Those in the anti-Putin camp, which includes most of the West, will take the Mossack Fonseca leaks as corroboration of their belief that Putin heads a kleptocratic system, the sole purpose of which is to enrich those governing Russia. They will assume that Roldugin could not have acted without Putin’s knowledge and that his companies are merely fronts which Putin uses to hide his corruptly acquired billions. This image of Putin will strengthen the hand of those who maintain that Western states must take a hard line against the ‘Putin regime’ and work with liberal forces within Russia in order to bring about ‘regime change’.
On the other side, those who support Putin, both in Russia and outside it, will wonder why, when the leaks contain information about scores of prominent figures around the world, the Western media is focusing so relentlessly on Putin when reports say that the documents in question don’t mention him even once. They will point out that Roldugin’s activities have not been shown to be illegal and that any connection with Putin is pure speculation. They may even ask why headlines give such prominence to Putin and not to Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, given that the leaked material does mention Poroshenko and says that he went ‘so far as to arguably violate the law twice, misrepresent information and deprive his country of badly needed tax dollars during a time of war.’ No doubt Russians will conclude that the answer is that the Western media is determined to blacken Putin’s name no matter what the facts.…Irrussianality
Some thoughts on the Putin corruption story
Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa
Paul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa
