Putin bought an apartment in Israel for a former teacher through offshore Abramovich
04.04.2023The billionaire confirmed that he participated in the purchase of the apartment, but stated that he did it at the request of the Jewish community, not Putin, writes dw.com.
In 2005, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought an apartment in the center of Tel Aviv for the former teacher of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a joint investigation by The Washington Post and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), published on Sunday, April 2.
Mina Yudytskaya-Berliner was Putin's class leader and German teacher at the 281st school in Leningrad. In 2005, the president met with her in Israel, where she emigrated in 1973.
NEW: When Vladimir Putin bought his old teacher a Tel Aviv apartment, it made headlines. But newly uncovered records reveal the true origins of the money – and expose billionaire Roman Abramovich's long-denied ties with #Putin https://t.co/UBywQ0mLnY @HashomrimOrg @washingtonpost
— ICIJ (@ICIJorg) April 2, 2023
According to her own words, after this meeting, a man came to her and said that Putin wanted to buy her an apartment. A few months later, the deal was concluded. Yudytskaya did not say who exactly spoke on behalf of the president.
The apartment was paid for by the Cypriot offshore company Abramovich
The authors of the investigation established that the purchase of the apartment for Yudytskaya was paid from the account of the offshore Cypriot company NP Gemini Holdings Ltd., which was secretly controlled by Roman Abramovich. This follows from the financial documents of another Cypriot company that did business with Abramovich and whose records were handed over to investigators.
Newly uncovered financial records show that an offshore account secretly controlled by Roman Abramovich paid for a Tel Aviv apartment for the Russian president's high school teacher of German. https://t.co/BGI7ACzB4c
- The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 2, 2023
On the day Yudytskaya bought an apartment, 245 thousand dollars were transferred to her from the account of a company connected to Abramovich. The billionaire's name does not appear in any of the documents, but, as WP writes, from the documents disclosed during the 2008 court process, it follows that Abramovich is the actual owner of NP Gemini Holdings Ltd.
Abramovich's representative confirmed participation in the purchase of the apartment
Abramovich's representative confirmed that the billionaire participated in the purchase of the apartment, but, according to him, he did it not at the request of Putin, but "at the request of the Jewish community." The gift was organized by Alexander Boroda, president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the Russian Federation, Abramovich's representative said.
Boroda confirmed these words, said that he personally discussed with Yudytskaya the purchase of an apartment, and then the federation turned to its key donors to finance the purchase. Boroda did not answer why the money came directly from Abramovich's offshore account, and not from the federation, or why Yudytskaya never mentioned this organization, WP emphasizes. Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov did not respond to questions about Putin's role in the deal.
"The information about the purchase of the apartment apparently refutes the statements that Abramovich and his representatives have repeatedly made over the past two decades, denying any financial ties between Abramovich and Putin," WP emphasizes.
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