The investigation
Palaces, yachts, vineyards, and a ski resort available to Vladimir Putin but not formally owned by him are all connected by a single network. A series of emails appear to show that the $4.5 billion worth of assets always belong to the same LLCIinvest.ru domain. There is also an investigation conducted by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (Occrp) and the independent Russian website Meduza, and restarted by the Guardian. The Russian president, who faced sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine, officially owns few assets, including an apartment in St. Petersburg, two 1950s Soviet cars, a trailer and a small garage.
The year-long research identified 86 companies and nonprofits, all using the shared LLCinvest domain in email. And the contents of the emails, leaked as of September, show that directors and administrators of several of these companies are discussing business with each other as part of the same organization. According to an anonymous Russian anti-corruption expert quoted by the Guardian, “LLCInvest looks like some kind of cooperative or association where members exchange benefits and property.”
(AFP)