Topic: How Putin became the richest man in the world (Read 578 times)
If things were that the way you have portrayed, i wonder why his face never appeared on the front pages of Forbes Richest Men
Ridiculous. Who is going to believe all this BS? There is a lot of anti-Russian and anti-Putin propaganda churned out by the Western mainstream media and no one outside the United States is going to believe any of it. Meanwhile, Putin is enjoying an approval rating of close to 85% and if he had done anything like that, then the ratings would be far lower.
sober thought.But trust in the middle.
Despite a lot of people hating on him, he is a really smart person. Business wise and political, good connections with the Russian mob also helped to make him a billionaire.
his hands are full of blood
I already knew that from youtube videos such as this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkM1mcdcLEI
I don't believe he's so rich though. It may be just a fake propaganda. There are men like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos who may be richer than him...
I agree with you. Surely he is not the richest in the world. And if this is so, then it is more important that he is the president. I don't believe he's so rich though. It may be just a fake propaganda. There are men like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos who may be richer than him...
So what? His world is different from ours, he feels and behaves as a monarch, I think his wealth is a normal thing in such conditions. Abnormal is the striving to count money of another person.
Given the extent of corruption in Russia, I'm not surprised that the president who ruled the country for so many years is so rich. This is sad, but it is a fact repeatedly confirmed by various anti-government organizations.
"Corruption", This idea has always been a part of every leader in any country around the world. Tho the power that Putin is currently enjoying is not about his wealth but it's current army and that is what is so scary about this man. If Putin really got too much wealth for being a president in how many years and he has been spending this wealth to improve it's assault army then that is what power is all about.
As far as I know the real rich people in Russia - with PROVEN ASSETS- are the so called oligarchs, who have become so rich in the nineties under Yeltsin regime and with the help of Western banks, by de facto stealing most of Russia's natural resources.
Western banks has always been so corrupt not just in the west but in every countries that they are in.
Given the extent of corruption in Russia, I'm not surprised that the president who ruled the country for so many years is so rich. This is sad, but it is a fact repeatedly confirmed by various anti-government organizations.
As far as I know the real rich people in Russia - with PROVEN ASSETS- are the so called oligarchs, who have become so rich in the nineties under Yeltsin regime and with the help of Western banks, by de facto stealing most of Russia's natural resources.
Given the extent of corruption in Russia, I'm not surprised that the president who ruled the country for so many years is so rich. This is sad, but it is a fact repeatedly confirmed by various anti-government organizations.
I don't believe this information is accurate. Most of the things you would read about him are just propaganda. This thesis doesn't make any sense on so many levels that I really wouldn't take it seriously.
Figuring out the Russian president’s net worth has long been the holy grail of spooks and hacks around the world. But the personal wealth of Putin—a former KGB agent—is nearly impossible to decipher, and is likely distributed across a secret web of company holdings, real estate, and other people’s accounts.
Russia is very rich country , somehow people live in poverty there! 
Putin is a biggest thief on that planet
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Putin is a biggest thief on that planet
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There are so many theories about his wealth and where is came from.... I can only guess at the true story.
We can only guess, and we will never know what the truth is. Putin is certainly a rich man, but I don't think that he will collect such a large fortune.
There are so many theories about his wealth and where is came from.... I can only guess at the true story.
Referring to the European press, the authors of the story state that during the reign Putin became the richest person in the world - his fortune is estimated at 100 billion dollars, writes korrespondent.net.
So that's just a conspiracy theory. If Putin had that kind of money, then he would have Soros like influence around the world. Would be much more capable of perusing his agendas.
Whether he is super rich or not. His people seem to love him. Western politicians could only dream of having a 80% + approval rating.
That is the point. Whenever he needs the money, he can just borrow it from the few remaining oligarchs (that said, the vast majority of the oligarchs are either behind bars or in exile). Even his enemies have never accused him of stealing from the government treasury (he probably doesn't need that). Anyway, what he will do with money? He is not interested in the luxuries.
