Putin pins an award on the man who allegedly hides his billions

Vladimir Putin has awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky to the cellist Sergei Roldugin, his longtime friend and a major figure in the “Panama Papers,” which journalists say suggest that Roldugin managed at least $2 billion in ill-gotten offshore money on behalf of Putin. 

The president awarded the Nevsky Order for Roldugin's “impeccable state service” and “outstanding achievements in the preparation and execution of important humanitarian foreign policy actions that contributed to the strengthening of friendship and peace between peoples.”

In the same executive order, Putin also awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky to the conductor Valery Gergiev, whose orchestra performed in the Syrian city of Palmyra, after ISIL forces were repelled from the area. Roldugin also participated in that performance.

The Order of Alexander Nevsky is awarded for outstanding achievements in economic, scientific, cultural, educational, and other socially useful spheres.

In the aftermath of the release of the Panama Papers, Vladimir Putin told reporters that he is proud to have friends like Sergey Roldugin, who the president says has spent almost all his earnings on musical instruments, which he donates to Russian state institutions.