BBC Panorama; "Putin's Secret Riches"

I caught up with the recent edition of BBC's Panorama called "Putin's Secret Riches" (available on i-player until Jan 2017).

It left me with mixed feelings...



The allegations in the programme focused on the following:

• Putin officially earns $110k p.a. but has expensive accessories and clothes and, according to an investigative journalist, $40bn assets.
• He has misappropriated funds:  building a palace near Sochi (financed through "Lirus holdings") while president and, as deputy mayor of St. Petersburg in the 1990s, millions disappeared to Dvadtsatyy Trest (20th Trust), which then bought property in Torrevieja, Spain (the investigation was closed once Putin became president).
• He took a percentage of a business supplying oil to St. Petersburg airport and secretly has a stake in Gunvor, trading state oil. 
• He repeatedly appoints people to work with who are a close circle of trusted people from St. Petersburg
• The rich pay tribute, for example receiving an expensive yacht (is there another kind of yacht?) from Roman Abramovich via an offshore company.

Not Putin's boat

In short, it amounts to some serious corruption in a number of forms: gaining from a position of power, syphoning off funds, preferential treatment for friends. I don't really know what's surprising about these allegations... a corrupt politician or the scale? It's not as if any of our politicians would do anything like that... [UK MPS' expenses scandal; the link in the UK between political donations and peerages; how quickly ex-MPs get jobs as advisors or directors in companies related to their former briefs as ministers; David Cameron's loyalty to old friends and old Etonians, etc.]

So, the shock is, or ought to be, the alleged scale and, if true, it would be a massive abuse of power. But, the documentary also raises some questions. Given that many of these allegations have been around for a while (1, 2), why produce and broadcast this documentary now? [nothing of course to do with it being in the government's interest to smear Russia/ Putin]. How reliable are the sources of information? Exiled Kremlin insiders could have an axe to grind and/ or be a wealth of information.

Putin shouldn't avoid serious scrutiny, also true for our own politicians. If Putin is as secretive as they said, it's going to be hard to quantify his wealth. Perhaps the conclusive proof will be Putin's retirement: if he has a moderately wealthy lifestyle (but far more luxurious than most Russians' pension years), the allegations are false; if, however, he lives like a king...

photo source