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During the debates held in the House of Commons on 14th March 2018 about the alleged poisoning of Russian spy Skripal in Salisbury, U.K. Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Thomas Tugendhat said (emphasis mine):

Will the Prime Minister also use the tools at her disposal to expose the wealth of the Putin family, given that $300 billion or more has been stolen from the Russian people by that man? We should expose him for what he is, and not be a useful idiot hiding behind the legalism of his crimes.

Is this an accurate estimate? If so, what documents it is based on?

Brythan
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Be Brave Be Like Ukraine
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    There were similar claims about the stolen $billions of Saddam, Qaddafi and Arafat. After their demise there was not much found. I will do some research and ask about those. – Keith McClary Apr 03 '18 at 02:44

1 Answers1

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The number quoted by Bill Browder, an American-born British financier, is $200 billion:

I estimate that he has accumulated $200 billion of ill-gotten gains from these types of operations over his 17 years in power.

This is from Browder's testimony to the United States Senate, he is the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Investment (formerly the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia).

The $300 billion figure may have been a typo, or misremembered, but I didn't find another source for it.

Brythan
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Tanath
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    To be fair, that was almost a year ago so Putin has probably stole a bit more since then. – Hannover Fist Mar 21 '18 at 23:58
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    Also if his wealth is 200b and he's spent who knows how much he'd have to have accumulated more. – Tanath Mar 22 '18 at 00:00
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    To be honest, Browder's estimations seem to be pulled out of thin air. In his book he wrote (I don't have the exact quote, but the general idea): "After Khodorkovsky's arrest, I'm sure the other oligarchs rushed to Putin one by one and each of them asked, what can I do to avoid this? and I am sure the answer was: 50%". Just guesswork. – IMil Mar 22 '18 at 07:52
  • One educated guess doesn't invalidate the whole thing. – Tanath Mar 22 '18 at 08:27
  • @Tanath, since this educated guess seems to be the only source of information, if it's not backed up by concrete evidence, the conclusion becomes unfounded. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that Putin's clique has hoarded plenty of riches. However, the precise amount will be hard to measure, since all the law enforcement agencies would rather cover it up. – IMil Mar 22 '18 at 15:08
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    The Magnitsky case is well documented and covers half a billion dollars on its own. It's a typical example of Russia's kleptocracy. Cite: https://russian-untouchables.com/eng/complaints/ It fits with contextual evidence. – Tanath Mar 22 '18 at 21:35
  • _he accumulated_ is not the same as _he has stolen_ . Could you please edit your answer to clarify what _these types of operations_ are? – Arsak Mar 23 '18 at 08:35
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    It's a direct quote, and if you read it carefully you'll see it says "ill-gotten". – Tanath Mar 23 '18 at 08:37
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    Bill Browder himself admitted that his estimate of Putin's wealth was a pure guess. And, however much credibility you give to the story told in *Red Notice* (I though it seemed pretty good when I read it) it has been criticised (for example [in this book](https://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/TheKillingOfWilliamBrowder_PrintLayout_6x9-1.pdf).) I'd love to see a more objective analysis than Browder or his critics. – matt_black Mar 23 '18 at 16:31
  • It is worth to note that this money isn't coming from the Russian Goverment (thus, the russian people), but instead from the Russian Corporate Megalords. There is a gigantic difference on that. – T. Sar Nov 25 '19 at 11:48