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He's the world leader accused of personally approving murder | 0:00:03 | 0:00:07 | |
on the streets of London. | 0:00:07 | 0:00:09 | |
The conclusion that the Russian state was probably involved | 0:00:09 | 0:00:12 | |
in the murder of Mr Litvinenko is deeply disturbing. | 0:00:12 | 0:00:16 | |
But is the president implicated in an assassination | 0:00:18 | 0:00:22 | |
also responsible for theft on an extraordinary scale? | 0:00:22 | 0:00:27 | |
He has fleets of things | 0:00:27 | 0:00:28 | |
that almost no billionaire in the West would have. | 0:00:28 | 0:00:32 | |
Vladimir Putin has been accused of looting his own country. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:39 | |
-TRANSLATION: -Today, Putin behaves like a tsar. | 0:00:39 | 0:00:43 | |
Tonight, we investigate the truth about President Putin's riches. | 0:00:45 | 0:00:50 | |
Why would it be kept secret? | 0:00:50 | 0:00:51 | |
And, for the first time, the Americans say what they really think | 0:00:57 | 0:01:01 | |
about the Russian president. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:04 | |
Is Vladimir Putin corrupt? | 0:01:04 | 0:01:06 | |
In our view, yes. | 0:01:06 | 0:01:08 | |
There is no other world leader | 0:01:28 | 0:01:30 | |
like Vladimir Putin. | 0:01:30 | 0:01:32 | |
Action man. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:36 | |
Man of the people. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:40 | |
PUTIN SPEAKS RUSSIAN | 0:01:41 | 0:01:44 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:01:44 | 0:01:46 | |
And ruler of Russia. | 0:01:46 | 0:01:48 | |
WOMAN INTRODUCES PUTIN IN RUSSIAN | 0:01:48 | 0:01:52 | |
From Ukraine to Syria, Vladimir Putin's influence | 0:01:52 | 0:01:56 | |
is being felt. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:58 | |
He's faced countless accusations of corruption, | 0:01:58 | 0:02:01 | |
but still has record approval ratings in Russia. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:05 | |
What do you think of Vladimir Putin? | 0:02:05 | 0:02:07 | |
But should the Russian people trust Vladimir Putin? | 0:02:17 | 0:02:21 | |
President Putin's official income is around 100,000 a year, | 0:02:30 | 0:02:35 | |
and yet he lives like the super rich. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:37 | |
He has a collection of expensive watches, | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
even his designer tracksuit cost 3,000. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:46 | |
He has a level of living | 0:02:46 | 0:02:48 | |
that is far in excess of anything | 0:02:48 | 0:02:51 | |
anyone in the West would have, even the very richest. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:55 | |
It's that kind of level that we see from Saudi princes. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:59 | |
So how rich is Vladimir Putin? | 0:03:03 | 0:03:06 | |
Well, it may be one of Russia's best-kept secrets, | 0:03:08 | 0:03:12 | |
but one journalist came up with a figure. | 0:03:12 | 0:03:15 | |
Stanislav Belkovsky claimed Putin had secret share holdings | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
in some of Russia's biggest companies. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:22 | |
I met him in Moscow. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:24 | |
IN ENGLISH: | 0:03:24 | 0:03:26 | |
What figure did you come up with for Vladimir Putin's wealth? | 0:03:27 | 0:03:31 | |
Putin himself dismissed the 40 billion claim. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:45 | |
PUTIN SPEAKS IN RUSSIAN: | 0:03:47 | 0:03:48 | |
But a secret CIA report agreed with Belkovsky's figure. | 0:03:57 | 0:04:02 | |
In their view, Putin was worth around 40 billion. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:07 | |
Did you tell the CIA the details of your 40-billion figure? | 0:04:08 | 0:04:13 | |
No, no. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:14 | |
IN ENGLISH: | 0:04:14 | 0:04:16 | |
Russia's role in the Ukrainian conflict | 0:04:28 | 0:04:30 | |
has led to closer scrutiny of Putin's finances. | 0:04:30 | 0:04:35 | |
Many of his inner circle have faced financial sanctions | 0:04:35 | 0:04:38 | |
from the Americans and the European Union. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:42 | |
