“Information stuffing” is being prepared against Vladimir Putin, claiming to be sensational, said Dmitry Peskov. According to him, we are talking about the president personally, his family, as well as businessmen Kovalchuk and Rotenberg

Russian President Vladimir Putin (Photo: Alexey Nikolsky/TASS)

Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that an “information dump” is expected against the Russian leadership, primarily President Vladimir Putin, in the coming days. “Another piece of information claiming to be objective and sensational is being prepared in the coming days,” Peskov told reporters, an RBC correspondent reports.

Peskov became aware of the upcoming publications due to requests sent to the Kremlin by representatives of the media. “We received very unctuously kind requests, written in an essentially interrogative manner,” Peskov said.

According to him, one such request came from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ). It is an international non-profit organization of investigative journalists.

According to him, journalists from ICIJ were interested in information about the president. “We are talking about Putin personally, about attempts to get to his family, we are talking about childhood friends, about businessmen (Kovalchuk, Rotenberg), about some offshore companies, about businessmen whom Putin has never even seen. All this has happened several times already, in different variations, despite this, another repetition is being prepared,” Peskov said.

The president’s press secretary called the upcoming material “an undisguised order,” adding that the Kremlin respects “such a genre as investigative journalism.” “We are talking about posing questions that have already been asked hundreds of times and to which answers have been given hundreds of times, both legal, emotional and ascertainment, that is, we are not talking about the desire to engage in an objective investigation, but the task is to carry out an information attack, orchestrate, concoct and introduce it into the information agenda. We don’t like this,” Peskov explained.

What is ICIJ

ICIJ was founded in 1997 by American journalist Chuck Lewis as a project of the non-profit organization Center for Public Integrity. As stated on the organization’s website, the objects of its investigations are “cross-border crime, corruption and government responsibility.” The consortium is "a global network of more than 90 investigative journalists in more than 65 countries who collaborate on in-depth investigative reporting."

ICIJ is the author of publications in which, in particular, the wife of First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and businessman Gennady Timchenko appeared. In April 2013, the consortium announced that it would publish data on offshore account holders. In particular, among these were the wife of Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, as well as “two high-ranking executives” at Gazprom. The organization claimed that these Russians owned accounts in the British Virgin Islands. All three refused to comment on this information. In February 2015, the consortium discovered businessman Gennady Timchenko, who was subject to US sanctions in 2014, among the clients of the Swiss bank HSBC. A representative of the businessman then told the organization that Timchenko “has always fully complied with all tax issues” and that the sanctions against him are “far-fetched and deeply erroneous.”

Simultaneously with ICIJ, a certain publication is being prepared by “a very well-known international news agency,” Peskov added. “There we are talking about some statements of the project to inform about organized crime and corruption, which also rehash Putin’s connections with businessmen, the provision of government contracts to businessmen, the enrichment of businessmen at Putin’s expense,” Peskov said. “We are specifically informing about this proactively in order to immediately communicate our attitude towards such stuffing.”

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The presidential press secretary listed the questions that the agency has for Putin: “Is it true that your accumulated wealth is more than $40 billion, is it true that you own huge residences, mega-yachts and other assets. It is alleged that Putin maintains a close relationship with Sergei Roldugin (a Russian cellist whom the media called a friend of Putin and a shareholder of Rossiya Bank. - RBC ), and it is reported that he is engaged in business and that it is directly related to the president, and that this is nothing more than presidential shenanigans."

“Judging by the formulation of the question, there will be a statement that Putin is somehow connected or has interests in companies,” Peskov has no doubt. He said that the Kremlin is not going to answer these questions. “Of course, we will not answer such requests. Repeating every time no, no, no or telling something that has nothing to do with us at all would be stupid. Therefore, yes, we will not answer,” Peskov explained.

Video: RBC Video Channel

“We are confident that not only journalists, but also representatives of other organizations and services, and they are going to publish their next opuses in the coming days in Germany, the USA, Great Britain, Switzerland, France, Russia and several other countries,” Peskov continued. The Kremlin does not rule out filing a lawsuit against the media if they publish false information discrediting the name of the president, the press secretary emphasized. “Of course, if some distortions, some lies and some groundless accusations concern the head of state personally, then, of course, we have the entire arsenal of legal means, both nationally and internationally, to protect honor and dignity our president,” he said.

In 2015, Peskov once already refuted a publication in the media before its publication, calling it an “information attack.” The president's press secretary told reporters that the Kremlin had received requests from a “respected London newspaper” and a certain American publication. One media outlet, he said, sent a set of 21 questions “in the style of a prosecutor’s interrogation” about the direct or indirect connection between the activities of businessman Gennady Timchenko and Putin. In particular, journalists were interested in whether Putin invested directly or indirectly in Gunvor, whether he approved the issuance of a loan to the 20th trust, whether Putin and Timchenko discussed business issues in the 90s, whether Putin received money from Timchenko that could help him build a dacha in cooperative "Lake", as well as a number of other issues.

The answer to all questions from this media outlet is negative, Peskov told reporters at the time. Peskov called the requests themselves evidence that “many people still intend to attack our country and members of our leadership with information and do not disdain any dirt.”

The day after this, former St. Petersburg businessman Maxim Freidzon told Radio Liberty about Vladimir Putin's participation in corruption schemes in the 1990s in St. Petersburg . The text of the conversation with Freidzon was published on May 23, but it was later deleted . “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 message on the page where the interview was posted.

The Kremlin warned of an impending “information bombing” against Putin