I love what you wrote, I have unfortunately not met him hahah but I sincerely hope he is only interested in what he does and genuinely trying to make Russia the best way he can, what he can do with his power...i don't even want to question
After this topic is over we will have to watch our back
Putin don't listen to haters hahaha
I think that he is not the richest man in the world. Surely he is not poor but still the richest? The most influential is yes!
Maybe because he has the most power in Russia, and knows how to use them well.
There is a lot of pro-Western propaganda being made against Vladimir Putin. So it is very difficult to find out which of these rumors are true and which ones are false. I would say that Putin will be loved by the Russians even if these allegations are true.
I don't believe he is so rich, but I think he is really a powerful man. I don't believe the money is so attractive to him. He is much more obsessed with power. He had controlled Russia since 2000.
What he wants to do is to make the Russia strong again, that's why he wants to suppress those super rich guys.
What he wants to do is to make the Russia strong again, that's why he wants to suppress those super rich guys.
Putin is currently the worlds strongest person. We also do know that russia has their own way of government. So this is clearly not impossible putin can obviously use his power to gain more resources. However putin for me is getting things quitely so we can't even barely say how much wealth does putin currently have.
Vladmir Putin could be worth an estimated $200 billion dollars, much of which is drawn from Russia’s oligarchs. That’s according to fund manager Bill Browder, whose fund Hermitage Capital had as much as $4.5 billion invested in the country at one point.
Putin’s 2003 arrest of the richest man in Russia, Michael Khodorkovsky (which included a televised trial with Khodorkovsky in a cage) prompted approximately twenty oligarchs in the country to plead with Putin, asking what they could do to avoid that fate, Browder explained.
“His response was: ‘50%'” Browder said. “Not 50% to the Russian government, not 50% to the presidential administration of Russia. 50% to Vladmir Putin. And at that moment in time, Putin effectively became the richest man in the world. I estimate his net worth to be $200 billion.”
Putin’s wealth, very much intertwined with the oligarchs, is invested throughout the world.
“None of the money is in his own name,” Browder said. “The money is held by what I call ‘oligarch trustees,’ people who are trusted friends of his who hold the money on his behalf. They’re holding the money in the west, in hedge funds, in private equity funds, in real estate, in football teams and other things like that.”
“A lot of the money sloshing around in real estate and in the world of finance belongs to Vladmir Putin and his oligarch trustees,” Browder added.
Video here - http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2017/07/27/bill-browder-testimony-putin-oligarchs-corruption-sot.cnn
Shares in Oil and Gas Companies
Political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky has claimed that Putin could be worth as much as $70 billion, with shares in major oil and gas companies including a 4.5% stake of national gas giant Gazprom and 37% of oil supplier Surgutneftegas. Belkovsky alleges that while Putin's name does not appear as a shareholder, his holdings are concealed behind a non-transparent chain of offshore companies and funds. Putin defenders point out that there is no clear evidence that Putin actually owns stakes in Surgutneftegaz or Gazprom and that many reports of Putin’s wealth hang on the single unproven assertions of Belkovsky.
Palace, Yacht and Watches
Often painted in the press as a modern day Tsar, Vladimir Putin is rumoured to own a $35 million yacht named Olympia, a billion dollar palace on Russia's Black Sea coast and an extravagant watch collection including a Tourbograph watch made by A Lange & Sohne worth over a half million dollars. The 57-metre Olympia yacht was reportedly a gift from the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. Dmitry Skarga is a former Kremlin employee living in the UK who claims to have managed the yacht. In a BBC Panorama documentary called Putin’s Secret Riches, Skarga said that while the yacht had been given to an offshore company, the real owner was Putin and that it was maintained using state funds. The Kremlin strenuously denies the allegations and press secretary Dmitry Peskov stated: “the contents of this BBC film, this is a pure fiction and libel, which has no grounds whatsoever.”
