Epstein Secrets

ut Russia like it’s the worst place on earth. Russia’s great. —EDWARD SNOWDEN, Moscow, 2015 EFORE FLYING TO Moscow, I arranged to have dinner with Oliver Stone at an Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side of New York. I had greatly respected Stone’s ability as a film director after watching him work on Wa

E FLYING TO Moscow, I arranged to have dinner with Oliver Stone at an Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side of New York. I had greatly respected Stone’s ability as a film director after watching him work on Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, a film in which I had a cameo role. I had also debated Stone

SECRETS Alexander Litvinenko, I had interviewed Andrei Lugovoy. A former KGB officer assigned to protecting the Kremlin’s top members in the 1990s, Lugovoy later opened his own security company. In 2005, he became a business associate of Litvinenko’s in gathering informa- tion and made regular trips to L

tate Department explicitly told: Ibid. 175 “I had spent ten years”: Hill, “How ACLU Attorney Ben Wizner Became Snowden’s Lawyer.” 176 Inthe case of Stone’s movie: Irina Alexsander, “Edward Snowden’s Long, Strange Journey to Hollywood,” New York Times Magazine, Sept. 4, 2016. 176 “I went the first six

w with author. 248 $1 million: Mike Fleming Jr, “Oliver Stone Buys Edward Snowden Russian Lawyer's ‘Novel’ Abo

61 When I had been investigating: Edward Jay Epstein, The Annals of Unsolved Crime (Brooklyn: Melville House, 2013), 209-40. 262 “I don’t know him”: Lugovoy, interview with author. 264 It was rare: The vast majority of the fifteen American defectors to the Soviet Union in the Cold War, including Joel Bar

st of these clients were reputed to be part of Putin’s inner circle. To break the ice, I asked him about Oliver Stone. I knew he had a small role in Oliver Stone’s forthcoming movie “Snowden.” in which he plays Snowden’s lawyer in Moscow. “T was impressed by how few takes he needed to shoot my scene,” he answer

ived one call back from Kucherena’s assistant, Valentina Vladimirovna Kvirvova. She wanted to know how I knew Oliver Stone. He told her of my part in Stone’s movie Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps. That was the last he had heard from her. Meanwhile a Moscow based journalist told me that she had waited 1

terviewed a number of people in Moscow, including Andrei Lugovoy. A former KGB officer assigned to protecting the Kremlin’s top members in the 1990s, Lugovoy later opened his own security company. In 2005, he became a business associate of Litvinenko’s in gathering information, and made regular trips to Lo