EXCLUSIVE: Russian woman who was identified as key source in Trump's 'golden shower' dossier denies links to the infamous report, as she's pictured for the first time
- Olga Galkina, from Russia, was identified as a key source in the dossier by British counterintelligence specialist Christopher Steele
- His report alleged Russian influence over Trump and contained salacious information about his reported conduct in a Moscow hotel room
- Galkina, 40, is a former employee of Kremlin-owned state media
- She is pictured for the first time in exclusive pictures obtained by DailyMail.com
- On Friday, she used her former state-owned media employer RIA Novosti on Friday to deny claims she was a key source in Steele's report
- She said: 'My mood is rather low because I did not expect this story at all and, of course, it complicated (my life) quite a lot'
- She claimed the allegations that she was a Steele source were 'not true', but gave little more detail
- Galkina was linked to the dossier this week and was described by The Wall Street Journal as a 'disgruntled PR executive' living in Cyprus
- Two foreign news outlets said she was behind a personal blog that boasted of nudity and palm reading, however there was no clear proof
A Russian woman identified as a key source in the dossier by British counterintelligence specialist Christopher Steele dossier is a former employee of Kremlin-owned state media.
Steele's infamous report was leaked weeks before Trump's inauguration, alleging Russian influence over him and contained salacious information about his reported conduct in a Moscow hotel room during the Miss Universe pageant.
Olga Galkina, 40, was linked to the dossier this week and was described by The Wall Street Journal as a 'disgruntled PR executive' living in Cyprus.
And while some people who know Galkina claim she's maverick who was unlikely to have access to secrets, others suggested she was well-connected.
Now, shown in exclusive pictures obtained by DailyMail.com, Galkina came forward on Friday to deny claims she was a key source in the Steele dossier.
She used her former state-owned media employer RIA Novosti to say in a statement: 'My mood is rather low because I did not expect this story at all and, of course, it complicated (my life) quite a lot.'
Olga Galkina, from Russia, was identified as a key source in the dossier by British counterintelligence specialist Christopher Steele
Olga Galkina, 40, was linked to the dossier this week and was described by The Wall Street Journal as a 'disgruntled PR executive' living in Cyprus
Christopher Steele's (pictured) infamous report was leaked weeks before Trump's inauguration, alleging Russian influence over him
The infamous dossier also contained salacious information about Trump's alleged conduct in a Moscow hotel room during the Miss Universe pageant
She claimed the allegations that she was a Steele source were 'not true', but gave little detail.
However, she did admit to knowing her former school friend Igor Danchenko, 42, who the WSJ claimed had recruited her into intelligence gathering for the former MI6 spy.
'We studied at the same school, but the thing is that after that he went to work and study in America,' she said.
'And we haven't seen each other for a long time. This is the thing… The story is that we were friends. And he was helping me.'
She worked as a journalist for state-funded RIA Novosti, working at the Russian parliament between 2003-05.
More than a decade ago she also worked for Rosbalt, a news outlet run by Natalya Cherkesova (Chaplina), wife of ex-security services high-ranking member Viktor Cherkesov, a Putin associate.
Galkina attracts startlingly different descriptions in her homeland.
In a varied career she was also a PR executive for Russia's environmental and nuclear watchdog Rostekhnadzor, which she left in 2011, around the time she moved to Cyprus.
In Cyprus, DailyMail.com was told by her acquaintances she was 'intelligent and professional', a woman who always looked 'well-polished', although she is now believed to have moved back to Russia.
However, she did admit to knowing her former school friend Igor Danchenko, 42, (pictured) who the WSJ claimed had recruited her into intelligence gathering for the former MI6 spy. 'We studied at the same school, but the thing is that after that he went to work and study in America,' she said
She worked as a journalist for state-funded RIA Novosti, working at the Russian parliament between 2003-05. More than a decade ago she also worked for Rosbalt, a news outlet run by Natalya Cherkesova (Chaplina), wife of ex-security services high-ranking member Viktor Cherkesov, a Putin associate
Galkina is seen as implicating the firm in a Russian secret services-sponsored bid hacking Democratic Party servers to collect damaging material on 2016 presidential election candidate Hillary Clinton
Russian businessman loses libel battle against Christopher Steele for claims in his Trump 'dirty dossier'
Aleksej Gubarev
On Friday, Russian businessman Aleksej Gubarev lost his libel battle against ex-MI6 spy Christopher Steele whose 'dirty dossier' on Donald Trump implicated him in hacking the Democrats in 2016.
Gubarev sued Steele for 'seriously defamatory allegations' that he had 'knowing involvement' in the DNC computer hack during the US election.
But a London judge ruled Gubarev did not prove Steele was responsible for the report's publication and so could not be made to pay damages.
Central accusations made in the dossier, which was funded by the Democrats, have been roundly rubbished and were largely thrown out by the Mueller report.
It was published by Buzzfeed News website in 2017 and contained outlandish claims of Trump hiring prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room as well as allegations of Russian collusion with the Republican candidate's campaign.
Gubarev and his company Webzilla took legal action against Steele and his intelligence company Orbis Business Intelligence after the dossier was published.\But her former boss in the marketing department at XBT Holding, Alexey Trankov, claimed: 'She (Olga Galkina) has long been in need of medical assistance….
