Leaks about offshore accounts leave Russians unimpressed

MOSCOW (AP) — In the list of presidents, prime ministers, sheikhs, billionaires and other magnates cited in a sweeping worldwide investigation into hidden assets in offshore accounts, there was an odd man out: A Russian cellist.

Up until now, 64-year-old Sergei Roldugin was known only in the Russian music community — as a People’s Artist of Russia and the artistic director of the House of Music in St. Petersburg. What makes him stand out from other Russian musicians, however, is his close ties to President Vladimir Putin.

Roldugin features in Putin’s early autobiography as a close friend and the godfather of Putin’s eldest daughter, Maria. He pursued a musical career, and despite the fact that he never became a tycoon like many of Putin’s other friends, he did somehow acquire a stake in the Rossiya bank, one of the first Russian firms slapped with U.S. sanctions following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

The U.S. Treasury in 2014 described the bank as being “designated for providing material support to government officials” and co-owned by members of Putin’s inner circle. But unlike other Putin friends who have built flourishing businesses in Russia, Roldugin, whose stake in Rossiya was reported at 3.3 percent, was not slapped with sanctions.

A myriad of documents that the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists gained access to showed Roldugin — or someone posing as him — skillfully operating affiliated companies that controlled a significant share of a business empire that earned tens of millions of rubles per day from murky deals. The companies received millions from Putin’s friends and Russian billionaires as well as preferential loans from a Russia-controlled Cyprus-based bank.

The journalists who analyzed the leaked documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, one of the world’s biggest creators of shell companies, say the combined turnover of a company that Roldugin is reported to have owned through an intermediary between 2009 and 2012 was around $2 billion.

When the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, which led the ICIJ investigation in Russia, approached Roldugin after a concert, the cellist had a friendly chat with the reporter but refused to talk about the offshore companies, saying the subject was “delicate.”

Roldugin was unavailable for comment on Monday. A receptionist at the St. Petersburg House of Music said he was not in.

The release of what has become known as the Panama Papers has sent officials in countries around the world scrambling. Some have pledged to investigate claims of possible tax evasion, others like the prime minister of Iceland and the president of Ukraine face political storms over their alleged involvement in offshore companies.

In Russia, however, the trove of documents showing a money trail leading close to the president has gone largely unnoticed.