Kremlin Denies Having Influenced Leadership Change at RBC Media Group

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Leadership changes at Russia’s RBC media group will not be carried out at the state level, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday.

Media reports emerged over the weekend that Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov was in talks to sell controlling stakes in his Quadra power generating firm and RBC Group at the urging of top-level officials.

"These reports are not true. The Kremlin never interferes in the editorial policy nor, moreover, does it interfere with the right of ownership," Peskov said.

The spokesman denied similar suggestions two weeks ago that Moscow had applied pressure on RBC to change its editorial policy.

Media outlets associated searches carried out across companies belonging to Prokhorov’s Onexim Group on April 14 with state pressure to change ownership after RBC published materials relating to the so-called Panama Papers offshore leaks.

On April 3, Germany’s Suddeutsche Zeitung published materials it claimed came from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, exposing alleged involvement of a number of world leaders and their circles in tax havens schemes. Individuals reportedly close to Russian President Vladimir Putin were mentioned in the report.

Putin has said there was no sense in discussing his alleged personal involvement in the offshore schemes because his name did not appear in the leaked papers.