Kremlin says expected more of information attacks against Putin, his friends

Russian Politics & Diplomacy April 04, 2016, 14:23

The Kremlin sees no reason why it should care about calls being made in the social networks for impeaching President Vladimir Putin due to the published investigation

MOSCOW, April 4. /TASS/. The Kremlin is disappointed by the lack of professionalism in the investigation of alleged corruption among Russian President Vladimir Putin’s friends, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

"Informational exercises against the president continue. We expected it, we announced it. These attacks continued. I admit that we expected more professional results of the work of this journalistic community," Peskov said.

He added that "in fact, not much new information was voiced." "I can rather express disappointment here. In many ways, when we talk about this community, traditions of qualitative journalistic investigations have sunk into oblivion," Peskov concluded.

"Lots of things are lacking [in the investigation made public the day before]. They stop at nothing, invent and falsify facts. They actually prepare themselves, make information public and then promote it in target audiences," Peskov said. He added that "there was nothing specific and new" about Putin personally in the materials, "there are no details, all the rest is based on allegations and speculations." Therefore, the presidential administration sees no need to respond to such publications.

Peskov refused to comment on the possibility of launching checks against officials mentioned in the recently published investigation. "As for the major amount, this does not concern us. It has no relation to the president," Peskov told reporters adding that the speculative far-fetched "investigation" "is not a ground for us." "As for the wish of any agencies or bodies to check anyone, then I cannot speak for these agencies and bodies."

The Kremlin spokesman said that this "informational product" was meant for the public at home "though Putin does not appear anywhere in terms of evidence."

"Though the investigation mentions other countries and other leaders, it is obvious for us that the main aim of such attacks was and is our president, especially in the context of upcoming parliamentary election and in the context of long-term prospects of presidential election in two years," Peskov added.

The investigation is in general aimed at destabilizing the political situation in the country, he said.

Peskov also explained the recent media attack on President Putin with the necessary "annihilation" of the positive information on Russia’s success in Syria.

"If you remember the situation around Palmyra, the strategic U-turn of the situation in Syria with support from Russia, then it is a clear success. Informationally, he was mentioned only little (in the foreign media - TASS), there was a clear tendency for keeping it low. Sure, that potential of the positive information flow should have been interrupted somehow."

The official however noted that the Kremlin sees no sense in preparing lawsuits on the facts of information attacks.

"We don’t see any sense in this so far because there are various speculations around the president, which we see very often," Peskov said.

Neither does the Kremlin see reason why it should care about calls being made in the social networks for impeaching President Vladimir Putin after the investigation.

"As far as the social networks are concerned, the reaction [to these investigative publications] is diversified: some demand impeachment, others, more checks. Some people would like the authors of such content be exposed and others criticize the allegations for being incomprehensible," presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media.

"I believe it would be wrong to see the social networks as a bearing," he said.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published on Sunday some 11.5 million documents revealing "the offshore links of some of the planet’s most prominent people." The leak includes material on hidden financial dealings of a range of Russian legal entities and individuals. Authors of the investigation claim that these operations could be tied to associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but said that the Russian leader’s name is not actually mentioned in the files.

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