owner of Chelsea football club, Roman
Abramovich gave a £25 million yacht to Russian
president Vladmir Putin, new reports claim.
Dmitry Skarga, a former head of Russia's state
shipping company, Sovcomflot, said the boat
was a gift from Abramovich, who transferred it to
the president via an intermediary associate.
The pair have long been friends but Putin's critics
feel he has unknown energy business deals with
the Chelsea owner.
"It's a fact that Mr Abramovich, through
his employee transferred a yacht to Mr
Putin," Mr Skarga told Panorama. Mr
Skarga also alleged that the yacht is run
and maintained with state funds, even
though it is Mr Putin's personal property.
The allegations come as a top American official
openly accused Mr Putin of corruption and direct
embezzlement of state funds.
There has been a
lot of speculation about Putin's actual wealth
value with Bill Browder, a hedge fund manager
and vocal critic of Mr Putin, claiming that the
Russian president is worth $200 billion, a sum
that would make him by far the richest man in
the world.
But Putin's spokesman has called the
allegations "complete trash.
" Mr Abramovich's
lawyers called the claims about the yacht
"unsubstantiated" and little more than a "rehash
of speculation and rumours".
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