What to know about the rumor Trump was recruited by KGB in 1987
Mussayev's post didn't state whether he personally recruited Trump or simply knew about the recruitment, nor did it state whether Trump actively participated in espionage or was just a potential asset.
Trump did visit Moscow in 1987, but there is no clear evidence suggesting he was actively recruited by the KGB during that trip or at any other time.
Mussayev's allegations that Trump was recruited by the KGB at that time don't line up with Mussayev's documented career path. Several biographies of him on Russian-language websites suggest that at the time Trump was supposedly recruited, Mussayev was working in the Soviet Union's Ministry of Internal Affairs, not the KGB.
Trump's pro-Russia stance (compared with other U.S. presidents) has fed into to past allegations that he is a Russian asset — for instance, the 2021 book "American Kompromat" featured an interview with a former KGB spy who also claimed the agency recruited Trump as an asset. Again, however, there is no clear evidence supporting this claim.
In February 2025, a rumor circulated online that U.S. President Donald Trump was recruited as an "asset" by Russian intelligence in the late 1980s and given the codename "Krasnov," following allegations from a former Soviet and Kazakh security official, Alnur Mussayev.
The claim spread on TikTok, Facebook and X, where one account published a thread in response to the rumor, purporting to tie together evidence to support it (archived, archived, archived, archived, archived).
(@anthony7andrews / X)
That user wrote: "Now that it's been reveals [sic] that Trump has been a Russian asset for 40 years named Krasnov by the FSB, I will write a simple thread of various pieces of information that solidifies the truth of everything I've written." At the time of publishing this article, the thread had been viewed more than 10 million times.
The claim gained traction when the news website The Daily Beast published a now-deleted story (archived) titled "Former Intelligence Officer Claims KGB Recruited Trump," using only Mussayev's Facebook post as a source. The article described Mussayev's allegations as "unfounded." We contacted The Daily Beast to ask why the story was deleted and will update this story if we get a response.
We also reached out to Mussayev for comment on the story and will update if he responds.
Meanwhile, Snopes readers wrote in and asked us whether the rumor that Trump was recruited to be a Russian asset was true. Here's what to know:
The allegations originated from a Facebook post that Mussayev published on Feb. 20, 2025 (archived). The post alleged that in 1987, the KGB recruited a "40-year-old businessman from the USA, Donald Trump, nicknamed 'Krasnov.'" Mussayev claimed he was serving in the KGB's Moscow-based Sixth Directorate at the time and it was "the most important direction" of the department's work to recruit businessmen from "capitalist countries."
Mussayev's post didn't specify whether Trump participated in any spying, only that he was recruited. In an earlier post (archived) from July 18, 2018, he described Trump's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin as follows:
Based on my experience of operational work at the KGB-KNB, I can say for sure that Trump belongs to the category of perfectly recruited people. I have no doubt that Russia has a compromise on the President of the United States, that for many years the Kremlin promoted Trump to the position of President of the main world power.
Trump did visit Moscow in 1987, reportedly to look at possible locations for luxury hotels. However, several Russian-language websites (of unknown trustworthiness) with short biographies of Mussayev revealed a discrepancy: While Mussayev claimed he worked in the Sixth Directorate of the KGB in 1987, those online biographies placed him in the KGB from 1979 until 1986, when he moved to the Soviet Union's Ministry of Internal Affairs. The biography of Mussayev on Lenta.ru attributed that information to a Kazakhstani historian named Daniyar Ashimbayev.
Moreover, according to a translated version of a Feb. 22, 2025, Russian-language post Ashimbayev made on his Telegram account, Mussayev had no connections to the First Directorate, the branch of the KGB responsible for recruiting foreign assets. (Ashimbayev noted that Mussayev could justify this by claiming his real responsibilities were top-secret information, however.)
Other sources corroborate that the Sixth Directorate's main focus was not foreign intelligence. The journalist and author W. Thomas Smith Jr.'s book "Encyclopedia of the Central Intelligence Agency" states that the directorate was responsible for "enforcing financial and trade laws, as well as guarding against economic espionage," while the First Chief Directorate was the KGB's main espionage arm.
Trump's relatively pro-Russian positions compared with those of other U.S. presidents have led to past allegations that he is or was a Russian asset in some way.
For instance, the controversial, flamboyant and untrustworthy Steele Dossier, released just before Trump took office in 2017, claimed Russia had incriminating tapes of Trump engaging in sexual activity with prostitutes in Moscow, among other scandalous accusations. CNN reported that the dossier's main source, Igor Danchenko, was mainly relaying "rumor and speculation," and in 2022, he was acquitted of charges of lying to the FBI about the dossier's sources.
