He discussed a variety of topics, and assured ordinary Russians that he is trying to relieve the hardships they face in wake of an economic recession.
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The Kremlin has issued a rare apology after President Vladimir Putin alleged US interests were behind reports that people close to him had stashed funds in offshore accounts.
“It is more the error of those who prepared the briefing documents, my error”, Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, told reporters.
“Süddeutsche Zeitung is part of a media holding, which in turn is owned by the U.S. financial corporation Goldman Sachs”, Putin said. “It’s a smoking gun”.
In an article on Friday, Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung denied it was owned by Goldman Sachs.
Suddeutsche Zeitung director Stefan Hilscher later said that the paper “does not belong to Goldman Sachs, either directly or indirectly”. “Who is behind all those provocations?”
“Rather, it is our mistake, those who prepared [the information]. We know that there are some employees of the USA state institutions”. “There really was unverified information concerning the owners of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, we didn’t double-check and gave it to the president”. The report dubbed the Panama Papers is based on information leaks from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, which provides assistance in registering companies in offshore zones. “We have apologised [to the bank] and we will also apologise to the publication”.
“Strange as it might seem, they don’t publish inaccurate information about the offshores”, Putin said.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin, center left, stands next to TV presenter Valeria Korablyova, during his marathon call-in TV show in Moscow, Russia on Thursday, April 14, 2016. The Kremlin maintains the transactions constituted no wrongdoing, and none of the publications implicated Putin directly.
