The Magic meaning is obedient

The Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky, before making important personnel decisions in the musical sphere, is advised with the cellist and artistic director of the St. Petersburg House of Music Sergey Roldugin. Medinsky himself said this in an interview with TASS.

"I consult with Sergey Pavlovich before making important personnel decisions in the musical sphere. In general, I try to pre -interview the leaders of the industry so as not to make a mistake. Roldugin is one of those whom I am addressing for a hint. This allows you to more objectively evaluate the picture," the minister said.

According to Medinsky, for the first time he met with Roldugin even before he came to work in the ministry. “Nevertheless, I can’t name our acquaintance to loved ones. I know that Sergey Pavlovich does a lot to search and grow young talents, it implements a project in this area jointly from the Ministry of Culture, oversees the musical program in the Sirius, which has become the already famous Sochi super -school. This is a real ascetic,” the minister added.

As follows from the documents of the Panama Archive, the first of which were published in early April, Roldugin owns several offshore companies with multi -million -dollar circulation due to financial fraud. It was also noted that these firms were withdrawn the funds of Russian companies, in particular Severstal, and the Russian commercial bank provided Roldugin’s structures with an unprocessed loan of $ 650 million.

Vladimir Putin said on April 7 that he was proud of friendship with Roldugin. According to the head of state, his friend is trying to engage in business but does not have billions of income. “He is a minority shareholder in one of our companies and there earns some money, but this, of course, is not billions of dollars,” Putin assured.

On April 14, during a direct line, Putin confirmed the reliability of information from the Panama archive. However, the head of state added, nowhere in these documents it is said that he personally is related to funds in offshore.

Roldugin, according to Putin, spent money on two violins and two cello, so unique that it is impossible to "sell them." The cost of only one cells "Stuart" of the work of Stradivari, said the president, about $ 12 million. According to Putin, after buying instruments from Roldugin, “there was nothing left”, and he even remained to the structures and funds that helped him.

On April 26, it became known that the money stolen from the Russian budget with the defendants in Magnitsky’s case, in May 2008, were transferred to the offshore company International Media Overseas, whose sole owner was Roldugin at that time. This is evidenced by the document from the Panama archive, published by the Center for the study of corruption and organized crime (OCCRP).