bild

epa05243331 (FILE) An archive picture made available on 04 April 2016 and dated 21 November 2009 shows Russian cellist and St. Petersburg House of Music Director Sergei Roldugin (L), then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (C) and then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (R) visiting the St. Petersburg House of Music, a former palace of Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich Romanov, in St. Petersburg, Russia. Roldugin who is believed to be a close friend of Putin was revealed in leaking confidential documents as a person involved in suspicious offshore financial deals. Roldugin is one of the allegedly involved as millions of leaked documents published on 03 April 2016 suggest that 140 politicians and officials from around the globe, including 72 former and current world leaders, have connections with secret 'offshore' companies to escape tax scrutiny in their countries. The leak involves 11.5 million documents from one of the world's largest offshore law firms, Mossack Fonseca, based in Panama. The investigation dubbed 'The Panama Papers' was undertaken and headed by German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung and Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), with the collaboration of reporters from more than 100 media outlets in 78 countries around the world. EPA/DMITRY ASTAKHOV/SPUTNIK / KREMLIN POOL ALTERNATIVE CROP/ MANDATORY CREDIT