Why is Donald Trump being called ‘Krasnov’ after his latest deal with Putin? The truth behind the KGB claim

US President Donald Trump, in a policy reversal, announces a deal for Russian diesel with Vladimir Putin. White House under Trump, who has previously sanctioned other countries for buying Russian oil, interpreting it as financing Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

As per Trump’s Truth Social post, Putin had agreed to release 300,000 tonnes of diesel immediately “to the American and global marketplace,” followed by 500,000 tonnes in the next month and another million after that.

Since then, on social media, the name ‘Krasnov’ has been trending, and some people likewise pointed out Trump’s close association with the Kremlin, and some even go further, bringing back an old allegation that the US President was somehow appointed by the KGB, the Soviet Union’s intelligence agency.


“The Russians are hanging by a thread, and agent Krasnov must do his part to help his bosses in Moscow,” one X user wrote after the oil deal, interpreting that Trump is not favoring his countryman but doing it to save Putin and Russia from a ‘societal collapse.”


On February 20, 2025, a former KGB officer, Alnur Mussayev, claimed that Trump was 40 when he had been recruited under that codename in 1987. It set off a barrage of social media firestorm since, in that year, Trump visited Moscow.

After that, a series of X threads has appeared accusing the US President of being a Russian asset. However, Mussayev did not provide evidence to substantiate the claim that Trump was recruited by the KGB.

The former spy chief said in the viral Facebook post that he worked for the KGB's 6th Directorate. However, Euro News cited sources including the Encyclopedia of the Central Intelligence Agency, and fact checked that this department did not focus on “recruiting foreign intelligence,” but instead on “guarding against economic espionage.”

The outlet concluded it could not verify the allegation. “The amplification of the claims on social media has likely been intensified by the US president's foreign policy stance, which has been viewed as favourable to Russia,” the publication wrote in 2025.

Krasnov is a Russian surname derived from krasniy, meaning “red,” according to Euronews.

Allegations about Trump’s ties to Russian intelligence have circulated for years, and they are amplified on social media whenever he visits Russia or even has a phone conversation with Putin. In his 2021 book American Kompromat, journalist Craig Unger claimed Moscow had recruited Trump, citing former KGB officer Yuri Shvets as a key source.

Unger told Euronews there was a distinction between an agent and an asset: “While an agent is employed by and intelligence agency and paid, an asset is a reliable friend who will do favours,” he said.

Shvets alleged that the KGB first identified Trump as a potential asset in 1980, when he bought 200 television sets from a store he claimed was a KGB front. He goes on further to claim that Trump was approached during a 1987 trip to Moscow. After returning, Trump bought full-page newspaper ads criticizing US foreign policy.

“Trump had previously provided tabloid-fodder for the American press, but when he returned from Russia, he began portraying himself as a savvy foreign policy analyst,” Unger told the outlet.

These remain allegations; the claims have not been established that Trump was recruited by the KGB.