He received money for two books via a Cyprus-based company linked to Alexei Mordashov
Hubert Seipel, a top German journalist and writer who made a film about Vladimir Putin and wrote two best-selling books about him, secretly received thousands of Euros from offshore companies associated with an oligarch close to the Russian President, The Guardian reported.
According to broadcaster ZDF, Der Spiegel, and the German investigative outlet Paper Trailer Media, he received money for two books via a Cyprus-based company linked to Alexei Mordashov, an oligarch who is close to Putin. Alexey Mordashov is a regular fixture on the Forbes list of Russian billionaires.
Who is Hubert Seipel?
- Hubert Seipel is an award-winning filmmaker and author who received at least 600,000 Euros in a series of installments to support work on two books about Mr. Putin's rise to power and offer portrayals sympathetic to the Russian president. He has previously ridiculed suggestions he has ever been paid by Russia.
- The payments were for his work on a 2015 biography called 'Putin: Inner Views of Power' and a 2021 title, 'Putin's Power: Why Europe Needs Russia', both originally written in German.
- He also produced a documentary about Mr Putin in 2012, which was broadcast on NDR, and had an exclusive interview with the Russian head of state two years later.
- Mr Seipel, known as a specialist in Russian geopolitics, boasts that he is "the only Western journalist in direct contact with Putin,'' whom he met in 2010 to prepare his documentary 'I, Putin: A Portrait' (2012). He revealed that he has met with Putin ''nearly 100 times.''
- In response to the leaked documents by the Guardian, Mr. Seipel confirmed he had received money from oligarch Alexei Mordashov, saying ''his support relates exclusively to the book projects''. However, he claimed that he had remained impartial and it didn't affect his independence as a journalist. When questioned by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists consortium, however, he rejected the idea that he was "some sort of agent of Putin".
Meanwhile, Mr Seipel's publisher, Hoffmann und Campe Verlag, told Paper Trail Media it had ''no knowledge'' of the sponsorship agreement. ''If these [allegations] prove to be true, we reserve the right to take further steps'' in connection with Seipel's books, the publishing company said in a statement.