PUTIN IS A PICTURE OF CORRUPTION, SAYS US

London, Jan. 26: A senior US Treasury official has directly accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of corruption.

The US government imposed sanctions against a number of Kremlin insiders in 2014 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in Ukraine, but did not accuse Putin of direct involvement in corruption. However, during a Panorama investigation into Putin’s “secret riches”, Adam Szubin, the acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the US Treasury in a BBC programme said Putin was a “picture of corruption”.

“We’ve seen him enriching his friends, his close allies, and marginalising those who he doesn’t view as friends using state assets,” Szubin, who oversees US Treasury sanctions, told the Panorama programme, in an unusually strong statement from the government on Putin’s personal finances. “Whether that’s Russia’s energy wealth, whether it’s other state contracts, he directs those to whom he believes will serve him and excludes those who don’t. To me, that is a picture of corruption.”

The programme cited a secret CIA report from 2007 stating that Putin’s wealth stood at around $40 billion.

“He supposedly draws a state salary of something like $1,10,000 a year,” said Szubin. “That is not an accurate statement of the man’s wealth, and he has long-time training and practices in terms of how to mask his actual wealth.” Meanwhile, Dmitry Skarga, who ran Russian state shipping firm Sovcomflot, said he oversaw the transfer of a yacht, in the name of Putin, through Roman Abramovich. ‘It’s a fact that Mr Abramovich, through his employee, transferred a yacht to Mr Putin.” The Kremlin has dismissed comments, challenging Washington to provide proof for “official accusation”.

“Concerning the BBC show, this would just be another example of typical irresponsible journalism if it weren’t for the comment by a US Treasury official,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

“Here the situation is different. This is an official accusation,” Peskov said. First of all this shows clearly who pulls the strings. Secondly, it requires proof,” Peskov said. The airing of such accusations from such an institution as the US Treasury without concrete proof to back them up casts a shadow on this institution.”

Asked if the claim could affect relations , Peskov said that relations were “now not in best shape, therefore could hardly make them worse.” — PTI