Now the US won't publicly confirm the 40-billion figure, | 0:04:42 | 0:04:46 | |
but they have told Panorama what they think about Putin's wealth. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:51 | |
I'm not in a position to give you figures, | 0:04:51 | 0:04:53 | |
but what I can say is that | 0:04:53 | 0:04:55 | |
he supposedly draws a state salary | 0:04:55 | 0:04:57 | |
of something like 110,000 a year. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
That is not an accurate statement | 0:05:00 | 0:05:02 | |
of the man's wealth. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:04 | |
And he has long-time training and practices | 0:05:04 | 0:05:08 | |
in terms of how to mask his actual wealth. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:12 | |
Is Vladimir Putin corrupt? | 0:05:12 | 0:05:14 | |
In our view, yes. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:16 | |
How long has the United States known that Vladimir Putin | 0:05:16 | 0:05:20 | |
was, in your words, a corrupt figure? | 0:05:20 | 0:05:23 | |
I think for many, many years. | 0:05:23 | 0:05:25 | |
Russia dismisses this sort of talk as nonsense. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:30 | |
But the fact that the Americans are finally labelling Putin as corrupt | 0:05:30 | 0:05:35 | |
shows how bad relations have become. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:38 | |
So what's the truth about Putin's money? | 0:05:40 | 0:05:43 | |
Has Russia's president been making billions on the side | 0:05:43 | 0:05:47 | |
and, if he has, where's it all hidden? | 0:05:47 | 0:05:49 | |
I've come to Estonia to meet a man who says | 0:05:54 | 0:05:58 | |
he knows about some of Putin's cash. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:00 | |
He fled Russia after falling out with Kremlin insiders. | 0:06:00 | 0:06:06 | |
Our contact helped Putin collect money from the super rich. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:09 | |
They all thought it was to pay for health care. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
But Sergei Kolesnikov says some of the donated cash was diverted | 0:06:15 | 0:06:20 | |
and ultimately used to help build a billion-dollar palace for Putin. | 0:06:20 | 0:06:25 | |
-TRANSLATION: -Regrettably, these funds, | 0:06:27 | 0:06:30 | |
which were supposed to be invested | 0:06:30 | 0:06:32 | |
in decent investment projects | 0:06:32 | 0:06:34 | |
to a significant extent, | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
ended up being spent on a palace on the Black Sea coast. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:40 | |
And here it is. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:46 | |
President Putin says the palace is nothing to do with him. | 0:06:49 | 0:06:54 | |
But we've seen documents linking Vladimir Putin | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
to the palace at the time it was built. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:04 | |
They show a secret money trail, | 0:07:04 | 0:07:07 | |
and it's claimed Putin was at the heart of it. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
These are documents from one of the offshore companies | 0:07:11 | 0:07:15 | |
that diverted millions of dollars to the palace. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
According to Kolesnikov, the owner of this company was Putin himself. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:24 | |
The offshore company was overseen by Kolesnikov | 0:07:26 | 0:07:29 | |
and his business partner, a Kremlin insider called Nikolai Shamalov. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:34 | |
-TRANSLATION: -Shamalov said that he was taking 96 shares, | 0:07:39 | 0:07:43 | |
96%, keeping 2% for himself and he would be giving 94% to Putin. | 0:07:43 | 0:07:50 | |
There's more evidence. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:57 | |
Kolesnikov and Shamalov were recorded | 0:07:57 | 0:08:00 | |
apparently discussing 440 million of investments belonging to Putin. | 0:08:00 | 0:08:06 | |
They refer to Putin using a nickname - Mikhail Ivanovich. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:12 | |
IN RUSSIAN: | 0:08:12 | 0:08:13 | |
