Vladimir Putin is the main target of the recent journalist investigation known as ‘The Panama Papers’, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday. He also expressed his disappointment with the quality of the journalistic work.
“They [the authors] stop at nothing, invent and falsify facts. They actually prepare themselves, make information public and then promote it in target audiences,” Peskov said.
He added that “there was nothing specific and new” about Putin personally in the materials, “there are no details, all the rest is based on allegations and speculations.” Therefore, the presidential administration sees no need to respond to such publications.
Peskov refused to comment on the possibility of launching checks against officials mentioned in the recently published investigation.
The Kremlin spokesman said that this “informational product” was meant for the public at home “though Putin does not appear anywhere in terms of evidence.”
“Though the investigation mentions other countries and other leaders, it is obvious for us that the main aim of such attacks was and is our president, especially in the context of upcoming parliamentary election and in the context of long-term prospects of presidential election in two years,” Peskov added.
Interestingly, the report claims that Peskov’s wife Tatiana Navka also had a hand in Russian top officials’ money laundering.
The massive leak of documents exposes the offshore holdings of 12 current and former world leaders and reveals how associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies. The leak also provides details of the hidden financial dealings of 128 more politicians, including Ilkham Aliyev, Petro Poroshenko, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and public officials around the world. More than 214,000 offshore entities appear in the leak, connected to people in more than 200 countries and territories.
