Putin’s ‘secret wealth’ - ‘The old western demonizing game on again’
It is not a coincidence that allegations of Vladimir Putin’s secret fortune come a week after the Litvinenko report in the UK. It is the old game used against those who dares to criticize the West, says political analyst Daniel Patrick Welch.
The US Treasury’s Acting Under Secretary for terrorism and financial crimes, Adam Szubin, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of corruption. Szubin was interviewed by the BBC as an expert for the channel’s investigation into Putin’s income.
RT: What do you make of these allegations against President Putin?
Daniel Patrick Welch: I don’t believe they have any special insight or financial analysis that proves or disproves a theory like this. I suppose it could all be true, every single word of it, but I don’t think it is likely because of who is making the allegations. The CIA says his wealth is $40 billion, and has been planting these kinds of stories against African leaders, against everyone on the globe who they are pursuing to be their enemy for years. If that were all true I would still be asking these same questions: who is saying it and why are they saying it, why are they saying it now.
RT: What about the timing of these claims? This comes a week after the Litvinenko report in the UK. Is that a coincidence?
DPW: Of course, it is not a coincidence. It is the same tired old game that they have been using for years. They used it to slander the African leaders. It was a famous exchange about corruption between Mike Wallace and Minister Louis Farrakhan only about a few years ago. They also use it to demonize what I call “the Hitler of the month club”- the latest person who is bad in the eyes of the West. In other words, someone who stands up and actually dares to criticize or push back against what the West is doing in its ongoing completely corrupt campaign on which they’ve spent $6 trillion to destabilize all the countries in the Middle East and North Africa. If that is not corruption – I don’t know what is.
RT: Do you think Treasury official Adam Szubin would be making such allegations without approval from the White House?
DPW: … He was named and he appeared in public. This is coming directly from the State Department and the CIA and the administration of President Obama whose backers spent a billion dollars to put him where he is or the US Treasury which lost $2 trillion in its Pentagon budget in 2001. It is laughable. And you have a former president Jimmy Carter who once come out and say: “There is really no such thing as democracy in the US because the elections at the federal level are so completely corrupted and are so awash in money.” They don’t care, they want to spread rumors and demonize. They want you to focus on this, chase the yacht, chase this… Don’t worry that we are building an airbase in Syria. They are mad because the Russian president is doing something to push back against their ongoing road show of destabilization...
RT: The Russian president's spokesman said: “None of these questions or issues needs to be answered as they are pure fiction". Is this an appropriate response?
DPW: I was considering that. I don’t say this as a part of the international Putin fan club. That is not why those of us like me speak out against this. Why we speak out is because we are trying to push back against the lies and hypocrisy of the West. I think it is an appropriate response because what if President Putin spent all of his time pushing back against every one of these stories. “He killed Litvinenko, he has a yacht that he got from Abramovich, he personally strangled John F. Kennedy, he personally faked the moon landing”… Who knows what will they come up with? We know they have black ops, we know they plant stories; we know they have interest in doing this. So, why bother, why would they? Why would the Russians bother to push back against each one? They don’t have the time and it’s clear what they are trying to do is that lead them off course, pull them into their cycle of what I call the echo chamber and try to get them to answer on their terms. And there is no reason to do that.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
