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Offshore Leaks Database

Data from
Panama Papers - The Power Players
President of Russia (2000–2008) (2012-present); Prime Minister of Russia (2008-2012)

Vladimir Putin

Associates in the data:

Related to

Russia Switzerland

About

As young men in the late 1970s, Sergey Roldugin and Vladimir Putin became very close, “almost like brothers,” according to Roldugin. Putin went on to join the KGB and is now president of Russia. Roldugin gained fame as a world-class cellist, eventually becoming director of the St. Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire and Artistic Director of the St. Petersburg House of Music. Throughout their lives, the two have remained close. Roldugin had a role in introducing Putin to his future wife Lyudmila. He is also the godfather of Putin’s oldest daughter, Mariya.

In the data

Sergey Roldugin was an owner of three offshore companies: Sonnette Overseas, International Media Overseas and Raytar Limited. St. Petersburg-based Bank Rossiya, which the U.S government described as Russia’s “personal bank for senior officials,” created the first two. The Rossiya executive in charge of setting up Sonnette described Roldugin as being “assigned” to the company.. In March 2008, Sonnette Overseas and four other offshore-companies gained major influence over Kamaz , Russia's largest truckmaker, for almost a year. International Media Overseas owned Med Media Network, which in turn controlled 12.5% of Vi, Russia’s largest television advertising buyer, formerly known as Video International. Another Bank Rossiya-created company assigned International Media Overseas the rights to a $200 million loan for $1.

Response

Roldugin did not respond to detailed questions. Reporters from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, an ICIJ partner, briefly met with the musician after a concert in Moscow last week. Roldugin told them he needed more time to review the questions.
This visualization contains relevant information in relation to the profiled individual. Some additional connections might show up once we release the full structured data connected to the Paradise Papers investigation in the coming weeks.

Disclaimer

There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts. The inclusion of a person or entity in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database is not intended to suggest or imply that they have engaged in illegal or improper conduct. Many people and entities have the same or similar names. We suggest you confirm the identities of any individuals or entities included in the database based on addresses or other identifiable information. The data comes directly from the leaked files ICIJ has received in connection with various investigations and each dataset encompasses a defined time period specified in the database. Some information may have changed over time. Please contact us if you find an error in the database.

There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts. Read more