by Roland Oliphant
Telegraph.co.uk
A St Petersburg concert cellist has been revealed as the lynchpin in an elaborate financial empire that manages billions of dollars apparently connected to Vladimir Putin, a vast trove of documents detailing the offshore financial dealings of the rich and famous has revealed.
Sergei Roldugin, a director of the St Petersburg Conservatory and guest conductor at the Mariinsky Theatre, met Mr Putin in the 1970s and is considered one of the Russian president’s closest friends.
But papers leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonesca suggest the musician also holds vast assets apparently used to benefit close associates of the Russian president.