'Of course, I'm not a doctor to give diagnoses, but I just want to say that she needs a doctor.'
Around the time she allegedly helped Steele in 2016, she became locked in a dispute with Aleksej Gubarev, owner of XBT Holding SA web-services company behind the Webzilla internet hosting unit.
It emerged that Galkina travelled to the US in spring 2016, the year of the last US president election. The purpose of her visit is unclear.
But after Donald Trump's win, she posted: 'I sincerely congratulate our (intelligent) ideological opponents on the victory of their candidate.
'For our comrades, we are thinking of organising a democratic retreat here,.
'It's only four years to wait, palm trees, again, Jay Z on the tape recorder.'
Galkina is seen as implicating the firm in a Russian secret services-sponsored bid hacking Democratic Party servers to collect damaging material on 2016 presidential election candidate Hillary Clinton.
Webzilla and Russian-born Cyprus resident Gubarev have strongly denied any involvement in the DNC hacking and he has since sued Steele for defamation in Britain.
Some Russian sources scathingly attacked a woman who earlier moved from journalism to PR and at one time also served as deputy head of the administration of Saratov city.
Prominent journalist, scriptwriter and director Roman Volobuev posted : 'Oh sh**, I KNOW the girl WSJ just named as the source of Steele dossier.
'(And yeah, she's probably made the whole thing up).'
He added, however, that she was 'everyone's acquaintance' and 'moderately shady'.
Others confirmed the mother-of-one had a wide circle of contacts.
But newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda stated: 'When she worked in Saratov, Olga was remembered by her frequent disappearances from the office when even her bosses couldn't reach her.
'Many believed that this was linked to alcohol.'
Yet when she lived in Limassol she was a member of an 'intellectual' Russian expat social club formed to discuss poetry.
Born in Perm, in the Urals, she has a degree in law and a further qualification in philology from the Peoples' Friendship University in Moscow.
Both news outlet Newsru in Moscow and the Russian-language Cyprus Daily News said she was behind a colourful but confused personal blog - however there was no clear evidence that this was correct. In one entry, the writer stated: 'Since my childhood I have been into palm reading, and I know quite a lot about this'
In a personal review of 2010 - when Galkina worked for the Kremlin environmental and nuclear watchdog - the blog attributed to her stated: 'The year was quiet, although not without adventures. Pleasant... Too much bisexuality. Festivals, hitch-hiking, sea, celebrations, two weeks in Moscow, a lot of games, nudity, nature, alcohol - there was leisure'
Galkina is portrayed by WSJ as the source of a claim that President Trump's (pictured in Moscow in 2013) ex-lawyer Michael Cohen secretly met Putin's intelligence officials in Prague to discuss payments for the hackers in the summer of 2016. The Russian woman was the 'most important contributor' to the Steele dossier, according to WSJ. She was 'Source 3' in the dossier, it was reported
Both news outlet Newsru in Moscow and the Russian-language Cyprus Daily News said she was behind a colourful but confused personal blog - however there was no clear evidence that this was correct.
In one entry, the writer stated: 'Since my childhood I have been into palm reading, and I know quite a lot about this.'
In a personal review of the year 2010 - when Galkina worked for the Kremlin environmental and nuclear watchdog - the blog attributed to her stated: 'The year was quiet, although not without adventures. Pleasant.
'In general successful and cheerful. Too much bisexuality. Festivals, hitch-hiking, sea, celebrations, two weeks in Moscow, a lot of games, nudity, nature, alcohol - there was leisure. Though, I worked a lot too.'
Another blog is clearly hers and it refers to a difficult break up with the father of her child.
Galkina is portrayed by WSJ as the source of a claim that President Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen secretly met Putin's intelligence officials in Prague to discuss payments for the hackers in the summer of 2016.
Cohen denied ever traveling there.
The Russian woman was the 'most important contributor' to the Steele dossier, according to WSJ.
She was 'Source 3' in the dossier, it was reported.
She was allegedly recruited to the Steele intelligence-gathering team by Danchenko, who now lives in the US.
Christopher Steele: The British ex-spy who authored the 'dirty dossier'
Christopher Steele, 55, embarked on a well-trodden path when he was recruited from Cambridge straight into MI6.
After a stint in London, he was stationed in Moscow just after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
He returned to London and in 2006 was made head of MI6's Russia desk, where he led the investigation into the poisoning of former Russian operative Alexander Litvinenko.
But he only became world-renowned after becoming a private intelligence consultant and writing the sensational Trump-Russia dossier in 2016.
His evidence was rubbished by Trump, but formed part of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
In an interview at Oxford University, Mr Steele said he had been questioned for 'two whole days' but was disappointed with Mueller's final report.
'I was surprised that very little of what I had discussed with them appeared in the final report.
He criticized the report for being 'too narrow' and failing to follow up on crucial evidence.
'There were many things about the report that were good… but other (aspects) that were not so good,' he said.
Mr Steele said the fact that 'a number of witnesses—including for instance, Donald Trump Jr.' had avoided being interviewed 'wasn't great.'
Dismissing longstanding allegations of political bias, he described himself as simply 'an opponent of President Putin.'
He said that Trump is naturally hostile toward the intelligence community.
'Trump himself doesn't like intelligence because its ground truth is inconvenient for him,' he said.
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