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‘Caretaker’ of Putin's Alleged Offshore Wealth Says Secret Service Won't Leave Obama Alone With Russian President

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) awards Russian cellist Sergei Roldugin, artistic director of the St Petersburg House of Music, with an Order of Alexander Nevsky at a ceremony at Moscow's Kremlin. Mikhail Metzel / TASS

The U.S. Secret Service is afraid to leave President Barack Obama alone with Vladimir Putin, says the Russian cellist Sergei Roldugin, who investigative journalists call the “secret caretaker” of Putin’s alleged offshore wealth.

“I want to share a little secret with you,” Roldugin told the RIA Novosti news agency. “It’s a certain detail I know, that Obama’s security team doesn’t dare leave him alone to talk one-on-one with Putin.” This, Roldugin insists, “is a very strong indicator.”

Roldugin went on to praise President Putin for his ability to “take responsibility” for government policies. “He says: this is my decision. He’s not afraid of responsibility. Meanwhile, as I understand it, Western and American politicians can’t quite say: now this is my decision, and this is how it will be.” Roldugin then quickly added that Putin’s behavior in no way resembles dictatorship.

Thanks to banking records obtained from the Panama Papers and investigative work by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Roldugin has become known as the “secret caretaker” of vast offshore wealth allegedly owned by Vladimir Putin.

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