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‘Offshore scandal’ not affecting Russian diplomats’ work — Foreign Ministry

The Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published on Sunday extracts from 11.5 million documents with data on offshore accounts of some world leaders

Russia's Foreign Ministry Gennadiy Khamelyanin/ITAR-TASS

Russia's Foreign Ministry

© Gennadiy Khamelyanin/ITAR-TASS

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Russian prosecutors to check reports on Russians with offshore accounts

MOSCOW, April 6. /TASS/. The scandal after the leak of a massive trove of documents on alleged hidden financial dealings of the world’s most prominent people and also Russian individuals is not affecting the normal work and contacts of diplomats, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

"Our work is not affected at all," Zakharova said. "It would be good to read journalistic investigations into truly topical issues that have real facts," the diplomat added.

The Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published on Sunday extracts from 11.5 million documents with data on offshore accounts of some incumbent and former world leaders.

The report dubbed the Panama Papers is based on information leaks from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, which provides assistance in registering companies in offshore zones. Authors of the investigation claim that these operations could be tied to associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but the Russian leader’s name is not actually mentioned in the files.

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