Putin’s Banker
Sergei Pugachev is a former politician and financier, once dubbed as "Putin’s banker" for his close connection to the Russian president. After his relationship with Putin soured he fled from Russia and he is currently living in exile in the south of France. In an interview with the Guardian Pugachev explained his view, saying: “Putin considers everything on Russian territory as his own...any attempts to find some foreign account, they are doomed to fail, because currently Putin considers as his own everything owned by Gazprom, Rosneft, private companies. Therefore, it is quite possible that he is the richest person in the world, until the moment that he loses power.” Pugachev claims that he was stripped of his business assets, while the Kremlin has accused him of owing hundreds of millions of dollars to the liquidator of Mezhprombank, a bank which he co-founded.
U.S. Treasury
When asked by the the BBC whether Putin is corrupt, Adam Szubin of the U.S. Treasury did not mince his words - replying “in our view, yes”. Szubin stated: “He supposedly draws a state salary of something like $110,000 a year...that is not an accurate statement of the man’s wealth and he has longtime training and practices in terms of how to mask his actual wealth.” Szubin also said that the United States had been aware of Putin’s corruption for “many, many years”.
Bill Browder
Bill Browder is the co-founder of the investment fund Hermitage Capital Management, formerly Russia's largest foreign investor. Referring to Putin’s net worth in a 2015 interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria, he said: “I believe that it's $200 billion. After 14 years in power of Russia, and the amount of money that the country has made, and the amount of money that hasn't been spent on schools and roads and hospitals and so on, all that money is in property, bank - Swiss bank accounts, shares, hedge funds, managed for Putin and his cronies.”
The Bottom Line
The documents recently leaked by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) known as the Panama Papers revealed how public officials from a number of countries conceal their wealth and have again raised the issue of corruption among world leaders. Although Putin is not directly named in the papers, the documents show that a number of his associates moved as much as $2 billion through banks and offshore firms. The Kremlin has called the ICIJ revelations "a series of fibs", but the papers raise renewed questions over Putin’s alleged wealth and kleptocratic regime.
This is rather an article then a post that you made and it is very interesting, even if it sounds unbelievable it has to be some true in it. Putin’s 2003 arrest of the richest man in Russia, Michael Khodorkovsky (which included a televised trial with Khodorkovsky in a cage) prompted approximately twenty oligarchs in the country to plead with Putin, asking what they could do to avoid that fate, Browder explained.
“His response was: ‘50%'” Browder said. “Not 50% to the Russian government, not 50% to the presidential administration of Russia. 50% to Vladmir Putin. And at that moment in time, Putin effectively became the richest man in the world. I estimate his net worth to be $200 billion.”
Putin’s wealth, very much intertwined with the oligarchs, is invested throughout the world.
“None of the money is in his own name,” Browder said. “The money is held by what I call ‘oligarch trustees,’ people who are trusted friends of his who hold the money on his behalf. They’re holding the money in the west, in hedge funds, in private equity funds, in real estate, in football teams and other things like that.”
“A lot of the money sloshing around in real estate and in the world of finance belongs to Vladmir Putin and his oligarch trustees,” Browder added.
Video here - http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2017/07/27/bill-browder-testimony-putin-oligarchs-corruption-sot.cnn
Shares in Oil and Gas Companies
Political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky has claimed that Putin could be worth as much as $70 billion, with shares in major oil and gas companies including a 4.5% stake of national gas giant Gazprom and 37% of oil supplier Surgutneftegas. Belkovsky alleges that while Putin's name does not appear as a shareholder, his holdings are concealed behind a non-transparent chain of offshore companies and funds. Putin defenders point out that there is no clear evidence that Putin actually owns stakes in Surgutneftegaz or Gazprom and that many reports of Putin’s wealth hang on the single unproven assertions of Belkovsky.
Palace, Yacht and Watches
Often painted in the press as a modern day Tsar, Vladimir Putin is rumoured to own a $35 million yacht named Olympia, a billion dollar palace on Russia's Black Sea coast and an extravagant watch collection including a Tourbograph watch made by A Lange & Sohne worth over a half million dollars. The 57-metre Olympia yacht was reportedly a gift from the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. Dmitry Skarga is a former Kremlin employee living in the UK who claims to have managed the yacht. In a BBC Panorama documentary called Putin’s Secret Riches, Skarga said that while the yacht had been given to an offshore company, the real owner was Putin and that it was maintained using state funds. The Kremlin strenuously denies the allegations and press secretary Dmitry Peskov stated: “the contents of this BBC film, this is a pure fiction and libel, which has no grounds whatsoever.”
