 2017–2019, photos taken in France and Israel appeared on her social media pages. Her name was not subsequently mentioned on the websites of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences or Bard College.

Anna had not responded to our message by the time this article was published.

Who was Epstein and how else is Petersburg mentioned in his case files?

Jeffrey Epstein was a former mathematics teacher and billionaire who had close ties to the world’s political, business, and academic elites. Epstein was the central figure in one of the most high-profile criminal cases of the twenty-first century after he was charged with sexually exploiting and trafficking minors. The American was first convicted in 2008 under a lenient plea bargain deal with prosecutors, but he was re-arrested on federal charges in 2019. Epstein died in prison shortly after his arrest. His death was ruled a suicide, but the official account is still a matter of controversy in the U.S.

The documents published by the U.S. authorities on the Epstein case contain mentions of world leader and other influential figures, including U.S. President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk. However, the fact that individuals are mentioned in the files does not imply that there are grounds for charges against them.

Petersburg is mentioned over a thousand times in the released files. Earlier, Bumaga reported that, between 2014 and 2016, Epstein corresponded and met with Sergei Belyakov, former Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Chairman of the Board of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

In July 2015, at Epstein’s request, Belyakov made inquiries into a certain young woman from Moscow who was allegedly attempting to blackmail businessmen in New York. Belyakov set about his search for information without asking any questions and, a couple of days later, replied that the Russian woman in question was working as an escort and, during the peak season from May to August, earned more than $100,000.

According to the Dossier Center, the woman in question was a model named Guzel [Ganieva] who in March 2021 accused American billionaire Leon Black of coercing her into performing sadistic sexual acts. Guzel claimed that Black had introduced her to Epstein and tried to force her to have sex with “his best friend,” but the Russian woman refused.

Epstein also assisted Belyakov with organizing SPIEF 2015 and the Open Innovations Forum. The American financier did not attend the economic forum himself, but he introduced [link not functioning currently] Belyakov to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who ended up appearing SPIEF 2015.

Epstein also suggested “dream attendes” for the forums to Belyakov and promised to provide contact information for former Microsoft chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. The meeting with the latter took place only in 2016.

In April 2018, Belyakov also planned to send a letter to the Russian consulate in New York requesting that Epstein be granted a three-year visa to Russia.

Belyakov is currently the president of the Association of Nongovernmental Pension Funds. He declined our request for a comment.

Source: “Epstein and the Faculty of Liberal Arts: how a financier accused of sex trafficking and sexual abuse of minors is linked to Smolny,” Bumaga, 3 February 2026. Translated by the Russian Reader

Wajahat Ali, “EXPOSED: Epstein & the Far‑Right Plot to Undermine DEMOCRACY”

What if Jeffrey Epstein’s influence wasn’t just about sex trafficking scandals but part of a broader far‑right agenda to destabilize democratic institutions worldwide? In this explosive video, we break down the latest revelations from the Epstein Files and explore how his network may have intersected with powerful right‑wing actors, online extremists, and political operatives. Investigative journalist Ryan Broderick joins us to unpack the latest revelations from the Epstein Files, revealing how his network intersected with powerful political actors, extremists, and online operators.

Source: Wajahat Ali (YouTube), 4 February 2026

“Incompatible with the Prestige of a University Student”

The St. Petersburg State University Ethics Commission has ruled that a statement made by Alexandra Zaitseva, a first-year student and editor of the student media outlet Studen, was “incompatible with the prestige of a university student.” Another student media outlet, Lupa and Pupa, has publicized the incident.

The Details. Zaitseva was summoned to appear before the commission on July 7. Initially, the hearing was supposed to be held online, but the university subsequently changed the format to in-person and refused to change it back. According to Zaitseva, this was done so that she would be unable to record the hearing.

The Reasons. In June, an anonymous denunciation of Alexandra Zaitseva was posted in St. Petersburg State University’s virtual guestbook. The author of the denunciation did not like Zaitseva’s post on VKontakte about the expulsion of Mikhail Belousov’s students from the university’s history faculty.

“In this publication, she talks about the ‘vile and unjust expulsion,’ in her opinion, ‘of the students implicated in the sensational Belousov affair.’ In addition, she publicly insults other students (‘a bunch of bastards shouting goida on PUNK at night’) while obviously demeaning and voicing disdain for the patriotic citizens of our country,” the denunciation reads.

St. Petersburg State University replied that they had contacted “law enforcement agencies” and called a hearing of their ethics commission.