Shamalov is still a trusted Kremlin insider. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:28 | |
In that recording, he was discussing Putin's secret fortune. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:34 | |
Finding evidence like that about Putin is not easy. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:42 | |
He used to run Russia's intelligence service. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:45 | |
He knows how to hide secrets. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:47 | |
Few from his inner circle ever talk, | 0:08:53 | 0:08:56 | |
but Panorama has tracked down one who will. | 0:08:56 | 0:08:59 | |
I've come to Nice in the south of France to meet him. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:04 | |
So I'm at the hotel and we're about to be picked up | 0:09:05 | 0:09:08 | |
and taken to the interview location. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:11 | |
But the truth is we have no idea where we're going. | 0:09:11 | 0:09:14 | |
We certainly don't have anything like an address. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
The reason is probably because | 0:09:16 | 0:09:18 | |
the man that we're on our way to interview is on the run. | 0:09:18 | 0:09:21 | |
He was one of Russia's richest and most important men. | 0:09:25 | 0:09:29 | |
But he fled his homeland and says he can't go back. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:36 | |
Merci. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:40 | |
'His driver has brought me to a secret location.' | 0:09:40 | 0:09:43 | |
Hi. How are you? | 0:09:46 | 0:09:48 | |
This is Sergei Pugachev. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:51 | |
He says he helped Putin become president. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:56 | |
They were friends. | 0:09:56 | 0:09:57 | |
Their children played together. | 0:09:57 | 0:09:59 | |
-TRANSLATION: -I had a very close relationship with Putin. | 0:10:01 | 0:10:05 | |
Putin consulted me. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:06 | |
Putin confided in me. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:08 | |
Pugachev took Putin to see one of the presidential palaces. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:15 | |
-TRANSLATION: -Of course, this was an absolutely new world, new life. | 0:10:17 | 0:10:21 | |
Of course, he was astonished by it. | 0:10:21 | 0:10:23 | |
In that first term as president, | 0:10:25 | 0:10:28 | |
what was Putin's attitude to money? | 0:10:28 | 0:10:30 | |
-TRANSLATION: -I think that Putin was preoccupied | 0:10:32 | 0:10:35 | |
with the issue of wealth from the start. | 0:10:35 | 0:10:38 | |
I think that for Putin, this was an important factor. | 0:10:39 | 0:10:43 | |
We talked about it. He didn't hide it. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:47 | |
He knew he wanted to leave office as a wealthy person. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
Vladimir Putin has come a long way. | 0:10:56 | 0:10:59 | |
He wasn't born rich and to understand him, | 0:11:01 | 0:11:04 | |
you need to go to his home city, St Petersburg. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:08 | |
This is where he grew up, there on the fifth floor. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:20 | |
Putin's family had one room in a shared apartment. | 0:11:20 | 0:11:23 | |
No hot water and a shared kitchen in the corridor. | 0:11:23 | 0:11:27 | |
Vladimir Putin grew up in poverty. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:31 | |
But it was in St Petersburg that Vladimir Putin first tasted power. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:38 | |
Back in the '90s, not long out of the KGB, | 0:11:42 | 0:11:45 | |
Putin became a deputy mayor. | 0:11:45 | 0:11:48 | |
On his watch, millions of dollars disappeared from public funds | 0:11:48 | 0:11:53 | |
to a company called Twentieth Trust. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
The detective who investigated | 0:11:56 | 0:11:58 | |
says Putin was one of those who benefitted. | 0:11:58 | 0:12:02 | |
He says Putin ended up with a property in Torrevieja in Spain. | 0:12:02 | 0:12:07 | |
-TRANSLATION: -If Twentieth Trust | 0:12:09 | 0:12:10 | |
is building a villa | 0:12:10 | 0:12:12 | |
for Putin in Torrevieja, | 0:12:12 | 0:12:13 | |
