| --- |
| title: "House Oversight: Estate Documents (Nov 12) (HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019755)" |
| source: "House Oversight: Estate Documents (Nov 12)" |
| sourceUrl: "https://www.justice.gov/epstein" |
| date: "2026-01-01" |
| category: "House Oversight" |
| eftaNumber: "HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019755" |
| ocrPages: 1 |
| ocrChars: 2362 |
| ocrElapsed: 0.0 |
| parseTier: "external-legacy" |
| engine: "engine undisclosed (ep-nov-12.greg.technology mirror)" |
| externalSource: "greg-ep-nov-12" |
| externalLicense: "not granted" |
| externalCredit: "ep-nov-12.greg.technology" |
| externalUrl: "https://ep-nov-12.greg.technology" |
| --- |
| |
| The Handler | 267 |
| When I arrived at Kucherena's office, I was with my translator |
| Zamir. (Kucherena did not speak English.) I arrived ten minutes |
| early, and a receptionist showed me into a well-lit square room |
| with an elegant table in the center. There was a sumptuous basket |
| of exotic fruits on the table and large portraits of racehorses on the |
| walls. Another door opened, and a tall, graceful woman came into the |
| room and introduced herself as Valentina. She was wearing a well- |
| fitting black dress, a striking jade necklace, and high heels. When |
| she asked whether we would like anything to drink, it seemed more |
| like the prelude to an elegant dinner party than an interview about |
| Snowden. |
| Valentina spoke very good English. She apologized for the delay |
| in responding to my requests, explaining that she received "thou- |
| sands of requests" for interviews and did not have time to answer |
| them. When I asked how many were answered, she shrugged and |
| said, "Not many." |
| At that moment, Kucherena entered with a jaunty step, a cherubic |
| face, and untamed white hair. He was wearing gray slacks, a partially |
| buttoned cashmere polo sweater, and a fully engaging smile. |
| As I had learned from his entry in Wikipedia, he was born in a |
| small village in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldavia in 1960 |
| and had obtained his law degree from the All-Union Correspon- |
| dence Law Institute in 1991. He opened his own law firm in Mos- |
| cow in 1995. Kucherena's well-known friendship with Putin had |
| evidently not hurt his law practice. His clients had included such |
| well-connected defendants as Viktor Yanukovych, the president of |
| Ukraine overthrown in 2014; Grigory Leps, a Russian singer black- |
| listed by the United States for allegedly acting as a money courier |
| for a Eurasian criminal organization; Valentine Kovalev, a former |
| Russian minister of justice charged with corruption; and Suleyman |
| Kerimov, a civil servant from Dagestan who had amassed an esti- |
| mated fortune of $7.1 billion. Kerimov had recently been charged |
| for manipulating the price of potash in Belarus. Most of these clients |
| were reputed to be part of Putin's inner circle. |
| To break the ice, I asked Kucherena about Oliver Stone. I knew |
| he had a small role in Stone's forthcoming movie, in which he plays |
| Snowden's lawyer in Moscow. |
| Epst_9780451494566_ 2p_all_r1.indd 267 |
| 9/30/16 8:13 AM |
| HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019755 |
|
|
