Putin’s press secretary pushes back against reports that Baring Vostok firm funded opposition movements

Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary for Russian president Vladimir Putin, has responded to reports that financial charges against the investment firm Baring Vostok and its American leader, Michael Calvey, might have followed suspicions that the firm funded Russian opposition groups. The independent television station Dozhd reported earlier on an anonymous source close to the Kremlin who said the firm had funded opposition efforts in advance of Russia’s most recent presidential election.

In response, Peskov told Vedomosti, “I didn’t know about these suspicions. This is the first I’m hearing about it.” Baring Vostok representatives also refuted the reports, writing, “It’s possible that somebody has found it advantageous to present this situation in some other way, but this is a commercial conflict. The employees of Baring Vostok are innocent, and the courts will affirm this.”