Putin’s Banker
Sergei Pugachev is a former politician and financier, once dubbed as "Putin’s banker" for his close connection to the Russian president. After his relationship with Putin soured he fled from Russia and he is currently living in exile in the south of France. In an interview with the Guardian Pugachev explained his view, saying: “Putin considers everything on Russian territory as his own...any attempts to find some foreign account, they are doomed to fail, because currently Putin considers as his own everything owned by Gazprom, Rosneft, private companies. Therefore, it is quite possible that he is the richest person in the world, until the moment that he loses power.” Pugachev claims that he was stripped of his business assets, while the Kremlin has accused him of owing hundreds of millions of dollars to the liquidator of Mezhprombank, a bank which he co-founded.
U.S. Treasury
When asked by the the BBC whether Putin is corrupt, Adam Szubin of the U.S. Treasury did not mince his words - replying “in our view, yes”. Szubin stated: “He supposedly draws a state salary of something like $110,000 a year...that is not an accurate statement of the man’s wealth and he has longtime training and practices in terms of how to mask his actual wealth.” Szubin also said that the United States had been aware of Putin’s corruption for “many, many years”.
Bill Browder
Bill Browder is the co-founder of the investment fund Hermitage Capital Management, formerly Russia's largest foreign investor. Referring to Putin’s net worth in a 2015 interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria, he said: “I believe that it's $200 billion. After 14 years in power of Russia, and the amount of money that the country has made, and the amount of money that hasn't been spent on schools and roads and hospitals and so on, all that money is in property, bank - Swiss bank accounts, shares, hedge funds, managed for Putin and his cronies.”
The Bottom Line
The documents recently leaked by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) known as the Panama Papers revealed how public officials from a number of countries conceal their wealth and have again raised the issue of corruption among world leaders. Although Putin is not directly named in the papers, the documents show that a number of his associates moved as much as $2 billion through banks and offshore firms. The Kremlin has called the ICIJ revelations "a series of fibs", but the papers raise renewed questions over Putin’s alleged wealth and kleptocratic regime.
How about gifts, corruption, investments and crypto?
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is already 65 years old. If he had that much money, then he would have long retired from politics and distributed that wealth among his children. But he is still working 14 hours a day and his children are leading quite normal life as civilians. Anti-Russian and anti-Putin propaganda is good, as long as the accusations are even remotely believable.
He is the real superman for now. He's leader in every sector, politics, science, technology, cryptocurrency, all.
But I wonder who will inherit his wealth after his death. He's not going to live forever.
But I wonder who will inherit his wealth after his death. He's not going to live forever.
How about gifts, corruption, investments and crypto?
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I heard this as well and while I am skeptical I could totally see it being true. That said though his money isn't probably the cleanest and I would bet on Bazos getting to one trillion before Putin.
Putin became riches man in the world through his iron hand leadership and putting resources of Russia under his control.
Well guys, in Russia he have unlimited power.
Why does he need money?
Why does he need money?
That is the point. Whenever he needs the money, he can just borrow it from the few remaining oligarchs (that said, the vast majority of the oligarchs are either behind bars or in exile). Even his enemies have never accused him of stealing from the government treasury (he probably doesn't need that). Anyway, what he will do with money? He is not interested in the luxuries.
Well guys, in Russia he have unlimited power.
Why does he need money?
He has total control over everything that happens in Russia, and it wouldn't be surprising to see him as the richest person in the world but I highly doubt it though, he has power and that's more important than money. Why does he need money?
Well guys, in Russia he have unlimited power.
Why does he need money?
Why does he need money?
I think Putin isn't the richest man in the world, he's the most power polistic man in the world.