is this Putin personally receiving the money or not? | 0:12:13 | 0:12:17 | |
In my opinion, the answer is straightforward. | 0:12:17 | 0:12:20 | |
But the criminal case was closed after Putin became president. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:28 | |
Zykov says he was forced into retirement. | 0:12:28 | 0:12:32 | |
The Kremlin has denied the claims, | 0:12:32 | 0:12:35 | |
but Spanish investigators reveal the details | 0:12:35 | 0:12:37 | |
of wiretapped phone conversations | 0:12:37 | 0:12:40 | |
between Russians who've been linked to organised crime. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:43 | |
They can be heard discussing Putin's property in Spain. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:47 | |
One of the gangsters says Putin's house is in Torrevieja, | 0:12:49 | 0:12:53 | |
the same Spanish town Zykov had identified. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:56 | |
It looks like Zykov was right - Putin got a house in Spain. | 0:12:56 | 0:13:01 | |
So in St Petersburg, Putin learned how to profit from power. | 0:13:08 | 0:13:13 | |
He also built a loyal team. | 0:13:13 | 0:13:15 | |
After he moved to the Kremlin, they came with him. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:19 | |
The men closest to Putin have been with him for years. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:23 | |
They were with him here in St Petersburg | 0:13:23 | 0:13:25 | |
and they've stayed with him ever since. | 0:13:25 | 0:13:28 | |
This is the group that he trusts and that he rewards, | 0:13:28 | 0:13:31 | |
and this is the group that runs Russia. | 0:13:31 | 0:13:33 | |
Putin's lawyer at the Town Hall | 0:13:37 | 0:13:39 | |
became President | 0:13:39 | 0:13:41 | |
and then Prime Minister of Russia. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:43 | |
His former deputy also served | 0:13:45 | 0:13:47 | |
as Prime Minister. | 0:13:47 | 0:13:49 | |
The Chief of Staff at the Town Hall | 0:13:51 | 0:13:53 | |
now runs Russia's anti-drugs agency. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:56 | |
His former assistant now runs the | 0:13:58 | 0:14:01 | |
biggest oil company in the world. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:03 | |
And his former economist now runs | 0:14:03 | 0:14:06 | |
the biggest gas company | 0:14:06 | 0:14:08 | |
in the world. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:09 | |
All of them worked with Putin in this building. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:16 | |
They rose up together. They went with him to Moscow. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:23 | |
They have been a very stable elite. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:25 | |
This whole group, | 0:14:25 | 0:14:29 | |
who grabbed the commanding heights of the Russian economy, | 0:14:29 | 0:14:33 | |
they all worked together in a very small office, in fact, | 0:14:33 | 0:14:37 | |
in St Petersburg. | 0:14:37 | 0:14:39 | |
As President, Putin was at the centre of this new elite. | 0:14:42 | 0:14:46 | |
He had power and access to the super-rich. | 0:14:46 | 0:14:50 | |
You can see how Putin used this by looking at his relationship | 0:14:52 | 0:14:56 | |
with Britain's most famous Russian, | 0:14:56 | 0:14:59 | |
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:01 | |
He was one of the unwitting donors to Putin's Palace. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:07 | |
He thought all his cash would be spent on health care, | 0:15:07 | 0:15:11 | |
and he gave more than 200 million. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
-TRANSLATION: -Abramovich's role was rather simple. | 0:15:16 | 0:15:20 | |
He provided 203 million. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
Were these oligarchs effectively just paying tribute | 0:15:26 | 0:15:31 | |
to Vladimir Putin? | 0:15:31 | 0:15:33 | |
I think this is exactly what they thought. | 0:15:33 | 0:15:36 | |
Abramovich and other wealthy Russians are expected to pay | 0:15:41 | 0:15:45 | |
for important projects, like hosting the 2018 World Cup. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:50 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:15:57 | 0:15:59 | |
The Fifa World Cup, ladies and gentlemen, | 0:16:08 | 0:16:11 | |
