PanamaPapers Truthers Blame Russia For Leak As Ukraine Continues To Implode

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PanamaPapers Truthers Blame Russia For Leak As Ukraine Continues To Implode

April 13th, 2016

Awake Goy

According to Gaddy, the absence of direct evidence against Russian President Vladimir Putin is evidence that Russia is the source for the leak, because if the leaks were genuine they would have directly implicated Putin. Yes, the logic is not strong here.

Under this conspiracy theory, Russia leaked the documents to neutralize criticisms of corruption by showing that Western states are also guilty. Gaddy also claims the reason the Panama Papers leak is so short of American names is that the Russians are holding back information for blackmail purposes: “Some documents would be used for anti-corruption campaigns in a few countries—topple some minor regimes, destroy a few careers and fortunes. By then blackmailing the real targets in the United States and elsewhere (individuals not in the current leak), the Russian puppet masters get ‘kontrol’ and influence.”

Gaddy claims that not only is the Panama Papers a Russian intelligence operation, but that President Putin himself is running the operation “If the Russians are behind the Panama Papers, we know two things and both come back to Putin personally: First, it is an operation run by RFM, which means it’s run by Putin; second, it’s ultimately about blackmail. That means the real story lies in the information being concealed, not revealed. You reveal secrets in order to destroy; conceal in order to control. Putin is not a destroyer. He’s a controller.”

Not surprisingly, the neocon-friendly Washington Post was happy to give the conspiracy theory a platform, even trying to soften the blow to readers expecting some journalistic integrity by calling the piece “not-completely crazy.” The conspiracy-mongering on Russia has been constant at the Washington Post thanks to its editorial page editor, Fred Hiatt, being obsessed with Putin after Hiatt’s own misplaced dreams of a more democratic post-Soviet Russia collapsed in the 1990s.

But part of this conspiracy-mongering is almost certainly linked to who was, in fact, directly implicated in the Panama Papers – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. President Poroshenko is reeling from his exposure in the Panama Papers and has now promised to make it impossible for Ukrainian oligarchs such as himself to use offshore companies, but it looks as though it is too little, too late.