I already knew that from youtube videos such as this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkM1mcdcLEI
I don't believe he's so rich though. It may be just a fake propaganda. There are men like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos who may be richer than him...
Thanks for sharing.. I too don't believe he's rich like that... This might be fake.. Infact, I agree with you 100% I don't believe he's so rich though. It may be just a fake propaganda. There are men like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos who may be richer than him...
Corruption ? Maybe...
But I still admire him in every way. He had to do what he did with Crimea, he got sanctions on food, and still being smart as he is he started producing and exporting, giving people money to work on the land and start bussinesses.
I genuinely think he regrets that but it is what he had to do.
Overall in my opinion one of the best presidents from the information i was reading and my own opinions.
Might aswell be the richest, leads one of the biggest and strongest countries
But I still admire him in every way. He had to do what he did with Crimea, he got sanctions on food, and still being smart as he is he started producing and exporting, giving people money to work on the land and start bussinesses.
I genuinely think he regrets that but it is what he had to do.
Overall in my opinion one of the best presidents from the information i was reading and my own opinions.
Might aswell be the richest, leads one of the biggest and strongest countries
Probably he is not the richest man in the world, but fates of millions and even billions depend on his decision, and this is more important.
He's not the richest man on Earth, because all he wants is power. In order to have power he shares all money and resources with his companions that are in government and corporations. That's why corruption in Russia is making regular people live bad. If Putin will not share with others they will make him go away.
Well in many countries all over the world it the same problem, but the point is that Russia is the largest country on the Earth and the second or third superpower, so it's no good in my opinion.
He's not the richest man on Earth, because all he wants is power. In order to have power he shares all money and resources with his companions that are in government and corporations. That's why corruption in Russia is making regular people live bad. If Putin will not share with others they will make him go away.
Putin has been ruling Russia for so many years that it would not be strange.
Ridiculous. Who is going to believe all this BS? There is a lot of anti-Russian and anti-Putin propaganda churned out by the Western mainstream media and no one outside the United States is going to believe any of it. Meanwhile, Putin is enjoying an approval rating of close to 85% and if he had done anything like that, then the ratings would be far lower.
I already knew that from youtube videos such as this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkM1mcdcLEI
I don't believe he's so rich though. It may be just a fake propaganda. There are men like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos who may be richer than him...
But Putin has unlimited access to the country's resources, so it is possible. I don't believe he's so rich though. It may be just a fake propaganda. There are men like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos who may be richer than him...
I already knew that from youtube videos such as this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkM1mcdcLEI
Thanks for sharing this. Interesting documentary
disteny makes him like that
I already knew that from youtube videos such as this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkM1mcdcLEI
I don't believe he's so rich though. It may be just a fake propaganda. There are men like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos who may be richer than him...
I don't believe he's so rich though. It may be just a fake propaganda. There are men like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos who may be richer than him...
Vladmir Putin could be worth an estimated $200 billion dollars, much of which is drawn from Russia’s oligarchs. That’s according to fund manager Bill Browder, whose fund Hermitage Capital had as much as $4.5 billion invested in the country at one point.
Putin’s 2003 arrest of the richest man in Russia, Michael Khodorkovsky (which included a televised trial with Khodorkovsky in a cage) prompted approximately twenty oligarchs in the country to plead with Putin, asking what they could do to avoid that fate, Browder explained.
“His response was: ‘50%'” Browder said. “Not 50% to the Russian government, not 50% to the presidential administration of Russia. 50% to Vladmir Putin. And at that moment in time, Putin effectively became the richest man in the world. I estimate his net worth to be $200 billion.”
Putin’s wealth, very much intertwined with the oligarchs, is invested throughout the world.
“None of the money is in his own name,” Browder said. “The money is held by what I call ‘oligarch trustees,’ people who are trusted friends of his who hold the money on his behalf. They’re holding the money in the west, in hedge funds, in private equity funds, in real estate, in football teams and other things like that.”
“A lot of the money sloshing around in real estate and in the world of finance belongs to Vladmir Putin and his oligarch trustees,” Browder added.
