Senior German reporter and Russia expert Hubert Seipel has received 600,000 euros from companies linked to a Russian oligarch with links to Putin.
Hubert Seipel is a frequently asked Russia expert in the German media. According to his own statement, he has met Vladimir Putin almost a hundred times, including when he made a documentary film about the Russian president that was broadcast in 2012. He has also written the book “Putin’s Power”.
According to the German state television channel ZDF, Siepel has, through his documentaries and books, shaped the Germans’ image of Russia and the Kremlin for several years.
Got almost seven million
According to the leaked documents, he has received the equivalent of nearly seven million kroner in contributions from a Caribbean shell company whose actual main owner is the oligarch Alexei Mordashov, who is on the EU’s sanctions list.
Seipel himself has admitted that he received contributions from Mordashov, but says that the transactions are strictly connected to his book project. He further says that he remains impartial, reports The Guardian.
In 2021, Seipel denied receiving any money, German reports ZDF.
His publisher Hoffmann und Campe, which published the book “I, Putin”, says it did not know about the transactions.
Wasted money
A Cypriot accounting firm, which is part of PwC, is also accused of helping Alexei Mordashov siphon off a billion euros on the day he was put on the EU sanctions list.
That’s how the review was done
The research into Seipel’s sponsorship contract is part of the “Cyprus Confidential” project, where more than 270 journalists from 69 media companies have evaluated leaked data from Cyprus in recent months – led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
Several media, including ZDF and The Guardian, have participated in the review.
Source: ZDF