Putin Says Panama Papers Part of US Plot to Weaken Russia (go.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Russia President Vladimir Putin says he has no links to offshore accounts unveiled in the Panama Papers. Moreover, Putin believes that these leaks are part of Western efforts to weaken Russia. As ABC News reports, Putin criticised Western media for involving his name in offshore business even though his name didn't feature in any of the leaked documents. Speaking in St Petersburg, Putin added that it certainly seems like a US-led disinformation campaign waged against Russia. Putin also defended a cellist friend who was named as the alleged owner of an offshore company, noting that his friend is a philanthropist.People in Russia, sadly, don't seem to care much about Panama Papers. As Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports, most Russians haven't heard of -- or don't care about -- the Panama Papers. The media house interviewed 30 people on the street, of which it found only 1 person thought it was wrong. (video).

Comments

And out came the conspiracy theorists ...

[BarbaraHudson]

The conspiracy theorists are playing right along by saying there are no Americans mentioned in the Panama Papers so it must have been scrubbed, despite (1) hundreds of Americans being named in them, and (2) you don't have to go offshore to hide money. The US works just fine for hiding money.

Big surprise?

[wwalker]

Don't forget, Panama Papers is just a subset of data that was released. Heavily edited. Conveniently, not a single US politician mentioned in the released data. Also, Putin's name isn't there either, just his "childhood friend". Yet in all the newspapers it was reported that Putin was directly implicated. So, what else would you expect him to claim? Also, he actually wasn't the first to come to the same conclusion:
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/...

Re:Big surprise?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep. When it came out that no Americans were on the list, it became pretty damned clear that this was a US ploy of some form. Not sure what the end-game is, but there's no way you can trust this "leak." It's some form of US-backed scam.

Re:Polls

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, it was a sample of 30 (Ooooo) random people on the street. For all we know, these were people who just left a Putin Indoctrination Meeting or people leaving a bar that was closing in Moscow.

Truly, Journalism is Dead. Also in other news. Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.

Re: To be fair

[Anonymous Coward]

Tax evasion is sort of a big deal there with all the commies and so on.

Much of what is documented in the Panama Papers is tax avoidance, not tax evasion.

In fact, this is the big story here, just how much tax avoidance has been made legal by western governments at the request of the rich and powerful.

Re:Polls

[smooth wombat]

It's a known fact in Russia one does not speak out openly or things will happen to you. Bad things. Just ask Boris Nemtsov.

Oh wait, you can't. Putin ordered his assassination in a pathetic attempt to silence the work he and others had done showing the systemic corruption in Russia.

Go ask the Tartars of Crimea who have their homes invaded by Russian police searching for anything that is against the official party line or that references Tartar culture. Since Russian's invasion of Crimea this is a daily occurrence, not to mention any Tartar newspaper radio service being shut down.

Just the other day Putin ordered the creation of a "national guard", over 400K strong with tanks and artillery to be used, he claims, to fight terrorism. The reality is with conditions worsening in Russia due to sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine and plunging oil prices, with elections in the fall Putin is planning to use this national guard to suppress any vocal opposition to his hand chosen candidates. In other words, if you speak out against Heir Putin, the national guard can and will shoot you on sight, no other order necessary.

Re: To be fair

[Agent0013]

And yet the US has lead the way in shutting down probably the most infamous haven; the Swiss banks.

Yeah, I'm not so sure they are actually trying to fight this stuff. If they were then the three states that allow anonymous shell corporations would not be so popular. The US is rated third in the world for "Offshore" shell games.

The Tax Justice Network ranks the U.S. third in terms of the secrecy and scale of its offshore industry, behind Switzerland and Hong Kong but ahead of the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg.