Nhà báo hàng đầu của Đức nhận 600.000 euro từ đồng minh của Putin

-----

After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Germany went through a period of uncomfortable (khó chịu) soul-searching (tự vấn lương tâm) about the close ties that some of its political and business leaders had to Moscow.

That self-examination spilled into the country’s journalistic establishment this week after published reports revealed that an award-winning television broadcaster (phóng viên truyền hình từng đoạt giải thưởng) and author who has extensively covered (đưa tin rộng rãi) Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, had received hundreds of thousands of euros in undisclosed payments (khoản thanh toán không được tiết lộ) from businesses linked to a billionaire ally (tỷ phú đồng minh) of Mr. Putin.

The reports, by a consortium of publishing (xuất bản) outlets including Germany’s Der Spiegel and The Guardian of Britain, were based on what the consortium said was a leaked (bị rò rỉ) cache of offshore financial records (hồ sơ tài chính). They said that the broadcaster, Hubert Seipel, had been paid about 600,000 euros (about $651,000) in installments from accounts connected to Alexei A. Mordashov, a prominent (nổi tiếng) Russian businessman, who was placed under sanctions (trừng phạt) by the United States last year as a way to punish Mr. Putin for his war in Ukraine. The payments were to support Mr. Seipel’s books about Mr. Putin, the reports said.

... In the 2012 documentary, “I, Putin: A Portrait,” Mr. Seipel is shown interviewing Mr. Putin in a limousine as they drive through Moscow. He asks the Russian leader where the West’s bad opinion of Russia had come from, and Mr. Putin answers “fear” of Russia, but adds this is “old thinking.”

source: nytimes,