Video here - http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2017/07/27/bill-browder-testimony-putin-oligarchs-corruption-sot.cnn
Shares in Oil and Gas Companies
Political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky has claimed that Putin could be worth as much as $70 billion, with shares in major oil and gas companies including a 4.5% stake of national gas giant Gazprom and 37% of oil supplier Surgutneftegas. Belkovsky alleges that while Putin's name does not appear as a shareholder, his holdings are concealed behind a non-transparent chain of offshore companies and funds. Putin defenders point out that there is no clear evidence that Putin actually owns stakes in Surgutneftegaz or Gazprom and that many reports of Putin’s wealth hang on the single unproven assertions of Belkovsky.
Palace, Yacht and Watches
Often painted in the press as a modern day Tsar, Vladimir Putin is rumoured to own a $35 million yacht named Olympia, a billion dollar palace on Russia's Black Sea coast and an extravagant watch collection including a Tourbograph watch made by A Lange & Sohne worth over a half million dollars. The 57-metre Olympia yacht was reportedly a gift from the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. Dmitry Skarga is a former Kremlin employee living in the UK who claims to have managed the yacht. In a BBC Panorama documentary called Putin’s Secret Riches, Skarga said that while the yacht had been given to an offshore company, the real owner was Putin and that it was maintained using state funds. The Kremlin strenuously denies the allegations and press secretary Dmitry Peskov stated: “the contents of this BBC film, this is a pure fiction and libel, which has no grounds whatsoever.”
Putin’s Banker
Sergei Pugachev is a former politician and financier, once dubbed as "Putin’s banker" for his close connection to the Russian president. After his relationship with Putin soured he fled from Russia and he is currently living in exile in the south of France. In an interview with the Guardian Pugachev explained his view, saying: “Putin considers everything on Russian territory as his own...any attempts to find some foreign account, they are doomed to fail, because currently Putin considers as his own everything owned by Gazprom, Rosneft, private companies. Therefore, it is quite possible that he is the richest person in the world, until the moment that he loses power.” Pugachev claims that he was stripped of his business assets, while the Kremlin has accused him of owing hundreds of millions of dollars to the liquidator of Mezhprombank, a bank which he co-founded.
U.S. Treasury
When asked by the the BBC whether Putin is corrupt, Adam Szubin of the U.S. Treasury did not mince his words - replying “in our view, yes”. Szubin stated: “He supposedly draws a state salary of something like $110,000 a year...that is not an accurate statement of the man’s wealth and he has longtime training and practices in terms of how to mask his actual wealth.” Szubin also said that the United States had been aware of Putin’s corruption for “many, many years”.
Bill Browder
Bill Browder is the co-founder of the investment fund Hermitage Capital Management, formerly Russia's largest foreign investor. Referring to Putin’s net worth in a 2015 interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria, he said: “I believe that it's $200 billion. After 14 years in power of Russia, and the amount of money that the country has made, and the amount of money that hasn't been spent on schools and roads and hospitals and so on, all that money is in property, bank - Swiss bank accounts, shares, hedge funds, managed for Putin and his cronies.”
The Bottom Line
The documents recently leaked by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) known as the Panama Papers revealed how public officials from a number of countries conceal their wealth and have again raised the issue of corruption among world leaders. Although Putin is not directly named in the papers, the documents show that a number of his associates moved as much as $2 billion through banks and offshore firms. The Kremlin has called the ICIJ revelations "a series of fibs", but the papers raise renewed questions over Putin’s alleged wealth and kleptocratic regime.
Putin’s 2003 arrest of the richest man in Russia, Michael Khodorkovsky (which included a televised trial with Khodorkovsky in a cage) prompted approximately twenty oligarchs in the country to plead with Putin, asking what they could do to avoid that fate, Browder explained.
“His response was: ‘50%'” Browder said. “Not 50% to the Russian government, not 50% to the presidential administration of Russia. 50% to Vladmir Putin. And at that moment in time, Putin effectively became the richest man in the world. I estimate his net worth to be $200 billion.”
