A former Stirling University academic who became embroiled in the US Trump-Russia investigation appears to have re-emerged after vanishing two years ago.

An audio recording purported to be of Professor Joseph Mifsud has been released by an Italian newspaper in which he defends himself against charges he is an intelligence asset.

The mysterious Maltese academic quit his post at Stirling in November 2017 in the wake of revelations he had allegedly set up meetings between a Donald Trump campaign aide and Russian officials.

A US criminal indictment quoted emails and summarised verbal communications in 2016 between ex-Trump aide George Papadopoulos and an anonymous academic, later named as Prof Mifsud.

The interactions between the pair include Mifsud allegedly informing Papadopoulos of Russian "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails", an accusation the academic has always denied.

Last year, Papadopoulos was jailed for 14 days for lying to US federal prosecutors about his dealings with the Stirling professor.

A wide-ranging lawsuit by the DNC - the formal governing body of the US Democratic Party - accused Mifsud of being a "Russian agent" and of having "substantial connections" with the Kremlin.

Milan-based publication Corriere della Sera received the supposed recording of Mifsud through an anonymous email account.

A former colleague of Mifsud's at Stirling who has listened to the recording told STV News that, in his mind, "there's no doubt that this is Joseph speaking".

Mifsud went to ground after the first media revelations of his role in the Trump-Russia probe, disappearing both from his post at Stirling and another at an Italian university. His whereabouts are still unknown.

The audio begins: "Today is the 11th of November 2019. I am Joseph Mifsud speaking, this is my voice.

"I would like, first of all, to say that I have absolutely no contact with friends and family and have had no contact with friends and family for a number of months now.

"It's been almost two years to date that the whole issue, blown-up issue, has been presented to the world media and on the world stage as if I had something to do with issues concerning countries or trying to infiltrate."

The man in the recording goes on to describe as "absolutely absurd" the notion he was involved with any "secret service, intelligence service or anybody of this sort" - and that if he was, he would not have known it.

"I have been a networker all my life. This is what I am good at. I try to bring one group in contact with another," he adds.

"I've tried to do nothing else, except - as I have always done - put A in contact with B, B with contact with C, for purely... I would call academic purposes, okay?

"The idea is to have networks. I've always been involved with think tanks. These think tanks were meant to bring one group to speak to the other about a topical issue. That is all.

"It was not my intent - never was my intent - to try to obtain any information to pass from one side to the other.

"I have never done so because I was never, never in possession of any information which could be useful to one or the other."

The US indictment against Papadopoulos said Mifsud put the aide in contact with a man who had links to Russia's ministry of foreign affairs.

Mifsud also allegedly arranged a meeting in London where he introduced a young Russian woman to Papadopoulos, falsely claiming she was Vladimir Putin's niece.

At the time, he was employed as a part-time professorial teaching fellow at Stirling, but questions later arose about Mifsud's academic credentials.

The university first hired him in December 2014 on the basis of a portfolio which it said "encompassed international affairs and diplomacy reflecting his academic and professional background in this field".

But there has never been any public evidence of academic research in these fields by Mifsud, who first become involved with Stirling in his time as director of the London Academy of Diplomacy (LAD).

Master's degrees at LAD were accredited by the Scottish university under a partnership signed off in 2014.

But that year, the now-defunct London institution operated at an annual loss of £3.8m and clocked up "administrative expenses" of £7.5m.

In 2016, Stirling management boasted to the university's politics department of the Maltese academic's links to Putin and the Russian state through Valdai, a Moscow-based think tank, in emails first revealed by STV News.

In the recording, the man claiming to be Mifsud addresses Stirling and other academic institutions where he was involved, including Link Campus University in Rome and East Anglia University.

He says: "In terms of the institutions that I represented in the past, I can assure you, both in the UK, in Italy and elsewhere, I always tried to make sure that young people have the opportunity of interacting with each other.

"That is all."

He goes on to thank those who advised him to keep a "low profile" over the last two years as showing him "the hand of friendship".

His involvement at Link Campus has more recently been the basis for a conspiracy theory popular among Trump supporters that Mifsud was in fact working for Western intelligence agencies to entrap the then-US presidential candidate in 2016.

Trump's attorney general William Barr is thought to be investigating this theory as part of a probe into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation carried out by former US special counsel Robert Mueller.

On the Link Campus claims, the man in the recording says: "I categorically refute and refuse to accept any of this. There has never been anything of the sort."

