MOSCOW (Staff Report) – One week after International Consortium of Investigation Journalists (ICIJ) released Panama Papers which revealed that several politicians and their close associates had established offshore companies to evade taxes, Russian President Vladimir Putin has finally accepted that information detailed in massive document leak was correct.
Previously, responding to Panama Papers, Moscow had categorically dismissed information about President Putin and his close friends, saying that confidential files leak was an attack against Russian President.
Related – Russia President Putin rejects Panama Papers allegations
However, during his annual phone-in with the nation, Putin said that revelations about his old friend Sergei Roldugin mentioned in Panama Papers were true, while responding to a question if he was going sue western media for Panama Papers allegation. The files implicate no illegal activity on my part, he added.
Putin further stated that he has a feeling that Panama Papers were not originally released by journalists but he has a feeling that US backed lawyers have presented the document leak.
They have attempted to create confusion by saying that some of my friends are involved in offshore companies business, and it has nothing to do with my presidency, he maintained.
On the occasion, Putin, however, avoided to mention the details about offshore companies owned by his spokesman’s wife.
Mr Dmitry Peskov’s wife, Tatiana Navka, has been accused of being a beneficial owner of a secret offshore firm. But Peskov has claimed that his wife “does not and has never” owned any offshore companies as mentioned in Panama Papers.
