US Department of Treasury Accused Putin of Corruption

Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the United States Department of the Treasury Adam Szubin accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of corruption.

He said this in an interview with BBC, Censor.NET reports.

"We've seen him enriching his friends, his close allies, and marginalising those who he doesn't view as friends using state assets. Whether that's Russia's energy wealth, whether it's other state contracts, he directs those to whom he believes will serve him and excludes those who don't. To me, that is a picture of corruption," Szubin said.

According to him, the United States has been aware of Russian president's involvement in corruption schemes for "many, many years." The representative of the U.S. Treasury said that Vladimir Putin supposedly "draws a state salary of something like $110,000 a year. That is not an accurate statement of the man's wealth, and he has long time training and practices in terms of how to mask his actual wealth."

As reported, Dmitry Skarga, who used to run the state shipping company Sovcomflot, says he oversaw the transfer of a $35m yacht to Mr Putin from Britain's most famous Russian - the Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich. Mr Skarga told BBC the Olympia was then given to the Russian president via an offshore company and paid from the state budget.

BBC notes the U.S. government has already imposed sanctions on Mr Putin's aides, but it is thought to be the first time it has directly accused him of corruption.

The U.S. and the EU imposed sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities in March 2014. The restrictions triggered by the military conflict in Ukraine and Russia's annexation of Crimea affected Russian state corporations as well as Vladimir Putin's allies. Since then, they have been repeatedly extended. In August 2014, in its bid to respond Moscow imposed an embargo on certain imports from the countries having introduced sanctions against Russia.