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Pandora Papers contain many groundless claims, distortions, Kremlin says

Dmitry Peskov added that there is a lot of questionable information in the archives so it is "not clear how one can trust this information"

MOSCOW, October 4. /TASS/. The Pandora Papers so far represent a set of unsubstantiated allegations and distortions, such materials cannot and should not be the cause of any inspection, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Monday.

"So far we are talking about some claims with an unclear foundation. And, of course, this is not a reason for any inspection. First, there still should be some kind of a serious publication," he said in response to a question as to whether any inspection will be launched based on the published archives.

As the Kremlin official noted, these materials contain a "set of groundless claims." "There is a great number of them, and this is frequently used excessively, very often there is some replacement of one information with another, distortion," he pointed out. "This is why this cannot be and should not be grounds for any inspection," the spokesman added.

He added that there is a lot of questionable information in the archives so it is "not clear how one can trust this information." "If there are some serious publications that are based on something, that refer to something specific, then we’ll study [them] with interest. While so far we don’t see the need," the Kremlin official concluded.

At the same time, he noted that the Kremlin did not find any unusual materials in the documents. "Honestly, we have not seen any ‘hidden riches of Putin’s inner circle.’ It seems that [more documents] will continue to be published but so far we have not seen anything special," the spokesman noted in response to a corresponding question. He explained that Moscow is "well aware of the operations of the organization" that published the archives. "We know where they obtain information, how they obtain information," Putin’s press secretary pointed out.

"Probably, the only thing that really catches the eye is the demonstration which state is the world’s largest offshore and tax haven. And this is, of course, the United States," the spokesman added. He continued that this information does not correlate at all with claims of intentions to fight corruption and tax evasion. "Yet this is the reality. We see that for the entire world the main tax haven is the United States," the Kremlin official stated.

On October 3, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published excerpts from approximately 11.9 mln documents with data on the offshore accounts of a number of prominent politicians and celebrities. According to the site of the Washington-based organization, the files were dubbed the Pandora Papers.