The Guardian writes: «Twelve national leaders are among 143 politicians, their families and close associates from around the world known to have been using offshore tax havens. A 2 billion dollar trail leads all the way to Vladimir Putin. The Russian president’s best friend – a cellist called Sergei Roldugin – is at the centre of a scheme in which money from Russian state banks is hidden offshore. Some of it ends up in a ski resort where in 2013 Putin’s daughter Katerina got married»98.

Among other leaders with offshore wealth are Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister; Ayad Allawi, ex-interim prime minister and former vice-president of Iraq; Petro Poroshenko, president of Ukraine; Alaa Mubarak, son of Egypt’s former president; and the prime minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson.

Six members of the House of Lords, three former Conservative MPs and dozens of donors to UK political parties own offshore assets. Families of at least eight current and former members of China’s supreme ruling body, the politburo, have hidden wealth offshore».

Lately, the mass media have claimed the dubious privilege of bringing a verdict without presenting evidence. Neither the Süddeutsche Zeitung nor The Guardian bothered to publish the alleged documents pointing to Putin or Assad. I am pretty sure there aren’t any, since the main feature of offshore jurisdictions is their secrecy and lack of transparency. Can you imagine a person like Putin or Assad providing their passport data and other personal information?!

Knowing this weak point, The Guardian fingers a certain Putin «friend» Sergei Roldugin, or rather his brother. Following this fuzzy logic, every citizen of St. Petersburg is Putin’s best friend, starting from Peter the Great.

The timing of the leaks is perfect: Western leaders cannot afford to applaud the Russian-Syrian victory in Palmyra, so they decided to put a spoon of tar in a barrel of honey, as the Russian proverb says.

It is clear that the Panama Leaks are part of the West’s hybrid war against Russia.

I have nothing against international anti-corruption drives, but I strongly object to a selective Orwellian approach. Moreover, one of the favorite methods of hybrid war is to accuse undesirable national leaders of corruption, to inspire civil unrest, which later on develops into a color revolution. A few days ago, RI published an article by Pepe Escobar «Brazil, Like Russia, Under Attack by Hybrid War» about a US-inspired corruption scandal99.

I can guess that Russia’s fifth column was warned in advance about the information leak and was in full combat gear. Such liberal mass media as Vedomosti, Novaya Gazeta and RBC immediately published the news about the Panama Papers. And on 4 April 2016 at 11:08, the entry about Sergei Roldugin in Wikipedia was updated to include Panama Leaks.

However, I don’t think that will change the course of the hybrid war against Russia. During last two years, the Russians have survived devaluation of the ruble, a fall in oil prices, inflation, mutual sanctions and so on. We are not likely to go to the barricades over Western gossip.

В предыдущем разделе автор ввел в научный оборот понятие «информационно-финансовые технологии гибридной войны» (ИФТ), которые активно применяют в своей тактике западные страны и, в первую очередь, США. Можно выделить три основных способа применения информационно-финансовых технологий: 1) серия так называемых «Tax Leaks» (налоговые утечки); 2) коррупционные скандалы, направленные на смену режима; 3) тенденциозно составленные финансовые рейтинги и доклады международных организаций с целью снижения инвестиционной привлекательности страны