will be organised in Russia. | 0:16:11 | 0:16:14 | |
But we have been told about a gift that can't be explained away | 0:16:14 | 0:16:18 | |
as good for anyone other than Vladimir Putin. | 0:16:18 | 0:16:22 | |
A 35 million yacht like this one, | 0:16:24 | 0:16:28 | |
given by Roman Abramovich. | 0:16:28 | 0:16:30 | |
And our source is the man who managed the yacht. | 0:16:37 | 0:16:40 | |
He fell out with the Kremlin, he's a wanted man in Russia | 0:16:44 | 0:16:48 | |
and he's living in the UK. | 0:16:48 | 0:16:50 | |
KNOCKING | 0:16:54 | 0:16:56 | |
-Hi. -Hi. -Dmitry, I am Richard. -Yes, nice to meet you. | 0:16:56 | 0:16:59 | |
Dmitry Skarga says he helped oversee the transfer of the boat | 0:17:02 | 0:17:06 | |
from Abramovich to Putin. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:08 | |
Skarga says the yacht was given to an offshore company | 0:17:20 | 0:17:24 | |
but the real owner was President Putin. | 0:17:24 | 0:17:28 | |
Why would it be kept secret? | 0:17:41 | 0:17:43 | |
We have seen documents that appear to support Skarga's story. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:55 | |
Roman Abramovich's lawyers said the claims were unsubstantiated, | 0:17:57 | 0:18:01 | |
little more than a rehash of speculation and rumours. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:05 | |
But they didn't specifically deny that he had given | 0:18:05 | 0:18:09 | |
President Putin a yacht. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:11 | |
You can hardly blame Abramovich for wanting to keep | 0:18:15 | 0:18:19 | |
on Putin's good side. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:20 | |
Standing up to him can be dangerous. | 0:18:20 | 0:18:23 | |
This is billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky | 0:18:33 | 0:18:36 | |
publicly challenging Putin about corruption. | 0:18:36 | 0:18:40 | |
And this is where he ended up. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:46 | |
Khodorkovsky was jailed for tax evasion and embezzlement. | 0:18:49 | 0:18:53 | |
His business was taken by the Russian state. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:56 | |
The beauty of the system is that it's organised and run | 0:18:56 | 0:19:00 | |
according to the old adage - | 0:19:00 | 0:19:02 | |
for my friends everything, for my enemies the law. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:05 | |
The message that Putin chose to send to all of them | 0:19:05 | 0:19:11 | |
was that I can put you in prison for anything. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:14 | |
I don't need to have a watertight case. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:17 | |
That is the genius of the system. | 0:19:17 | 0:19:21 | |
Sergei Pugachev claims he lost his business too. | 0:19:23 | 0:19:27 | |
He started a multi-billion dollar compensation claim | 0:19:27 | 0:19:31 | |
against the Russian state. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:33 | |
But the Russian authorities accuse him | 0:19:33 | 0:19:36 | |
of stealing billions of dollars from a bank he used to own. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:39 | |
-TRANSLATION: -There is no court in Russia, | 0:19:40 | 0:19:43 | |
that's why I went to the International Court. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
I am convinced that I will win. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:48 | |
The Russian state says that you effectively looted your bank | 0:19:48 | 0:19:52 | |
after it was bailed out by the Russian Central Bank. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:55 | |
Did you do that? | 0:19:55 | 0:19:56 | |
Well, of course not. | 0:19:56 | 0:19:59 | |
These are absurd accusations not substantiated by anything. | 0:19:59 | 0:20:03 | |
We don't know who is telling the truth about Pugachev's fortune, | 0:20:06 | 0:20:11 | |
but the allegation is clear - Putin controls the super-rich in Russia. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:16 | |
People who possess a fortune, a large business in Russia, | 0:20:20 | 0:20:24 | |
realise that they do not own this, because everything depends on Putin. | 0:20:24 | 0:20:29 | |
They depend 100% on his mood. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:34 | |
For those who have been in Putin's circle, | 0:20:38 | 0:20:40 | |
