‘A doomed game of Counter-Strike’

Transparency International vice president puts the ‘Panama Papers’ into context

On April 3, media outlets across the world started publishing stories about the “Panama Papers”—the biggest leak of confidential documents about offshore companies in the history of investigative journalism. So far, the leak has revealed information about dirty dealings involving 12 heads of state and hundreds of some of the most famous and influential people on the planet, ranging from high-ranking Russian officials to Jackie Chan. Why is this leak so important, and can it be compared to Watergate, the political scandal that brought down Richard Nixon's presidency in the US? Meduza asked Elena Panfilova, the vice president of Transparency International, to explain what on Earth is happening.

Elena Panfilova

Vice president of Transparency International

The “Panama Papers” aren't fundamentally about Russia. The leaked documents are important primarily for countries that observe the rule of law and can take appropriate legal measure, accordingly. For countries without the rule of law, it's important from the perspective simply of knowing. But there's no reason to assume they're going to run off to investigate everything.

The global anti-corruption movement is shifting in the direction of “grand corruption.” You're never going to catch the people involved in grand corruption passing each other envelopes [full of cash]. Rosfinmonitoring [Russia's Federal Financial Monitoring Service] and similar agencies in other countries are [supposed] to track [such activities]. But what have they been doing all these years, if the “Panama Papers” were right under their nose the whole time? They're able to see activities like these, but they didn't look where they were supposed to.

There's this term: “politically exposed persons.” According to the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime in 2000 (which Russia signed), these persons face certain obligations. In fact, there are also obligations on anyone associated with these individuals, including their relatives. In theory, these people shouldn't have any sources of income, other than their salaries from public service.

All this is like Ariadne's thread in an enormous maze. The thread might lead to a particular corner where nobody thought to look. It goes without saying that the people who use offshore transfers are very smart. They're very good at registering, hiding, and disguising. But the problem is that this is a game of Counter-Strike on ten different computer monitors: you're always going to show up on at least one of the screens. And something always slips into the light.