MOSCOW — Russia said Monday that President Vladimir Putin was the main target of an unprecedented media leak into the financial activity of wealthy individuals who hold accounts offshore.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, told the Russian news agency Interfax that it was "obvious" the aim of the anonymous release of more than 11 million documents belonging to a law firm in Panama — Mossack Fonseca — was to undermine the president ahead of parliamentary elections expected in September. Peskov said Putin had not committed any crime.
While Putin's name does not appear on any of the records published Sunday by a massive coordinated investigation with dozens of media groups, the paper trail does show that many of his associates and close friends — including musician Sergei Roldugin, godfather to his daughter Maria and the man who introduced him to his wife Lyudmilla — made millions from deals that would have been hard to do without his knowledge. Ahead of the leak, the Kremlin said it was aware that an organization was trying to smear the president.
An unnamed spokesman for businessman Arkady Rotenberg confirmed to the RBC news service that Rotenberg had given loans to Roldugin, but the loans were commercial and several times smaller than the ones alleged in the documents just released.
According to the report, Roldugin controlled two offshore companies — Sonnette Overseas and International Media Oversees — which received loans from three offshore companies belonging to Rotenberg totaling $185 million.
Russian state-owned television largely ignored the reports, with the exception of the NTV station, which cited the Kremlin referring to the allegations as “Putinophobia.”
“It is clear that the degree of Putinophobia has reached a level where it is ... impossible to say anything good about Russia, about its successes,” Putin spokesman Peskov said, according to NTV.
A handful of activists held protests Monday near the Kremlin, holding up signs calling for Putin’s impeachment.
Russian member of parliament Alexander Tarnavsky said as much as 80% of the Russian economy is currently controlled by offshore companies, the TASS news agency reported. Russia’s state Duma has pledged to fight this problem and bring capital back into the country, but its success has been largely questioned by critics.
Elsewhere, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, Iceland's center-right prime minister, faces a confidence vote in parliament later Monday over allegations that he deliberately hid vast holdings in troubled Icelandic banks in a complicated web of deceit that includes his wife. He denies any wrongdoing. Public protests are also scheduled outside parliament.
French President François Hollande said the leaked documents amounted to "good news" because they would allow authorities to recover money from tax evaders.
“The whistle-blowers do a useful work for the international community; they’re taking risks, so they must be protected,” Hollande said, speaking to reporters outside Paris.
Mossack Fonseca, the Panamanian law firm at the center of the leaks, maintains that it has always acted legally and followed international regulations.
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