Kremlin spokesman dismisses ‘Proekt’ investigation into the wealth of Putin’s ‘close acquaintance’

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has dismissed Proekt’s investigation into the close ties between Russian President Vladimir Putin and secretive millionaire Svetlana Krivonogikh as “unfounded and unconvincing.”

In conversation with journalists on Thursday, November 26, Peskov gave the following comment on the report:

You know, I actually looked at the material myself. Well, let’s say this, it’s unconvincing. This, I would say, is an epistolary genre. I’m inclined to probably attribute this to such materials, that are so, you know, provocative and yellow, nothing more. This doesn’t look like serious material. These, of course, are absolutely some kind of allegations, in fact they’re unfounded, de facto they are all unfounded. It’s clear that new materials will appear and so on, we know this, and there is nothing special about it. And nothing here deserves any kind of comment.

• On November 25, the investigative outlet Proekt published a report on the wealth of Russian millionaire Svetlana Krivonogikh, who is said to have obtained her fortune as a “close acquaintance” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• According to the investigation, Krivonogikh owns a 800 million rubles (about $10.6 million) worth of shares in Rossiya Bank, and is the main owner of both the Igora Ski Report and the Leningrad Center performing arts venue in downtown St. Petersburg. Proekt estimates the total value of all assets owned by the Krivonogikh family at 7.7 billion rubles (about $101 million).
• Proekt also claims that Krivonogikh’s 17-year-old daughter “bears an uncanny resemblance” to the Russian president.
• Asked about the investigation yesterday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was hearing about Svetlana Krivonogikh for the first time and didn’t know anything about her.