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WORLD NEWSFriday 8 April 2016

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron speaks in Birmingham, England. Cameron was under pres- Putin says Panama Papers part
sure this week to crack down on offshore tax havens, after a leak of millions of documents dis- of a US plot to weaken Russia
closed details of the asset-hiding arrangements of wealthy people including his late father.
I. TITOVA
(Christopher Furlong/PA via AP) V. ISACHENKOV
Associated Press
UK’s Cameron says he did profit from ST.PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — President Vladimir Putin
on Thursday denied having any links to offshore ac-
late father’s offshore holdings counts and described the Panama Papers document
leaks scandal as part of a U.S.-led plot to weaken Rus-
JILL LAWLESS Fonseca. Millions of docu- benefit from any offshore sia.
Associated Press ments detailing the firm’s funds” — without specify- Putin also defended a cellist friend named as the al-
LONDON (AP) — After days work shielding wealthy in- ing whether they had done leged owner of an offshore company, describing him
of headlines about his fam- dividuals’ money from tax so in the past. as a philanthropist who spent his own funds to buy
ily’s financial affairs, British have been leaked to the On Thursday, Cameron rare musical instruments for Russian state collections.
Prime Minister David Cam- international media. said his father’s name was Speaking at a media forum in St. Petersburg, Putin
eron acknowledged Thurs- Ian Cameron, an affluent being “dragged through said Western media pushed the claims of his involve-
day that he profited from stockbroker, put money the mud,” and insisted Ian ment in offshore businesses even though his name
shares in an offshore firm into Blairmore Holdings, Cameron’s offshore fund didn’t feature in any of the documents leaked from a
set up by his father. which did not pay British had not been set up to Panamanian law firm.
Cameron told ITV news that tax. avoid tax. Putin described the allegations as part of the U.S.-
he and his wife, Samantha, There is no suggestion “I want to be as clear as I led disinformation campaign waged against Russia
sold shares worth 31,500 the arrangement was il- can about the past, about in order to weaken its government. “They are trying
pounds (currently $44,300) legal, but the revelation the present, about the to destabilize us from within in order to make us more
in an offshore fund named has brought calls for David future, because frankly, compliant,” he said.
Blairmore Holdings in Janu- Cameron to come clean I don’t have anything to State Department spokesman Mark Toner rejected
ary 2010 — five months about his financial affairs. hide,” he said. the notion that the U.S. is behind the allegations. “I
before Cameron became It has also given the prime Cameron has championed would reject the premise or the assertion that we’re
prime minister. They had minister’s opponents a greater financial transpar- in any way involved in the actual leak of these docu-
paid 12,497 pounds for the chance to depict him as ency in Britain and abroad, ments,” he told reporters in Washington.
shares in 1997. Cameron a scion of wealth, out of and is due to host an in- The Washington-based International Consortium of In-
said the money was sub- touch with the financial ternational anti-corruption vestigative Journalists said the documents it obtained
ject to British tax “in the nor- worries of ordinary people. summit in London next indicated that Russian cellist Sergei Roldugin acted as
mal ways.” Cameron has been fend- month. a front man for a network of Putin loyalists, and, per-
He said he sold his shares ing off questions about his But opposition politicians haps, the president himself.
because he did not want finances for days. Earlier accuse him of failing to The ICIJ said the documents show how complex off-
anyone to accuse him of this week, the British lead- implement promises to re- shore financial deals channeled as much as $2 billion
having “vested interests.” er’s office said the family’s form British overseas territo- to a network of people linked to the Russian president.
The prime minister’s father, financial affairs were a pri- ries that act as tax havens, Putin said Roldugin, a longtime friend, did nothing
Ian Cameron, who died in vate matter. Later Down- including the British Virgin wrong. He said he was proud of Roldugin, adding that
2010, was a client of Pana- ing St. said the prime min- Islands and the Cayman the musician spent his personal money to advance
manian law firm Mossack ister and his family “do not Islands.q cultural projects.
Roldugin used the money he earned as a minority
shareholder of a Russian company to buy rare musi-
cal instruments abroad and hand them over to the
Russian state, Putin said.
“Without publicizing himself, he also has worked to
organize concerts, promote Russian culture abroad
and effectively paid his own money for that,” Putin
added. “The more people like him we have, the bet-
ter. And I’m proud to have friends like him.”
Putin contended that Washington has fanned allega-
tions of Russian official corruption in order to weaken
Moscow as the U.S. has become concerned about
Russia’s growing economic and military might.
“The events in Syria have demonstrated Russia’s ca-
pability to solve problems far away from its borders,”
he said, adding that Moscow has achieved its goal
“to strengthen the Syrian statehood, its legitimate
government bodies.”q