The audio concludes: "I have kept out of the limelight, I have tried to keep myself busy mentally. It is extremely important... that I am given the possibility of coming back to life.

"It has been very, very difficult for me to live like this, without any human contact, without a human experience, and I believe I should be given the opportunity to do that.

"It is extremely important that somebody somewhere decides to let me breathe again."

Andrew Glencross, who taught international politics at Stirling between 2013 and 2016 and was familiar with Mifsud, believes the recording to be genuine.

He told STV: "In my mind there's no doubt that this is Joseph speaking - I recognise the accent and the imagery about the hand of friendship is exactly the kind of idiom he tended to use.

"It's a relief to hear he's safe, but also suitably mysterious that he appears as a disembodied voice.

"I believe him when he says his great skill was networking and putting people in contact with one another.

"That definitely explains the jet-setting lifestyle where he notched up thousands of air miles going from conference to conference.

"Yet he must realise how tantalising this message is and why it can only fuel further interest in this story."

Mr Glencross added: "He claims he was under no pressure to hide and still he does not dare appear in person.

"He seems keen to dispel aspersions about potential intelligence contacts in Italy, while also pleading to be allowed to return to a normal life as if this decision is in someone else's hands.

"These contradictions are the hallmark of the ongoing Joseph Mifsud drama."

A spokesman for Stirling University declined to comment.

"Today is the 11th of November 2019. I am Joseph Mifsud, speaking, this is my voice.

"I would like, first of all, to say that I have absolutely no contact with friends and family and have had no contact with friends and family for a number of months now.

"It's been almost two years to date that the whole issue, blown-up issue, has been presented to the world media and on the world stage as if I had something to do with issues concerning countries or trying to infiltrate - absolutely absurd - programs, contacts or any other institutions of the world.

"I have been a networker all my life. This is what I am good at. I try to bring one group in contact with another.

"Not - not, I repeat and underline - nobody in any service, secret service, intelligence service or anybody of this sort.

"If I had any contact with this, I have not known that this person or that person had any link with any institution, so this is extremely important.

"I have, and I categorically refute, as I did in the only two interventions which I made, one in the Italian La Repubblica and the other one when I was called on the initial day, I think it was the first day when all this broke out, by The Daily Telegraph in London.

"I have had nothing to do, I've tried to do nothing else, except - as I have always done - put A in contact with B, B with contact with C, for purely, for purely... I would call academic purposes, okay?

"The idea is to have networks. I've always been involved with think tanks. These think tanks were meant to bring one group to speak to the other about a topical issue. That is all.

"It was not my intent - never was my intent - to try to obtain any information to pass from one side to the other.

"I have never done so because I was never, never in possession of any information which could be useful to one or the other. All I knew were people - people who came from think tanks.

"In terms of the institutions that I represented in the past, I can assure you, both in the UK, in Italy and elsewhere, I always tried to make sure that young people have the opportunity of interacting with each other.

"That is all.

"So, I've been reliably informed recently that Link campus has been accused of setting issues or being involved with services. I categorically refute and refuse to accept any of this. There has never been anything of the sort.

"I've had friends and acquaintances, obviously, from the university but it is important to say that these were representing their own interests so it was not me trying to put them in touch with somebody else. They never asked me and I never, absolutely never, never tried to that.

"Whenever I met somebody - and this has been proven over and over again - I tried to keep that person or that institution in mind if there is going to be a project or an event in which that institution can actually play a part in. That is what I try to be.

"I've always considered myself as also, according to my Catholic creed, to be a bridge-builder, building between one and the other. That is all that I wish to do.

"Obviously I have my own mind about certain things, so if somebody asks me how things are going to be, what do I think will happen, I obviously have an opinion like every other human being in this world.

"So it is very, very, very clear, and I repeat that there was no - how would I call it? - pressure, there was only advice by my friends, whom I consider to be my friends and they will always be my friends because they've shown me the hand of friendship.

"To actually, during the whole explosion of news over the world, two years to date, to actually keep a low profile and spend some time thinking and reflecting about what the events were actually saying, and that is what I have done.

"I have kept out of the limelight, I have tried to keep myself busy mentally.

"It is extremely important, finally, as I've just mentioned, that I am given the possibility of coming back to life. It has been very, very difficult for me to live like this, without any human contact, without a human experience, and I believe I should be given the opportunity to do that.

"It is extremely important that somebody somewhere decides to let me breathe again. Thank you very much."