Considering that there is no actual evidence given in the article, I am going with unsubstantiated claims.
Plus, Yulia Latynina is not somebody to quote in a supposedly objective piece. She's a wingnut.
--- "farmelantj at juno.com" <farmelantj at juno.com> wrote:
>
> Is there any real substance to this story or is this
> like the claims that appeared in Forbes Magazine a
> few years back that Fidel Castro was a billionaire?
>
> Jim F.
>
> -- "Colin Brace" <cb at lim.nl> wrote:
> [...]
>
> The claims over the president's assets surfaced last
> month when the
> Russian political expert Stanislav Belkovsky gave an
> interview to the
> German newspaper Die Welt. They have since been
> repeated in the
> Washington Post and the Moscow Times, with
> speculation over the
> fortune appearing on the internet.
>
> Citing sources inside the president's
> administration, Belkovsky claims
> that after eight years in power Putin has secretly
> accumulated more
> than $40bn (£20bn). The sum would make him Russia's
> - and Europe's -
> richest man.
>
> In an interview with the Guardian, Belkovsky
> repeated his claims that
> Putin owns vast holdings in three Russian oil and
> gas companies,
> concealed behind a "non-transparent network of
> offshore trusts".
>
> Putin "effectively" controls 37% of the shares of
> Surgutneftegaz, an
> oil exploration company and Russia's third biggest
> oil producer, worth
> $20bn, he says. He also owns 4.5% of Gazprom, and
> "at least 75%" of
> Gunvor, a mysterious Swiss-based oil trader, founded
> by Gennady
> Timchenko, a friend of the president's, Belkovsky
> alleges.
>
> Asked how much Putin was worth, Belkovsky said: "At
> least $40bn.
> Maximum we cannot know. I suspect there are some
> businesses I know
> nothing about." He added: "It may be more. It may be
> much more."
>
> [...]
>
> full:
>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2230924,00.html
>
> --
> Colin Brace
> Amsterdam
>
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>
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