Russian Presidential Press Secretary says ‘Panama Papers’ have nothing new on Putin
Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov says the “Panama Papers” contain nothing new about Vladimir Putin. “There is neither anything concrete nor new. There are no details,” said Peskov.
The Press Secretary says the Kremlin administration does not intend to comment on or to take legal action over Panama Papers publications, because they are based on speculation.
Peskov believes the main target of the Panama Papers is President Vladimir Putin, despite the fact 12 other world leaders are mentioned in the leaked documents. “What is clear is the degree of ‘Putin-phobia’ has reached such a level that it is not theoretically possible to speak about Russia, about successes and Russia's actions, in a positive way,” said the Press Secretary
The Press Secretary believes the leak of the Panama Papers were specifically intended to “kill” the good news about Russia's successes in Syria.
Peskov also commented on the allegations connecting his wife, Tatyana Navika, to several offshore companies. The Press Secretary said his wife “never had any offshore companies. She never opened any and so, accordingly, could never have closed [any].”
The Press Secretary said the Kremlin was “waiting for more qualifiable results” from the investigative journalists. “Here, if anything, I can express my disappointment. In many ways, to speak about this community [of journalists], the traditions of high-quality investigative journalism have disappeared completely,” said the Press Secretary.
Documents in the leaked Panama Papers appear to show Putin's close friend, the cellist Sergei Roldugin, owned offshore companies with several billion US dollars in turnover until 2015. Roldugin's companies, according to published documents, enabled the making of extremely lucrative deals involving shares and the transfer of from money from Russian billionaires and the taking on of non-performing loans.
Along with Putin, the Panama Paper connect offshore entities with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, King Salman of Saudi Arabia, relatives of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.