When the handcuffs clicked in the executive floor at Promsberbank (PSB), which went bankrupt in 2018, a member of the board was missing. His name: Putin, Igor Putin. This already had a dubious reputation back then: Hundreds of millions of dollars were transferred to offshore companies via a subsidiary of the Danish “Danske Bank” in Estonia and the British company Lantana Trade. According to an investigative investigation by Russian media group The Project, Igor Putin has been dubbed the “wedding general” — a straw man who made a career out of his name alone.
Vladimir and Igor had to do with each other mainly in their youth, after that the contact is quite small. After a military career, the then 45-year-old Igor Putin retired to civilian life in Ryazan in 1998. Now the success really started.
He became head of the local admissions chamber, where he earned 17,000 rubles – at a time when the average wage was 6,000 rubles. But soon afterwards he switched to the Gazenergoprombank of the energy supplier of the same name, where his own office, a company car and an even higher salary awaited him. However, he only stayed at the bank for a few months.
The next career step took place in Samara, about 1000 kilometers from Moscow. A local oligarch named Andrei Ischuk appointed him a board member of the local hydroelectric power station. According to sources close to The Project, the only reason was his kinship with the President, which he constantly emphasized. In 2007, Igor Putin became director of Avtovazbank, and three years later he was also appointed deputy director of Masterbank.
Even if he left again after a few months, his name is primarily associated with the money laundering scandal known as the “Russian washing machine”. Allegedly, with Igor Putin’s knowledge and with 19 banks involved, 20 billion US dollars flowed to shell companies and other offshore accounts. In November 2013, the Russian central bank revoked the master bank’s license. Nothing happened to Deputy Director Igor Putin: he still owns large shares in an energy company, a TV station and is the CEO of the Pechenga International Port.
