Vladimir Putin News: Russian President Praises Obama for Admitting Mistakes in Libya
On Vladimir Putin's annual question-and-answer session in Moscow on Thursday, the Russian president heaped praise on U.S. President Barack Obama for admitting that he made a mistake in analyzing the issue on Libya.
According to ABC News, Putin said, "It once again confirms that the current U.S. president is a decent man because to say such a thing is not easy," referring to Obama's recent statement that his administration made a huge mistake following the fall of Libya's former dictator, Muammar Gaddafi.
It turns out that Putin still admires the man despite the many controversies surrounding his relationship with the United States. He went on commend Obama's "courage" in terms of admitting an administrative mistake that many leaders cannot. "Only a strong man could have done that," he said.
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During his televised call-in Putin was also asked about his thoughts on presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton's decision to follow after his husband Bill Clinton's run in the White House. Laughing, Putin said, "As we say, husband and wife are the same Satan."
Probably the most spectacular part of Putin's Thursday session was his discussion of the infamous Panama Papers as unveiled by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
The leaked papers revealed that Sergei Roldugin, a cellist and long-time friend of the Russian leader, had handled around $2 billion in offshore accounts. The files also include financial information of other people within Putin's inner circle to have access to his riches.
For Putin, though, the leaked documents are just some of the American government's methods to get the Russian people in a frenzy before the parliamentary elections arrive on September. According to CNN, Putin said, "We know that members of the American intelligence community are involved...the closer we get to the elections, the more such attacks we will see."
The Guardian describes the Panama Papers as the biggest data leak that has ever been unraveled in history. An anonymous source gave records to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung which were later shared with the ICIJ.
The files were derived from the world's fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca and though some similar data have been unveiled in the past, the unprecedented leak contained over 11 million files from the firm's database.