The Decision. “We consider A.N. Zaitseva’s behavior incompatible with the prestige of a St. Petersburg State University student,” the St. Petersburg State University Ethics Commission ruled.

Zaitseva told Bumaga that she believes she will be expelled. “I guess the outcome is pretty obvious. Although, I can’t say for sure—no order has been issued yet,” the student said.

The ethics commission members did not like the fact that Zaitseva had given a comment to TV Rain. According to them, in this way the young woman “once again displayed her openly negative attitude towards the university of which she is a student.”

Just prior to the hearing, St. Petersburg State University had banned university employees from giving comments and interviews to “foreign agent” media outlets.

The commission ruled that Zaitseva had violated the second and third paragraphs of the University Student’s Code, i.e., “To represent the university in extracurricular settings with dignity” and “To honor teachers, respect colleagues and students, maintain friendly relations both inside and outside the University, [and] contribute to the creation of an environment of mutual understanding and cooperation.”

“Apparently, the authors really don’t fancy the idea that someone might have principles: this is the only explanation why such a large piece of the text is devoted to them, and not to an analysis of my post,” Zaitseva said in reaction to the commission’s decision.

Source: “St. Petersburg State University student summoned by ethics commission over statement about expelled history faculty students,” Bumaga, 18 July 2023. Translated by the Russian Reader

The leadership of St. Petersburg State University (SPBGU) has fired Mikhail Belousov, a professor at the university’s History Institute, for committing an “immoral act” by speaking out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The university posted its decision on its website.

The university’s decision followed an investigation, during which university leadership confirmed that Belousov had circulated materials “discrediting” the Russian army, and “insulting the memory of those killed while fulfilling their military duty.”

“Belousov’s behavior violates the university’s moral traditions and generally accepted ethical norms, his actions are out of keeping with his and the university’s prestigious positions,” the document detailing the university’s decision says.

Petersburg publication Rotunda says the university began investigating Belousov and his students after Russian official and social media channels circulated screenshots of messages, allegedly written by the professor and his students, openly criticizing the war in Ukraine while the university was mourning one of its students, Fyodor Solomonov, who was killed in Ukraine.

Source: “St. Petersburg State University fires history professor for criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Meduza, 3 June 2023

Seven students of the previously dismissed associate professor Mikhail Belousov were expelled from the Faculty of History of St. Petersburg State University, Bumaga reports, citing sources at the university. They were among the ten people who were previously called to the ethics commission. The remaining three will have “some kind of meeting with the vice-rector for educational work.”

One of the expelled students told the publication that he would challenge the decision of the university.

At the end of May, Z-channels circulated screenshots with messages in which Belousov allegedly condemned the “internal” symbolism and said that “a direct and open approval of rashism is disgusting.” It was alleged that the associate professor wrote all this in the context of discussing the death of St. Petersburg University student Fyodor Solomonov in the war in Ukraine.

On June 3, Belousov was fired, and a group of his students were summoned to the ethics committee, which ruled that they “considered it appropriate to make fun of” Solomonov’s death instead of “showing normal human feelings.” It was also decided that the students’ actions were “incompatible with the status of a student at St. Petersburg State University.”

In October last year, associate professor Denis Skopin was fired from the same university for participating in a rally against mobilization, calling it an “immoral act.”

Source: “‘Paper’: St. Petersburg State University expelled seven students. Earlier, the university ethics commission condemned them for mocking a student who died in the war in Ukraine,” Russian Free Press, 16 June 2023

The Sasha Skochilenko Trial: Olga Safonova’s “Slightly Misleading” Expert Analysis

Sasha Skochilenko (center) at her criminal trial in Petersburg, 25 May 2023. Photo: Nadezhda Skochilenko

At today’s hearing [in Sasha Skochilenko’s criminal trial on charges of disseminating knowingly false information about the Russian army], Sasha’s defense lawyers and Svetlana Drugoveyko-Dolzhanskaya, a linguist who conducted an independent forensic examination and found no knowingly false information in Sasha’s messages, were able to question one of the authors of the linguistic forensic examination [commissioned by the prosecution].

Olga Safonova, a specialist in political science (!), was enlisted to contribute to the linguistic forensic examination. But, as she was instructed to do by a staff member at the forensics expertise center, she evaluated whether what was written [on the anti-war “price tags” that Ms. Skochilenko is alleged to have posted in a Petersburg supermarket] was in line with the Russian Defense Ministry’s position, not whether it was truthful.

