In the cables obtained by WikiLeaks, Condoleezza Rice, then US Secretary of State, citing opposition sources, wrote that Putin, upon leaving the presidency in 2008, did not want to install a strong successor because he feared becoming the target of "law enforcement investigations." According to the cables, his goal was to ensure the safety of "alleged illicit proceeds."
Other classified cables, as The Guardian reported, repeatedly mentioned the "secretive Swiss oil-trading firm Gunvor" as an alleged source of Putin's undisclosed wealth. US Ambassador to Moscow John Beyrle described the company as closely tied to the Kremlin and noted that, according to rumors, Prime Minister Putin was among its "hidden owners."
Gunvor stated in 2007: "To suggest that President Putin owns any part of Gunvor or is a beneficiary of its activities is simply wrong."
Belkovsky's Assessment
The topic of Putin's personal wealth had surfaced before: three years prior to the publication, amid infighting within the Kremlin, there were claims that he was the richest man in Europe. Political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky then estimated Putin's fortune at at least $40 billion (£25 billion).
Putin himself did not react to the story for several months, but later called reports that he had amassed a fortune through undisclosed ties with businessmen "just nonsense that someone picked out of their nose and smeared on paper."
Talk of a Successor
According to The Guardian, Rice's cable conveyed a conversation between an opposition leader visiting Washington and David Kramer, then Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. At the time, Putin, having already served two presidential terms, was weighing whom to support as his successor; Sergei Ivanov appeared the obvious favorite—a charismatic, multilingual former KGB intelligence officer and deputy prime minister with experience dealing with the West.
The opposition figure, however, told Rice's staff that Putin was "nervously seeking guarantees of future immunity from possible law enforcement investigations into his alleged illicit income" and needed a more pliable person. According to him, Putin "feared Ivanov, deeply distrusted him" and needed a weaker figure. The opposition figure claimed that Putin understood that the system he had created lacked true rule of law and that at any moment anyone could be arrested or have their business destroyed.
The opposition figure's prediction came true: Putin rejected Ivanov and chose the weaker Dmitry Medvedev, who in May 2008 became President of Russia and, according to other released US cables, plays the role of "Robin to Putin's Batman."
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