In the 2021 book "American Kompromat," journalist Craig Unger interviewed a former KGB spy, Yuri Shvets, who also alleged that Trump was compromised by Russia. Snopes previously covered that claim. The British newspaper The Guardian reported that Shvets had said Trump was "cultivated as a Russian asset over 40 years".
Shvets claimed Trump first appeared on the Russians' radar in 1977, when he was the target of a spying operation — 10 years before the recruitment alleged by Mussayev took place. Shvets said the KGB later went on a "charm offensive" when Trump visited Moscow and St. Petersburg for the first time in 1987 — the same year specified by Mussayev. Shvets told The Guardian that Trump proved so willing to spread anti-Western propaganda that there were celebrations in Moscow. We aren't aware of any evidence corroborating these claims.
The Mueller report documented the official findings of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as allegations of conspiracy or coordination between Trump's presidential campaign and the Kremlin. That investigation — which found that the Russian government did interfere in the 2016 presidential election "in sweeping and systemic fashion" and that there were "links" between Trump campaign officials and individuals with ties to the Russian government — did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.
Cohen, Marshall. "The Steele Dossier: A Reckoning | CNN Politics." CNN, 18 Nov. 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/18/politics/steele-dossier-reckoning/index.html.
"Donald Trump's Russian Spy Connection: Social Media Explodes with 'Evidence' about #Krasnov. Is It Just Another Wild Conspiracy Theory?" The Economic Times, 23 Feb. 2025. The Economic Times - The Times of India, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/donald-trumps-russian-spy-connection-social-media-explodes-with-evidence-about-krasnov-is-it-just-another-wild-conspiracy-theory/articleshow/118504492.cms?from=mdr.
Former Intelligence Officer Alnur Mussayev Claims KGB Recruited Donald Trump Under Codename 'Krasnov.' 21 Feb. 2025, https://web.archive.org/web/20250221153932/https://www.thedailybeast.com/former-intelligence-officer-alnur-mussayev-claims-kgb-recruited-donald-trump-under-codename-krasnov/.
Kazakh Ex-Security Chief's False 'Trump KGB Recruitment Story' Gains Media Traction - The Times Of Central Asia. 24 Feb. 2025, https://timesca.com/kazakh-ex-security-chiefs-false-trump-kgb-recruitment-story-gains-media-traction/.
Luczkiw, Stash. "'Trump Recruited as Moscow Asset,' Says Ex-KGB Spy Chief." Kyiv Post, 22 Feb. 2025, https://www.kyivpost.com/post/47630.
Muller, Robert. Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election. U.S. Department of Justice, Mar. 2019, https://www.justice.gov/archives/sco/file/1373816/dl?inline=.
No Label Defined. https://entities.oclc.org/worldcat/entity/E39PBJvCWC3XXtyfvww8DjpQMP.html. Accessed 24 Feb. 2025.
Palma, Bethania. "Did Ex-KGB Spy Say Russia Cultivated Trump as an 'Asset' for 40 Years?" Snopes, 2 Feb. 2021, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/kgb-spy-russia/.
Polantz, Katelyn. "How the FBI Attempted to Verify a Salacious Allegation in the Steele Dossier | CNN Politics." CNN, 9 Dec. 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/09/politics/fbi-steele-dossier/index.html.
Smith, David. "'The Perfect Target': Russia Cultivated Trump as Asset for 40 Years – Ex-KGB Spy." The Guardian, 29 Jan. 2021. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/29/trump-russia-asset-claims-former-kgb-spy-new-book.
Smith, W. Thomas, and W. Thomas Smith. Encyclopedia of the Central Intelligence Agency. Infobase Publishing, 2003.
"The Daily Beast Publishes, Then Deletes Story Alleging Trump Was Recruited by Soviet Spies." Yahoo News, 22 Feb. 2025, https://www.yahoo.com/news/daily-beast-publishes-then-deletes-234051086.html.
Trump-Russia Steele Dossier Source Acquitted of Lying to FBI. 18 Oct. 2022. www.bbc.com, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63305382.
Unger, Craig. American Kompromat: How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power, and Treachery. Penguin, 2021.
Web Page Template. https://academic.mu.edu/meissnerd/kgb.html. Accessed 24 Feb. 2025.
"Who Is Alnur Mussayev? The Former USSR KGB Officer at the Center of Explosive Donald Trump 'Russian Spy' Allegations." The Economic Times, 23 Feb. 2025. The Economic Times - The Times of India, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/who-is-alnur-mussayev-the-former-ussr-kgb-officer-at-the-center-of-explosive-donald-trump-russian-spy-allegations/articleshow/118489046.cms?from=mdr.
"Мусаев, Альнур." Lenta.RU, https://lenta.ru/lib/14190507/. Accessed 24 Feb. 2025.
МУСАЕВ Альнур Альжапарович | ЦентрАзия. https://centrasia.org/person2.php?st=1130843514. Accessed 24 Feb. 2025.
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