{"id":1905,"date":"2020-12-11T17:22:50","date_gmt":"2020-12-11T17:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=138097"},"modified":"2020-12-11T17:22:50","modified_gmt":"2020-12-11T17:22:50","slug":"the-week-in-russia-not-denials-and-not-the-nineties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/11\/the-week-in-russia-not-denials-and-not-the-nineties\/","title":{"rendered":"The Week In Russia: (Not) Denials And (Not) The Nineties"},"content":{"rendered":"
To receive Steve Gutterman’s Week In Russia each week via e-mail, subscribe by clicking here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n The Kremlin issued a strenuous nondenial of a report linking lucrative sweetheart deals to President Vladimir Putin’s purported former son-in-law, drawing comparisons with a decade he disdains. A top-secret “doomsday plane” was stripped of equipment by thieves. And new sanctions underscored the cost, in terms of image at least, of Putin’s reliance on Ramzan Kadyrov.<\/p>\n Here are some of the key developments in Russia over the past week and some of the takeaways going forward.<\/p>\n State Of Dismissal<\/strong><\/big><\/p>\n The Kremlin has become practiced in issuing nondenial denials over the years under President Vladimir Putin — and it got some more practice this past week.<\/p>\n First, there was the report that Russian businessman Kirill Shamalov received a slew of offers to buy stakes in some of the country’s biggest companies shortly after marrying Putin’s younger daughter in 2013 — and did consummate at least one sweetheart deal, receiving a stake worth an estimated $380 million in a Russian petrochemicals company for $100.<\/p>\n The December 7 report<\/a><\/strong> was the product of an investigation by Russian outlet iStories, and was published in collaboration with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). It used leaked e-mails to “shine new light on the closed circle of family and associates who surround the Russian president,” as The Guardian put it<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n The Kremlin has done a fair amount to prevent such light from being shed. For example, Putin has acknowledged that he has two daughters but has never publicly confirmed reports revealing their identity — and by extension, he has not acknowledged that Shamalov is his former son-in-law.<\/p>\n In any case, and as is often the case, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the iStories\/OCCRP report but did not directly deny it.<\/p>\n In remarks quoted by state news agency TASS, he suggested it was part of a disinformation campaign involving “various rumors, often having nothing to do with reality.”<\/p>\n Peskov’s remarks seemed intended to discredit any future reports alleging dubious deals or wrongdoing by Putin and those close to him: “We know, more or less, who is the organizer of this activity, and we know that this work will continue.”<\/p>\n Office Double?<\/strong><\/big><\/p>\n The following day, Peskov dismissed a more bizarre report, this one saying that that the Kremlin has built an office for Putin in Sochi that is identical to his office outside Moscow, and that Putin has frequently — and secretly — worked in the Black Sea resort city at times in recent months.<\/p>\n “It turns out that we don’t know where Putin has been located” in recent weeks or months, the December 8 report<\/a><\/strong> by the online publication Proyekt Media said, citing unnamed sources it said were familiar with his schedule as well as analysis of flight-tracking records.<\/p>\n One claim that Peskov did deny was that Putin is having serious health problems. In remarks on December 8, he cast that assertion as part of the same alleged “information exercise” that produced the report about Shamalov but was less equivocal, saying: “As regards [Putin’s] health, that is complete nonsense.”<\/p>\n In remarks to another online Russian news outlet, Peskov called the report “the latest stupidity” but stopped short of a direct denial. He said Putin had been working in the Moscow area and taking trips for work at times, but did not give dates or mention whether he had been in Sochi recently.<\/p>\n Putin, 67, secured the right to run for a fifth presidential term in 2024 and a sixth term in 2030 by pushing though constitutional changes<\/a><\/strong> earlier this year.<\/p>\n