The editors of Radio Liberty deleted an interview with Maxim Freidzon, in which he accused Vladimir Putin of participating in corruption in the 1990s. Earlier, the Kremlin warned of the start of an information attack against the country's leadership

In the on-air studio of Radio Liberty (Photo: TASS)

An interview with former St. Petersburg businessman Maxim Freidzon to Radio Liberty, in which he accused Vladimir Putin of participating in corruption schemes in the 1990s in St. Petersburg, was removed from the radio station’s website. On the eve of its publication, the Kremlin regarded it as an information attack.

“The publication was deleted at the request of Radio Liberty’s interlocutor, who feared for his safety. We apologize,” the radio station said in a statement on the page where the interview was posted. The deleted text is available in Google's cache .

Freidzon said that in the 1990s he met with Putin several times in connection with the start of a special program to create police weapons. At the same time, he accused Putin of taking a bribe. As Freidzon claimed, it was about $10 thousand, and the money was received by “Vladimir Vladimirovich’s assistant Lesha Miller” (we are talking about Alexey Miller, the current head of Gazprom). According to Freidzon, Putin allegedly “simply wrote the amount during the conversation.” The businessman notes that he “did not personally give money to Putin.”

Freidzon also cited the words of his late partner Dmitry Skigin, who claimed that Putin received 4% in the joint company of Freidzon and Skigin “Sovex” (the transport and refueling complex of the St. Petersburg Pulkovo Airport).

The text of the conversation with Freidzon was published on May 23. A day earlier, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Western media were launching an information attack on Putin.

Peskov said that the Kremlin received two information requests from a “respected London newspaper” and from an American publication, which he did not name. According to him, both requests partially “absolutely coincide” with the wording of the questions. These appeals, the spokesman said, are quite eloquent confirmation of how uncomfortable Putin continues to be for many.

The organizers of information attacks on the country's leadership and Russia as a whole do not disdain any dirt, he told reporters. “These are coordinated information exercises,” he described the requests.

As Peskov said, one media outlet sent a set of 21 questions “in the style of a prosecutor’s interrogation” about the direct or indirect connection of Mr. Timchenko’s activities with Putin. In particular, did Putin invest directly or indirectly in Gunvor, did he approve the issuance of a loan to the 20th trust, did Putin and Timchenko discuss business issues in the 90s, did Putin receive money from Timchenko that could help him build a dacha in the Ozero cooperative ", as well as a number of other questions concerning the activities of the Petromed company (whether Putin helped protect it and the 20th trust from St. Petersburg criminal groups).

The Kremlin gave a negative answer to all questions except one, Peskov said: “Indeed, in 1996 Sobchak was taken on a separate charter flight to Paris, but it was not Timchenko’s plane, but Timchenko helped charter a resuscitation plane.”

The head of President Putin’s administration, Sergei Ivanov, also announced the start of an information attack on the Russian leadership on the eve of the release of Freidzon’s interview. “I am convinced that all slanderous statements addressed to us pursue the same goal: to convince Russians that the Russian ruling circles are wrong. However, I am absolutely sure that this plan will not work,” he said in an interview with Russia Today TV channel.

Foreign media, Ivanov believes, most often write about the alleged corruption of the Russian President’s entourage. “The bottom line is that if there are any accusations against me personally, let them be voiced: what exactly is my corruption, where are my huge incomes, where are my houses in the US or UK? After all, such things are easy to prove,” Ivanov said.

Radio Liberty deleted an interview accusing Putin of corruption