Putin stated that while his name doesn’t figure in any of the millions of leaked documents, Western media has pushed claims of his involvement in the offshore companies through the Panama Papers.
Advertisement
Speaking in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, Peskov emphasized that “there is not a word about President Putin in those papers”, and dismissed the alleged link between Russian owners of offshore assets and Putin as a “product of imagination”.
Musician Sergei Roldugin, listed in the Panama Papers leak, did try to run a business, but not billion-dollar business, Vladimir Putin said. The ICIJ said the documents show how complex offshore financial deals channeled as much as $2 billion to a network of people linked to the Russian president.
The offshore scandal, following an investigation carried out by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, was the result of the leak of about 11.5 million documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossac Fonseca and involves government officials from Iceland, the UK, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and other countries.
Oppositionist legislator Dmitry Gudkov demanded explanations for the brief and incomplete coverage of the “Panama Papers” from the state media. “If we found information like this about the British Virgin Islands, the sum would be several times higher”.
But in Russian Federation, where state media closely hews to the Kremlin’s line, the allegations have either been played down or portrayed as part of an attempt to undermine the ruling elite before parliamentary elections later this year.
President Varela also promised to work with other countries over the revelations.
German lawmakers said on Thursday they plan to hold an urgent debate on the offshore leaks next week.
Advertisement
“Decisions have been made: we are creating a new federal executive body on the basis of the Interior Troops – creating the National Guard, which will handle the fight against terrorism, the fight against organised crime, and in close cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs”, said Putin in his statement. A judicial source said Spain had opened a money-laundering probe into the law firm. “That’s because offshore companies can easily be created in USA states such as Wyoming, Delaware or Nevada”.
