Teflon Putin, as the Russian president has been called for his ability to let accusations roll right off of him, was in pristine form on Thursday.
It's been five days since the Panama Papers, which some are calling the biggest leak in the history of journalism, uncovered evidence showing his close friends laundered money through elaborate offshore financial schemes, likely for his benefit.
SEE ALSO:#PanamaPapers breaks the Internet with revelations of global corruptionSpeaking for the first time since the revelations, which came with the leak of millions of confidential documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, Putin casually dismissed them, denying "any element of corruption."
Then he repeated a line pushed by Russian state media, as well as Wikileaks, that the papers are merely a U.S.-orchestrated disinformation campaign waged against Russia to weaken its government and force regime change.
"WikiLeaks has shown us that official people and official U.S. organs are behind this," Putin said.
Tweet may have been deleted
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, earlier this week said the papers "found out little new" and blamed "Putinphobia" for Western media's focus on the president.
Putin himself was not named in the Panama Papers, something he brought up. "Your humble servant was not there, but they don't talk about that," he said, referring to Western media.
The Kremlin has posted a transcript of the event with Putin's comments.
But the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) found the names of some of the Russian president's closest friends involved in offshore financial schemes.
One of them was Sergei Roldugin, a renowned Russian cellist and decades long friend of Putin's. Their friendship dates back to the 1970s, even before Putin's KGB days, when the two men used to cruise Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), get into street fights and play football together. Roldugin is also the godfather to Putin's daughter Maria.
SEE ALSO:Russian cellist named in Panama Papers is at the heart of a $2 billion scandalPutin said his longtime comrade, who was found in the Panama Papers to be the owner of $2 billion in offshore assets, has done nothing wrong.
"He is a minority shareholder in one of our companies and it makes some money, but it is certainly not billions of dollars. That's nonsense," the president said.
Sergei Roldugin is seen with President Vladimir Putin while visiting the St. Petersburg House of Music, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, November 21, 2009.Credit: DMITRY ASTAKHOV/AFP/Getty ImagesPutin said he was proud of Roldugin, adding that the musician spent his personal money to buy expensive musical instruments from abroad and bring them to Russia in order to advance the country's cultural projects.
"We always welcome when someone does something like this, but it goes even further," Putin said. "I am proud that I have such friends."
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
(责任编辑:焦點)
Michael Phelps says goodbye to the pool with Olympic gold
'CODA' wins Academy Award for Best Picture
Tinder's Festival Mode lets you find people going to the same shows
Tinder's Festival Mode lets you find people going to the same shows
Tyler, the Creator helped Frank Ocean celebrate 'Blonde' release in a delicious wayXiaomi accused of copying again, this time by Jawbone
Imitation is not always the best form of flattery. 。 SEE ALSO:Xiaomi's MacBook Air clone is called, w
...[详细]Meta expands fundraising tools across Instagram and Facebook for Earth Day
Meta has announced new fundraising tools and educational initiatives in honor of Earth Day — t
...[详细]Space object crashed into Mars and created this new impact crater
Our solar system is a dynamic, evolving realm of space.A powerful camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnai
...[详细]Only the iPhone 14 Pro will get the new 48
This year's iPhone will likely be a bit more stratified than usual.Bloomberg's Mark Gurman claims th
...[详细]Nancy Pelosi warns colleagues after info hacked
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi warned fellow Democrats on Saturday to change their cellphone num
...[详细]
One of the biggest names in the smartphone game is embracing the customer’s right to repair th
...[详细]India's ‘Bunty Aur Babli’ is the superior ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ musical
The Bonnie and Clydemusical is coming back, and I must object.No disrespect to this apparently belov
...[详细]'Euphoria' has a flashback problem
Season 2 of Euphoria is, in a word, frustrating.Excellent performances and a standout episode or two
...[详细]Australian football makes history with first LGBT Pride Game
The rainbow flag took over Melbourne's Etihad Stadium Saturday night in a powerful statement of acce
...[详细]
At some point two years ago, a malevolent individual snapped their fingers like Thanos and ushered i
...[详细]