The Kremlin and the State Duma will not investigate the information contained in the Reuters publication about the transfer of real estate by businessman Baevsky to women “connected with Putin.” Dmitry Peskov called the article part of a fake news story

Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov (Photo: Artem Korotaev/TASS)

Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov commented on RBC's publication Reuters that a “little-known Russian businessman” from St. Petersburg, 47-year-old Grigory Baevsky, who was a partner of Arkady Rotenberg, transferred his real estate to women, including Katerina Tikhonova (her agency previously called her the youngest daughter of a Russian president), two relatives of ex-State Duma deputy Alina Kabaeva (sister and grandmother) and student Alisa Kharcheva, who posed for the calendar for Putin’s birthday. According to the agency, these properties are located in elite complexes in Moscow and the Moscow region.

This is “one of” the information hoaxes that the Kremlin reported earlier, Dmitry Peskov told RBC. To the clarifying question whether the presidential administration will investigate the facts of the transfer of real estate, Peskov answered negatively.

material The Reuters also contains a comment from a representative of the Russian President. “We don’t know anything about who this person [Baevsky] is. The president is also not familiar with him,” said the press secretary of the head of state.

This week, Peskov said that a “stuffing of information” is being prepared against Putin , claiming to be sensational. He noted that the upcoming publications became known due to requests sent to the Kremlin by media representatives. According to him, one such request came from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ). Peskov clarified that journalists from ICIJ were interested in information about the president personally, about his “family, childhood friends, about businessmen (Kovalchuk, Rotenberg), about some offshore companies, about businessmen whom Putin has never even seen.” The second request, as Peskov said, came from “a very well-known international news agency,” the name of which the presidential press secretary did not name.

On Thursday, March 31, Peskov again returned to the topic of “information hoaxes . ” Answering a question from journalists about whether it was prevented, Peskov said that the Kremlin was “very carefully” monitoring the “information situation.” “We are confident that such information exercises will continue,” Peskov said. “We are talking about a campaign related to attempts to shake up the situation in the country, to discredit the country’s leadership, primarily the president. And thereby influence both the situation in the country and the course of the electoral processes.”

An RBC source close to the Kremlin says that the presidential administration does not plan to take any action as a result of the article. It doesn’t say anything new, says RBC’s interlocutor.

Parliament was not interested in the publication either. Ernest Valeev, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption, told RBC that the Duma committee will not study the facts stated in the article, since “these are speculations.”

A representative of by Katerina headed company the Innopraktika Tikhonova , in response to RBC's request for comment, asked to send an official request. Alisa Kharcheva did not answer RBC's call.

The National Media Group, whose chairman of the board of directors is Alina Kabaeva, told RBC that they would not comment on the Reuters investigation . “This has nothing to do with the activities of the holding,” said a company representative.

General Director of the Russian branch of Transparency International Anton Pominov, in a conversation with RBC, noted that it is too early to talk about a proven fact of corruption. Such a conclusion can be made only if it turns out that the president or his subordinates made certain decisions in the interests of Baevsky, Pominov noted. It is also necessary to prove the connection with Putin of Katerina Tikhonova and other persons involved in the investigation, who received real estate from Baevsky. In this case, we may be talking about a conflict of interest, Pominov emphasized.

The Kremlin responded to a Reuters article about transactions “related” to Putin’s name