[Safonova] admitted that her analysis of one of the messages was “slightly misleading.” She was “at a loss” when asked to respond to the assertion that Sasha faces up to ten years in prison on the basis of such misleading conclusions, among other things.

After a recess (due to her heart problems, Sasha found it difficult to endure the stuffiness and lack of water), the examination of the witness was continued by Drugoveyko-Dolzhanskaya. Safonova was forced to admit that among the sources against which she checked Sasha’s messages, only the Defense Ministry’s website corresponded to her own definition of an official source — unlike the website Life.ru and anonymous Telegram channels. She also could not answer a school curriculum-level question about impersonal sentences, although their erroneous definition in the forensic examination is one of the “proofs” of Sasha’s guilt.

In addition to pointing out the errors in the forensic examination and its noncompliance with government standards, Drugoveyko-Dolzhanskaya recalled that, according to the Justice Ministry’s methodological recommendations, when an expert strays beyond their area of professional competence, it is a procedural error and is inadmissible [as evidence in court]. Safonova was forced to agree. Drugoveyko-Dolzhanskaya followed this up by asking a direct question: “Can you, as an expert, prove conclusively that Skochilenko knowingly falsified information?”

Safonova replied that she could not.

The new prosecutor abruptly interrupted her and requested that the hearing be postponed.

You can come out and support Sasha at 11:30 a.m on June 13. Many thanks to everyone who continues to attend the trial, shares information about the case, and donates money to pay the lawyers and buy food and medicine care packages! You can help Sasha financially here:

+79627117055

(Sofia S., Sberbank)

5469550065976075

(Sberbank)

Source: Nadezhda Skochilenko (Facebook), 25 May 2023. Translated by the Russian Reader. The details for donating money to Ms. Skochilenko’s defense fund are only for people based in Russia.

[…]

Olga Safonova. Photo courtesy of The Village

In the late 1990s, St. Petersburg State University, for reasons unknown, gave away one of its dormitories on Vasilievsky Island — 10 Bering Street — with a two-story attic built on. Later, one of the university’s vice-rectors regretfully claimed that if the building had not been given away, the university would have had room to house over 500 students. Today, the building houses apartments (a three-bedroom flat there will run you 20 million rubles) and offices. It is owned by the Bering-10 Condominium Association, whose chair is Olga Diomidovna Safonova. She has the exact same name as an associate professor in the Faculty of Political Science at St. Petersburg State University.

Safonova has been involved as an expert witness in the criminal cases against [Petersburg anti-war protesters] Victoria Petrova, Sasha Skochilenko, and Vsevolod Korolev. They face up to ten years in prison if convicted. These are quotations from the expert analysis in the case against Victoria Petrova:

“Objective facts indicate that the war crimes against the civilian population of Ukraine have not been committed by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, but by the Kiev regime and the armed formations controlled by it.”

“The practical intent and purpose of the statements under examination [i.e., Victoria Petrova’s posts] consists in generating false ideas among readers (listeners) that the actions of the Russian federal leadership are condemned by society, as manifested by the threat of the use of nuclear weapons against Ukraine and against European countries. […] In the materials submitted for examination, the negative assessment of the policy of Russian federal state bodies vis-a-vis their deployment of Russian federal armed forces to protect the interests of the Russian Federation and its citizens and maintain international peace and security, is not supported by arguments and evidence.”

Safonova graduated first from St. Petersburg State University’s law faculty, then from its philology faculty. In 2005, she defended her dissertation in political science. Here is a quote from the abstract: “Social deprivation has become a characteristic feature of the lifestyle of a significant portion of the Russian populace. A drop in the level of real monetary income has entailed increased competition for survival, thereby generating an increase in the stratum of people whose intentions have become criminal, i.e., unlawful.”

At least until the mid-2010s, Safonova led an active social life. The Village found the academic’s picture in a dozen photo reportages from different parties, as published by Sobaka.ru and Geometria. Here she is at a presentation by the jewelry house Freywille; here, at the (now-closed) restaurant Gusto’s birthday party; and here, at the opening of XXXX Baltika Brew.

The Village spoke about Safonova with graduates of various faculties at St. Petersburg State University: their assessments of her were contradictory. Journalist Anastasia Romanova, who took Safonova’s lecture course on political science, remembered her as “the toughest teacher, whose pass-fail exam was very hard to pass.” “She honestly read the whole class the riot act,” said Romanova. “It was very scary to go to her.” Emile, a graduate of the political science faculty, where Safonova taught a course on law, recalls, on the contrary, that “the course was a formality,” and “at some point that woman just disappeared.” It was one of the easiest subjects to pass,” he said.

