Putin a ‘picture of corruption’: US

Kremlin demands proof of Prez corruption claims

A senior US treasury official has directly accused Russian President Vladi-mir Putin of corruption.

The US government imposed sanctions again-st a number of Kremlin insiders in 2014 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in Ukraine, but did not accuse Mr Putin of direct involvement in corruption.

However, during a Panorama investigation into Mr Putin’s “secret riches”, Adam Szubin, the acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the US treasury in a BBC programme that aired on Monday said Mr Putin was a “picture of corruption”.

“We’ve seen him enriching his friends, his close allies, and marginalising those who he doesn’t view as friends using state assets,” Mr Szubin, who oversees US treasury sanctions, told the Panorama programme, in an unusually strong statement from the government on Mr Putin’s personal finances.

“Whether that’s Russia’s energy wealth, whether it’s other state contracts, he directs those to whom he believes will serve him and excludes those who don’t. To me, that is a picture of corruption,” he said. The US government has known about this for “many, many years”, he added.

In reaction, the Kremlin on Tuesday dismissed co-mments by the US treasury official. “Concerning the BBC show, this would just be another example of typical irresponsible journalism if it weren’t for the comment by a US treasury official,” Mr Putin’s spokesman Dmit-ry Peskov said.