In an exclusive report in The Guardian, Russian thug and war criminal Vladimir Putin appears to control a multi-billion dollar "collective" of assets, including property, yachts and other high-end assets. From the report:
"Palaces, yachts and vineyards reportedly provided to Vladimir Putin by friends and oligarchs can now be linked to what appears to be an informal network holding assets worth more than $4.5bn (£3.7bn).
A digital paper trail appears to suggest that an array of holiday homes and other assets reportedly used by the Russian president, which according to available records belong to or have been owned by separate individuals, companies and charities, are linked through a common email domain name, LLCInvest.ru. [snip]
After a year-long investigation, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the Russian-language news site Meduza have identified 86 companies and not-for-profit organisations whose representatives appear to use the common LLCinvest domain name, often alongside corporate email accounts.
Claims of a secret presidential fortune are denied and a chain of ownership leading to Putin has not been identified. A Kremlin spokesperson said: 'The president of the Russian Federation is in no way connected or affiliated with the objects and organisations you named.'” (our emphasis)
"Ignore the evidence, Peter the Great Putin is a man of modest means!" The Guardian article goes in to extensive detail about Putin's surreptitious asset network that involves his oligarchs. Ever since the Panama Papers were published in 2016, evidence of Putin's corruption and lavish lifestyle were uncovered. Money trails led to Putin through his network of oligarchs who were made wealthy through his protection and who laundered money to him. Imprisoned Putin nemesis Alexey Navalny, who is now in a maximum security prison in the Russian gulag, was dogged in his linking Putin to corruption and is paying the price for that and for opposing Putin's war in Ukraine.
Since Putin controls the major media organs in Russia, it's unlikely that the vast majority of Russians will be made aware of this outrage. The information will eventually seep into their country, but, as with Navalny, Putin will ensure that it is suppressed with violence if necessary.
(photo: "Look, finder-ski, keeper-ski." AFP via Getty Images)
