The press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov commented on the new investigation of the Project about one of the shareholders of the bank “Russia” Yuri Kovalchuk, whom journalists call the president’s close associate and the second person in the country. Peskov said that the campaign to discredit the Russian leader in the media will bring nothing to customers.
“Indeed, we represent who is behind this and pays. We will not name it. The goal is clear - discredit. The effectiveness of such campaigns is questionable,” - said Peskov in an interview with the Daily Storm.
Earlier, Project, together with The Bell, released an investigation into the activities of Yuri Kovalchuk. The authors of the material claim that the entrepreneur uses the position of a friend of the president for his own purposes. So, journalists, in particular, believe that the bank "Russia", which is actually headed by Kovalchuk, earns commission from payment receipts of ordinary citizens for housing and communal services.
The commission is charged by the bank from operations that are carried out in Moscow and the Moscow region, as well as in St. Petersburg, Leningrad region, Belgorod, Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod, Volgograd, Smolensk and Crimea.
On the eve of the "Project" released another investigation, dedicated to the residences of the head of state. After watching videos from Putin's meetings, journalists came to the conclusion that identical offices have been created for the president in Sochi and Novo-Ogaryovo. Peskov, in a conversation with the Daily Storm, called the authors' conclusions from the "Project" "just another nonsense."
