Pandora Papers: Russia’s response to the leak about Putin’s hidden money and luxuries

The Kremlin today questioned the veracity of the Pandora Papers, after the revelations of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ, in English), accused several people around the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, of questionable financial activities.

“We know well the work of that organization, we know where they get the information from, how they get it”, said the spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dmitri Peskov, noting that these documents “raise questions, so we do not understand how this information can be trusted.”

He asserted in his daily telephone press conference that the Kremlin nowhere saw “the hidden riches of Putin’s environment.”

“I do not know if there will be more publications, but for now we did not see anything special”, said.

The spokesman for the Russian Presidency indicated that the Russian authorities will not react to the publication of these documents, since “at the moment it is not very clear what this information is about”, and “they do not constitute a reason to initiate any type of investigation.”

“There should be a serious post first”, concluded.

Of course, he observed that the Pandora papers make it clear that the United States is the country with the largest “tax loopholes” and “tax loopholes” worldwide.

“This marks a great distance from the statements (of Washington) about the intention to combat corruption, tax evasion and money laundering, but that is the reality we have. We see that the US is the main tax loophole worldwide “, he stressed.

The Pandora Papers revealed this Sunday an extensive investigation that includes thirty-five world leaders, including 14 Latin Americans, who operated in tax havens to avoid public scrutiny.

The investigation Pandora Papers has uncovered how the global elite used a web of trusts and shell companies in places like the British Virgin Islands, Panama or the US state of South Dakota to avoid paying taxes.

The investigation is based on 11.9 million files from 14 law firms that created companies in tax havens and represents the largest leak in history, surpassing the “Panama Papers” published in 2016 and which opened a worldwide debate on corruption. .

Among the names indicated in Russia They include the director general of the First Russian Television Channel, Konstantin Ernst, known as Putin’s “unofficial minister of propaganda”; Svetlana Krivonoguij, a close friend of the president and supposedly the mother of his third daughter; and relatives of the director of Rostec, Sergei Chemezov.

In addition, the revelations point to the head of the presidential administration Anton Vaino, the son-in-law of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Alexandr Vinokurov, and the vice president of Rostelecom, Vladimir Kiriyenko, son of Sergei Kiriyenko, President Putin’s deputy chief of staff.

Russia’s state agencies omitted any mention of the presence of Russian names in the Pandora PapersAlthough independent media such as Meduza and newspapers such as RBC did collect the information.

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