Putin’s wealth, very much intertwined with the oligarchs, is invested throughout the world.
“None of the money is in his own name,” Browder said. “The money is held by what I call ‘oligarch trustees,’ people who are trusted friends of his who hold the money on his behalf. They’re holding the money in the west, in hedge funds, in private equity funds, in real estate, in football teams and other things like that.”
“A lot of the money sloshing around in real estate and in the world of finance belongs to Vladmir Putin and his oligarch trustees,” Browder added.
Video here - http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2017/07/27/bill-browder-testimony-putin-oligarchs-corruption-sot.cnn
Shares in Oil and Gas Companies
Political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky has claimed that Putin could be worth as much as $70 billion, with shares in major oil and gas companies including a 4.5% stake of national gas giant Gazprom and 37% of oil supplier Surgutneftegas. Belkovsky alleges that while Putin's name does not appear as a shareholder, his holdings are concealed behind a non-transparent chain of offshore companies and funds. Putin defenders point out that there is no clear evidence that Putin actually owns stakes in Surgutneftegaz or Gazprom and that many reports of Putin’s wealth hang on the single unproven assertions of Belkovsky.
Palace, Yacht and Watches
Often painted in the press as a modern day Tsar, Vladimir Putin is rumoured to own a $35 million yacht named Olympia, a billion dollar palace on Russia's Black Sea coast and an extravagant watch collection including a Tourbograph watch made by A Lange & Sohne worth over a half million dollars. The 57-metre Olympia yacht was reportedly a gift from the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. Dmitry Skarga is a former Kremlin employee living in the UK who claims to have managed the yacht. In a BBC Panorama documentary called Putin’s Secret Riches, Skarga said that while the yacht had been given to an offshore company, the real owner was Putin and that it was maintained using state funds. The Kremlin strenuously denies the allegations and press secretary Dmitry Peskov stated: “the contents of this BBC film, this is a pure fiction and libel, which has no grounds whatsoever.”
Putin’s Banker
Sergei Pugachev is a former politician and financier, once dubbed as "Putin’s banker" for his close connection to the Russian president. After his relationship with Putin soured he fled from Russia and he is currently living in exile in the south of France. In an interview with the Guardian Pugachev explained his view, saying: “Putin considers everything on Russian territory as his own...any attempts to find some foreign account, they are doomed to fail, because currently Putin considers as his own everything owned by Gazprom, Rosneft, private companies. Therefore, it is quite possible that he is the richest person in the world, until the moment that he loses power.” Pugachev claims that he was stripped of his business assets, while the Kremlin has accused him of owing hundreds of millions of dollars to the liquidator of Mezhprombank, a bank which he co-founded.
U.S. Treasury
When asked by the the BBC whether Putin is corrupt, Adam Szubin of the U.S. Treasury did not mince his words - replying “in our view, yes”. Szubin stated: “He supposedly draws a state salary of something like $110,000 a year...that is not an accurate statement of the man’s wealth and he has longtime training and practices in terms of how to mask his actual wealth.” Szubin also said that the United States had been aware of Putin’s corruption for “many, many years”.
Bill Browder
Bill Browder is the co-founder of the investment fund Hermitage Capital Management, formerly Russia's largest foreign investor. Referring to Putin’s net worth in a 2015 interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria, he said: “I believe that it's $200 billion. After 14 years in power of Russia, and the amount of money that the country has made, and the amount of money that hasn't been spent on schools and roads and hospitals and so on, all that money is in property, bank - Swiss bank accounts, shares, hedge funds, managed for Putin and his cronies.”
The Bottom Line
The documents recently leaked by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) known as the Panama Papers revealed how public officials from a number of countries conceal their wealth and have again raised the issue of corruption among world leaders. Although Putin is not directly named in the papers, the documents show that a number of his associates moved as much as $2 billion through banks and offshore firms. The Kremlin has called the ICIJ revelations "a series of fibs", but the papers raise renewed questions over Putin’s alleged wealth and kleptocratic regime.
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