A fragment of the film “Putin and the mafia”

German channel ZDF showed a film about corruption in Russia.

Those in Germany who later falls asleep with the hour of the night could on German TV channel ZDF to watch the film “Putin and the mafia”- continuing the series of documentaries about Russia. The 44-minute film directed by Nicolas Tonev and journalist Anastasia Kirilenko talks about corruption transactions to which could be involved in Vladimir Putin when he was Vice mayor of St. Petersburg, and the President and Prime Minister of Russia. Another problem of the film is to tell about alleged links with Putin’s mafia groups, according to dw.com.

Cottage by the Gulf of Finland or the secret assets of “SIBUR” for the President

The film is based on interviews with various opponents of the Russian President. One of them – Andrei Zykov, a former senior investigator for particularly important cases of the St. Petersburg. In the beginning of the film he accompanies the crew to the Peninsula Boat near Vyborg, where they look for so-called “Putin’s dacha”. Various signs – from safeguarding its employees FSO to the elements of the internal finishing with a double-headed eagle – point, according to the authors of the film, that the found object is the residence of the President. For the first time about the secret “Putin’s dacha” on the Finnish border told the TV channel “Rain” in 2017. Access to the facility the authors of the tape, of course, received, but using the frame of the UAV team of the Fund of struggle against corruption (FBK) Alexei Navalny, the German audience is able to appreciate the luxury residence overlooking the Gulf of Finland.

Then the filmmakers back in 1991, to the beginning of the civil career who retired from the KGB Putin. Now living in London, the St. Petersburg businessman and politician Andrei Korchagin recounts the episode of shenanigans in the supply of natural resources in exchange for food, which was suspected the young Deputy mayor, Deputy to Anatoly Sobchak , Vladimir Putin.

The film shows the copy of the document from the presidential administration of the Russian Federation, which was made a recommendation not to appoint Putin to the new office until a special audit. I was checking – is unknown, but the Deputy Sobchak managed to keep his post, reminds Korchagin.

Another example from the life of St. Petersburg of the early 1990s described Sedelmayer Franz (Franz Sedelmayer), the Bavarian entrepreneur, one of the Western investors in Russia the first call. At the dawn of the emergence of a democratic Russia, the Germans had created in St. Petersburg security company and was in close cooperation with the then St. Petersburg’s Deputy mayor. However, when in 1994, all the assets of the Zedelmayer by order of the Russian Federal authorities seized Putin to come to his defense refused, said the Bavarian.

Franz Sedelmayer

The witness of the Yakuza: Gennady Petrov boasted ties to Putin

Next is a former investigator Andrey Zykov told the filmmakers about how he conducted the case of large budgetary plunders in St.-Petersburg. He accuses Putin and his entourage “in the creation of criminal community”, which was engaged in fraud with the purpose of enrichment, bribery of officials, prosecutors in order to obtain lucrative contracts. Zykov claims that the investigation into his and his colleagues was stopped after Vladimir Putin came to power in the Kremlin in 2000.

After this appears a unusual witness of the life of St. Petersburg of the 1990s and a former member of the Japanese mafia , Kenichi Kamias. He, in his own words, left the criminal world, today lives in Sweden and, according to the authors of the tape for the first time decided to share his memories about those times.

Vladimir Putin after leaving the KGB, he was Deputy Anatoly Sobchak (archive photo TASS)

The camera Kamias showed old photos where he is shown with Gennady Petrov – a man who is considered one of the most influential criminal figures in St. Petersburg of the 1990s. recalls Kenichi, Petrov boasted before him of their influence in the city and claimed that Vladimir Putin “they are friends”.

Putin-the President: the Palace near Gelendzhik and billions Roldugin, the cellist

Special attention the filmmakers paid to the time when Putin was already President of the country. They talked about the corruption scheme by the beneficiary which, as expected, could be that the Russian leader. We are talking about the residence on Cape Idokopas near Gelendzhik. The authors quote St. Petersburg businessman Sergei Kolesnikov, first in 2010 drew attention to the construction of a huge Palace on the Black sea, which was built, according to his statement, especially for Putin.

Cellist-billionaire and friend of Putin-Sergey Roldugin (far left)

Kolesnikov told how he, as a shareholder of the company “PETROMED”, supplied medical equipment to Russia, were forced to share profits with the kind of “Mikhail Ivanovich”, which, he claims, he fled Putin. According to him, in 2009, the accumulated “PETROMED” several hundred million euros, intended for investment projects in Russia, at the request of “Mikhail Ivanovich” spent on the construction of the Palace near Gelendzhik.

Formally, however, neither the black sea group of objects, no residence in the Gulf with Vladimir Putin are not related. The first belongs to a certain Russian businessman along with the second is a pointer that it belongs to the power company “SIBUR”.

However, in public documents of SIBUR, as found in the FCO, the asset is not listed.

Then the filmmakers turned to one of the last episodes, which raises suspicions of corruption: an amazing richness of friend of Putin, cellist Sergei Roldugin. Through the publication “the Panama dossier” in 2016, revealed that as a result of hard-to-explain cash tranches of large Russian firms and unusually profitable trades in offshore accounts of the musician has accumulated a total of not less than $ 2 billion.

An important part of the film – a story about how the pressure faced by those who have dared to accuse the highest Russian leadership of corruption. The filmmakers in this connection, recalled the fate of the deceased from poisoning in London of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko died in a Russian prison auditor Sergei Magnitsky. Finally, threats in the address, they faced the authors of the film: they allegedly tried to intimidate an unnamed FSB officer, as well as another unnamed “assistant of an influential industrialist with ties to the Kremlin.”