New revelations show that Putin has apparently made an exuberant amount of money over the years selling vodka in Russia. It is estimated that this trade has already earned him 500 million dollars (more than 471 million euros). He reportedly used that huge income to finance the purchase of luxury flats and the construction of his decadent palaces.
According to the Russian research website Proekt, it all started in 2008, when Putin became prime minister. A Russian liquor merchant then founded the vodka brand ‘Putinka’ and needed Putin’s permission to use the name. He would have agreed and – without the public knowing – became co-owner with a confidant. “From the beginning, they controlled all of Putinka’s earnings,” the report said.
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Putinka had only been on the market for three years when it already became the market leader in Russia, selling 40 million liters per year. Again and again, the trademark rights and the company would have been sold, but always remained in the hands of Putin’s closest confidants. And they had to hand over large parts of the profit to him every time. Between 2004 and 2019, it would be about 400 to 500 million dollars. The report speaks of “pockets full of cash”.
The latest revelations would expose a St Petersburg lawyer, Vladislav Kopylov, as Vladimir Putin’s “wallet”. The offshore company Ermira Consultants, registered in Cyprus, is in the name of the lawyer and is said to have used Putin’s money from the vodka trade to buy, among other things, a flat in the center of Moscow, two villas in the prestigious suburbs of the Russian capital and three flats and to finance a luxury penthouse in Sochi.
Ermira Consultants is also said to have been involved in the construction of the pompous palace on the Black Sea – the existence of which was discovered by Alexei Navalny and his team – and acquired blocks of shares in Gazprom and other companies for Putin.
“We used the phrase ‘pay with Emira’, which meant that Putin’s money was used to close a certain deal,” an anonymous source associated with Emira Consultants told Proekt. The Kremlin did not comment on the revelations.
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