the benefits have been immense. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:42 | |
A cellist who is godfather to Putin's daughter | 0:20:44 | 0:20:48 | |
has a valuable stake in a major Russian bank. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:52 | |
A neighbour has an even bigger stake. | 0:20:52 | 0:20:54 | |
Another neighbour ended up running the railways. | 0:20:57 | 0:21:00 | |
A childhood friend has made a fortune from government contracts. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:05 | |
And his brother has made even more. | 0:21:07 | 0:21:10 | |
The Americans say this is how Putin's Russia works. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:16 | |
We have seen him enriching his friends, his close allies, | 0:21:17 | 0:21:22 | |
and marginalising those who he doesn't view as friends | 0:21:22 | 0:21:26 | |
using state assets, | 0:21:26 | 0:21:28 | |
whether that's Russia's energy wealth, | 0:21:28 | 0:21:30 | |
whether it's other state contracts, | 0:21:30 | 0:21:33 | |
he directs those to whom he believes will serve him | 0:21:33 | 0:21:37 | |
and excludes those who don't. | 0:21:37 | 0:21:39 | |
And if you want to make money in Russia, this is the industry. | 0:21:44 | 0:21:48 | |
The nation's greatest riches are in oil and gas. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:52 | |
Russia exports well over a billion barrels of oil a year. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:56 | |
And here too, Vladimir Putin has been accused | 0:21:56 | 0:21:59 | |
of taking a cut for himself. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:02 | |
Putin came and established a system where high-ranked officials | 0:22:03 | 0:22:07 | |
actually want to control vital strategic assets. | 0:22:07 | 0:22:10 | |
What we have now are | 0:22:10 | 0:22:11 | |
a bunch of shady guys | 0:22:11 | 0:22:13 | |
who barely appear in public, | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
and who control vital businesses | 0:22:15 | 0:22:17 | |
linked to the state, | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
which makes one think and wonder whether they are real beneficiaries | 0:22:19 | 0:22:23 | |
of their business, or somebody superpowerful is behind their back. | 0:22:23 | 0:22:27 | |
I have come to New York to meet a man who says Putin | 0:22:37 | 0:22:41 | |
took a slice of his oil business. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:43 | |
He is yet another Russian who has fled abroad. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:49 | |
He says his life has been threatened. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:53 | |
This is his first TV interview. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:56 | |
-Max. Hi. -Hi. -Pleased to meet you, I'm Richard. | 0:22:58 | 0:23:01 | |
Max Freidzon started his business in St Petersburg | 0:23:01 | 0:23:05 | |
when Putin was deputy mayor. | 0:23:05 | 0:23:08 | |
Putin gave him a monopoly to supply oil to the local airport, | 0:23:08 | 0:23:12 | |
but he says the help came at a price. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
-TRANSLATION: -I know from my business partner that Putin asked | 0:23:18 | 0:23:21 | |
for a share in the business. | 0:23:21 | 0:23:23 | |
Initially, they were asking for 15%. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:29 | |
He called them greedy bastards. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:32 | |
He managed to talk them down to 4%. | 0:23:32 | 0:23:34 | |
Obviously, this wasn't registered in any official papers. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:40 | |
The Kremlin says Max's story is untrue. | 0:23:43 | 0:23:46 | |
But the Americans have highlighted another energy company | 0:23:47 | 0:23:51 | |
that they say Putin has links to. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:53 | |
It is called Gunvor. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:57 | |
According to the Americans, | 0:23:58 | 0:24:00 | |
Putin had secret investments in the company. | 0:24:00 | 0:24:03 | |
What exactly do you mean by investments? | 0:24:05 | 0:24:08 | |
We believe it's a place where he has stored money. | 0:24:08 | 0:24:11 | |
How much money would you say? | 0:24:11 | 0:24:13 | |
