/ world today news/ On Sunday (April 3), the so-called “Panama Gate” broke out, in which accusations were made against world celebrities and political figures for tax evasion in offshore accounts. Publications on the subject were made in many media such as the Guardian, Zürich Zeitung, the Russian liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which caused a wave of comments and questions. “Russian Diary” got acquainted with a small part of the statements and publications, which are so large in volume (11.5 million documents) that, according to some journalists, it takes 26 years to read them in their entirety.
One part of an international investigation by journalists into an offshore corruption network of politicians and businessmen is devoted to Russia. At its center was the famous virtuoso musician and godfather of Putin’s daughter Sergey Roldugin.
On Sunday (April 3), the International Consortium for Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) presented an investigation with allegations against politicians and businessmen in Russia and around the world. Based on a part of the database of the Panamanian company Mossac Fonseca, which is the fourth largest law firm in the world, obtained from an unknown source, the ICIJ tells about corrupt deals with thousands of companies hidden in offshore areas.
The authenticity of the documents has not been officially confirmed by anyone, moreover, the Mossack Fonseca company itself has stated that it refuses to certify their authenticity and called the actions of the journalists a crime. One of the founders of the company, Ramon Fonseca, in an interview with the Panamanian television channel TVN, stated that some documents were indeed stolen from Mossack Fonseca, but did not specify what documents they were.
One of the parts of this investigation is dedicated to 13 politicians and businessmen from Russia. It is hinted that the activities of some of them are indirectly related to the head of state of the Russian Federation.
“An information product has definitely been created, which is intended for our domestic Russian and domestic political scene. The product is for the Russian audience. Although Putin does not appear factually anywhere and despite the mention of other leaders and countries, it is obvious to us that the main target of such smears is our president, especially in the context of the upcoming parliamentary elections and in a longer-term perspective – the presidential elections after two years… And also in general, probably the political stability of our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Peskov also stated that Putinophobia in the West has reached such a degree that a priori one should not say anything good about Russia. “In this sense, such events are also intended for external use. Obviously, it turns out that saying something good about Russia, about some of its actions, about its successes is not axiomatic. One must speak badly, one must speak very badly about Russia, profusely, and when there is nothing, something must be prepared. For us, this is obvious,” said Peskov.
According to ICIJ journalists, a key role in the offshore network of the Russian government and the president is played by Sergei Roldugin – a famous violinist from St. Petersburg and a close friend of the Russian president. ICIJ has decided that the world-renowned maestro has long lived a double life: on the one hand, he is a modest but popular musician, teacher; and on the other hand – a “guardian of Putin’s money”, who holds in his hands trusts and offshore companies with a turnover of several billion dollars.
“I’m not a businessman, I don’t have millions”
Roldugin never hid his long and healthy friendship with Putin. In the main biography of the Russian president, From the First Person (2000), he recounts how they met in 1977 and “have not parted since.”
“He’s like a brother to me. Before, when I had nowhere to live, I went to him – I slept and ate there,” Sergey Roldugin recalls in the book. They went to the theater together with the “lovely girl Lyuda”, who later became First Lady Lyudmila Putina; they got into street fights together; walked around Leningrad at night (in 1991, the city returned its historical name of St. Petersburg). Roldugin became the godfather of Putin’s first daughter, Masha. After graduating from the Leningrad Conservatory, Roldugin went on tour in Japan. “I had more money than Vovka (Putin). From his business trips, I brought souvenirs, some T-shirts,” he says.
Indeed, in Russia, Sergei Radulgin’s name is not mentioned when it comes to Putin’s friends. In the media, he usually falls into another context: soloist and conductor of the Mariinsky Theater, music manager, patron. Rarely mentioned is his minority stake in Bank Russia, which Russian and Western media often refer to as “the personal bank of Putin’s inner circle.”
According to the bank’s documents, Roldugin became a shareholder in it in 2005 and acquired a share of 3.96% of the capital in additional issues for 375 million rubles ($13,300,000 at the exchange rate of 2005). He has always emphasized that he is not interested in big business. “I’m not a businessman, I don’t have millions,” said the maestro in 2014 in an interview with The New York Times. According to the Russian publication RBC, he was not involved in the management of the bank.
After that, for some time the famous cellist tried to combine his successful creative activity with a post in the administration. For a year, he was rector of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, after which he was offered the post of Minister of Culture. But at the same time, in 2005, Roldugin became the artistic director of the St. Petersburg House of Music, after which this organization received the building of a palace from the XIX century.
Its restoration was partially financed by the same bank “Russia”, and the state monopoly “Gazprom”, in the words of Roldugin himself, “donated the grand pianos”.
Or an offshore king?
To this day, the maestro unobtrusively draws attention to the lack of business interests: he is only interested in music, only the cello, and, as he claims, second fiddle.
But the Mossack Fonseca leak suggests that Roldugin is the king of an offshore empire, say Novaya Gazeta reporters who participated in the ICIJ investigation and are responsible for its Russian part. According to the revelations, he had four companies (two he owned directly and another two through related parties). Through them, as indicated in the report, tens of millions of rubles per day passed from oligarchs-businessmen (also friends of Putin), after which this money went to dubious deals and was invested in the purchase of strategic assets in the country (“Kamaz”, “Avtovaz”, the key player in the TV advertising market “Video International”), or in “vacation” assets – palaces, yacht clubs, resorts.
At the same time, the report says, these companies received loans under economically inappropriate conditions.
Thus, the Panamanian “wallets” of Putin’s friends turned out to have a fortune of $2 billion, the journalists calculated. But what does the president have to do with this? According to a person who knows Roldugin, “Novaya Gazeta” writes, “the president needed a person he could trust 100% so that through his ‘department’ he could monitor the real state of things.” “Call him a ‘guardian,'” another person close to the cellist told the publication.
Sergey Roldugin himself answered the journalists’ question about his alleged Panamanian offshore companies: “I was associated with this business a long time ago. Even before the perestroika. That’s how it turned out. And then it started to evolve and these things came out. The House of Music is also subsidized from this money. This is the subject of a separate conversation.”
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