Inside Soviet recruitment: Kazakhstan’s former security chief claims Trump was a KGB asset

Alnur Mussayev alleges the USSR recruited Donald Trump / Photo: Shutterstock

Former Chairman of Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee (KNB) Alnur Mussayev claims that the Soviet KGB recruited Donald Trump before the collapse of the USSR, assigning him the alias Krasnov. He shared this assertion on his Facebook page.

«In 1987, I served in the Sixth Directorate of the KGB in Moscow. Our primary mission was recruiting businesspeople from capitalist countries. That year, our directorate recruited Donald Trump, a 40-year-old American businessman, under the pseudonym Krasnov,» Mussayev wrote.

He acknowledged that the idea of a U.S. president being a spy or an agent of influence for an adversary state might seem far-fetched, even beyond Hollywood’s imagination. However, he argued that nothing is impossible in the world of intelligence.

«Everything is possible, even the wildest and most unbelievable things,» Mussayev said. «For example, the recruitment of future heads of state, even the president of the U.S.»

In 2018, Mussayev lamented that Kazakhstan had not adequately monitored or evaluated Trump’s actions on the international stage or in U.S. domestic politics. He suggested that Trump’s policies were contributing to a shift in global standards and values.

«Donald Trump is on the hook with the FSB (Russia’s principal security agency and successor to the KGB) and swallows the bait deeper and deeper. Numerous circumstantial facts published in the media support this. There is a concept known as the recruitability of a target. Based on my experience in operational work with the KGB-KNB, I can say with certainty that Trump falls into the category of highly recruitable individuals. I have no doubt that Russia possesses kompromat (damaging information) on the U.S. president and that the Kremlin has been grooming him for years to ascend to the presidency of the world’s leading power,» Mussayev stated.

He claimed that the U.S. political elite is well aware of Trump’s dependence on the Kremlin but cannot openly acknowledge it due to the country’s global standing.

«Certainly, they conduct investigations, prosecute members of the president’s inner circle and publish critical reports. Prominent figures, including members of Congress, have called Trump a traitor. All of this is done in the hope that Trump will step down on his own or that the situation will lead to a ‘soft impeachment,’ removing him from office without formally recognizing him as a Russian agent,» Mussayev noted.

Various media outlets have previously alleged that Trump was recruited nearly 40 years ago and that the Kremlin has compromising material on him from his visits to Moscow in 1987 and 2013.

Additionally, New York Magazine has suggested that Trump’s reluctance to release his tax returns may stem from the possibility that he received financial support from Russia over many years through various channels.