In 2012, commenting to Delovoi Peterburg on the newly adopted law on foreign agents, Safonova said, “There are many organizations that, under plausible pretexts, are engaged in near-subversive activities. We as a state should be concerned about this, and it’s good that this issue has been addressed.”

“I remember that Safonova gave what I thought were absurd descriptions of the political regimes in other countries. She said there was no democracy anywhere. It seems to me that most students found her unpleasant both as a teacher and as an apologist for the regime. A couple of days ago, a classmate sent me an article in Rotunda about her involvement in the expert analysis [in the case of Victoria Petrova]. I wasn’t surprised,” says Emile. Romanova adds, “She didn’t give the impression of being a stupid person. Arrogant, yes. I think she understands perfectly well what is happening now.”

[…]

Source: Julia Galkina, “Meet the experts who help jail anti-war protesters in Petersburg. They teach at St. Petersburg State University,” The Village, 14 March 2023. Translated by the Russian Reader

Maxim Drozhzhin: An LGBT Refugee from Russia

Maxim Drozhzhin. Courtesy of RFE/RL

Student expelled from St. Petersburg State University ensemble due to orientation has left Russia
Sever.Realii (Radio Svoboda)
December 17, 2021

Maxim Drozhzhin, a St. Petersburg State University student who was earlier expelled from the university folklore ensemble due to [his sexual] orientation, has left Russia, he has informed Sever.Realii. According to him, he left Russia because he was “tired of being afraid.”

“It was hard psychologically in Russia. Hurtful. You study for eight years, you try hard, you get an education, but then you can’t get a job anywhere. They check my social networks and it turns out that I don’t suit them because I’m gay. It’s crazy: you’re not even fit for an amateur group. I’ve also been accused of being an LGBT propagandist and a libertine. It all started at St. Petersburg State University: my department didn’t treat me very well. Everyone knew about the conflict with the ensemble,” Drozhzhin said.

The student added that there are “strong negative sentiments” in Russian society towards people or phenomena that are “disliked” by the authorities.

“Yesterday I called my mom for the first time and said that I had left. The first thing she asked me was, ‘I hope not to Ukraine?’ A lot of bad things are said about Ukraine, and people have a negative image [of it]. It’s the same thing with LGBT people. They can easily label me as a propagandist: they would start writing nasty things about me in the pro-government media, and people would treat me differently. Although I’m not even an LGBT activist—I don’t go on pickets, I don’t work in [LGBT] organizations, I just do creative work. I don’t hide my orientation. In Russia today, if you do not hide your orientation, you’re automatically an activist,” Drozhzhin said.

Maxim is currently living in a refugee center in a European country. (He did not specify where exactly.) According to the student, the conditions there are “very good,” even better than in the St. Petersburg State University dormitory where he had lived. He is the only Russian speaker in the center. He communicates with everyone in “broken” English.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be here. Whether I will be given [refugee] status or not is still unclear. They can say no, go back. But I don’t want to go back. It’s very hard for me in Russia,” Drozhzhin explains.

The student said that in Russia he had received threats from Timur Bulatov, the well-known homophobic activist.

“He wrote to me that they would not do anything physical to me, but they would punish me by law. After that, a certain Zhilina immediately filed a complaint against me with four different officials, and a probe into my posts on social networks was launched,” Maxim says.

He does not know the result of the police probe. Due to his departure he had “dropped out of life” and had not communicated with anyone about it.

In November, the police began probing Maxim Drozhzhin’s social media posts for “LGBT propaganda.” Drozhzhin, after consulting with a lawyer, refused to write an explanatory statement at the dormitory and asked the police to send a summons. Consequently, the student was summoned to the police department. There he learned that the complaint against him had been filed by Nadezhda Zhilina, head of the nonprofit We Are for Change. Zhilina explained to Sever.Realii that she had sent identically worded complaints to Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, and St. Petersburg State University Rector Nikolai Kropochev. In the complaint, Zhilina, on behalf of the “parental, patriotic and Orthodox community,” requested a probe into Drozhzhin for “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations, dissemination of personal information, [and] extremist activities directed against the country’s constitutional system.” In addition, she asked officials for information about Drozhzhin’s sources of income and requested that he be declared an individual “foreign agent media outlet.”

Translated by the Russian Reader