I can't give you an estimate on that. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:15 | |
Gunvor told us these claims were... | 0:24:17 | 0:24:19 | |
..and that... | 0:24:22 | 0:24:25 | |
The Americans insist they are right | 0:24:31 | 0:24:33 | |
but they haven't provided any evidence. | 0:24:33 | 0:24:35 | |
It's important because Gunvor has traded much of Russia's state oil. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:45 | |
It's made big profits, and nearly half of the company | 0:24:45 | 0:24:49 | |
was owned by this man, Gennady Timchenko, | 0:24:49 | 0:24:52 | |
one of Putin's friends. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:54 | |
He has now sold his stake. | 0:24:57 | 0:24:59 | |
It is said he is worth 10 billion. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:03 | |
And he is on the US sanctions list. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:06 | |
The Americans claim his activities in the energy sector | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
have been directed by President Putin. | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
Has Gennady Timchenko been holding wealth for Vladimir Putin, | 0:25:12 | 0:25:15 | |
do you think? | 0:25:15 | 0:25:17 | |
I don't know if I would put it exactly that way | 0:25:17 | 0:25:19 | |
in terms of holding his wealth - | 0:25:19 | 0:25:21 | |
I can say that he has been tremendously enriched personally | 0:25:21 | 0:25:24 | |
by Vladimir Putin, | 0:25:24 | 0:25:25 | |
as have another handful of people in Putin's inner circle. | 0:25:25 | 0:25:29 | |
And of course, there are allegations, suspicions, | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
that he holds tremendous amounts of Putin's wealth. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:37 | |
Gennady Timchenko's lawyers said the US has never produced any evidence | 0:25:37 | 0:25:42 | |
and its claims were... | 0:25:42 | 0:25:45 | |
Mr Timchenko categorically denies that President Putin | 0:25:48 | 0:25:52 | |
has ever controlled his assets or enriched him, | 0:25:52 | 0:25:56 | |
but two of our sources say Mr Timchenko | 0:25:56 | 0:25:59 | |
was very much under the control of Vladimir Putin. | 0:25:59 | 0:26:03 | |
How do you know? | 0:26:03 | 0:26:04 | |
-TRANSLATION: -From the very start, | 0:26:28 | 0:26:30 | |
Putin understood that money which Timchenko was managing, | 0:26:30 | 0:26:34 | |
one way or another, without any doubt, belonged to Putin. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:39 | |
It was never a secret. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
Mr Timchenko's lawyers say our two main sources | 0:26:44 | 0:26:48 | |
are not credible and may have axes to grind. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:51 | |
President Putin denies all the allegations in this programme. | 0:26:56 | 0:27:00 | |
His spokesman declined to answer our "absurd questions" | 0:27:00 | 0:27:05 | |
because the issues we had raised were "pure fiction." | 0:27:05 | 0:27:09 | |
This all matters because President Putin | 0:27:14 | 0:27:16 | |
is one of the most powerful people on the planet. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:21 | |
But he has been accused of using that power to enrich himself | 0:27:21 | 0:27:26 | |
on a vast scale. | 0:27:26 | 0:27:27 | |
-TRANSLATION: -I started arguing with Shamalov and he said to me, | 0:27:30 | 0:27:35 | |
"Who do you think you are? | 0:27:35 | 0:27:37 | |
"You are a serf." | 0:27:37 | 0:27:38 | |
"The Tsar," he often called Putin the Tsar, | 0:27:38 | 0:27:42 | |
"The Tsar made a decision. | 0:27:42 | 0:27:43 | |
"Your job is that of a serf - to deliver." | 0:27:43 | 0:27:47 | |
Some say that Putin can demand anything he wants, | 0:27:51 | 0:27:55 | |
so almost any figure for his wealth is meaningless. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:59 | |
-TRANSLATION: -Putin considers everything within the territory | 0:27:59 | 0:28:03 | |
of the Russian Federation, | 0:28:03 | 0:28:05 | |
everything that can be converted into cash, to be his own. | 0:28:05 | 0:28:09 | |
How would you describe that kind of wealth? | 0:28:09 | 0:28:13 | |
Putin has been accused of corruption on an extraordinary scale. | 0:28:26 | 0:28:31 | |
The modern tsar who plundered his own empire. | 0:28:31 | 0:28:34 |