He received hundreds of thousands of euros: the German ARD journalist raised money from Moscow

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Scandal in the German media world: Award-winning TV journalist and Putin biographer Hubert Seipel is said to have received hundreds of thousands of euros from Moscow.

Seipel, who has won journalism awards not only in Germany but also in Switzerland, is said to have been paid from Russia – and not just since yesterday.

As secret documents from a data leak show, he is said to have benefited from Russian payments for years. The documents were assessed by ZDF and Spiegel as part of the international investigation “Cyprus Confidential”.

Putin is “not unsympathetic”

Seipel, who has worked as a freelance author for Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) since 2018, is considered a Western journalist with the best connection to Russian President Vladimir Putin (71).

He personally met the Kremlin ruler a few times for interviews – for his documentary “I, Putin – a portrait” broadcast on ARD in 2012, even during the deer hunt in Siberia.

His articles rarely criticized Putin. The Russian president is “not unsympathetic” (“Switzerland on Sunday”, 2015). You have to “listen” to him, as Seipel explained again and again. Knowing that the journalist has been bribed by the Kremlin, these words leave a bitter aftertaste.

The journalist is said to have received 600,000 euros from Moscow

The whole thing was revealed by a previously secret contract from Seipel. This is a “sponsorship agreement” intended to promote the “development of a book project on Russia.”

The deal: To make this accessible to a wider audience, Seipel would have to receive 600,000 euros (the equivalent of 580,416 Swiss francs).

The book entitled “Putin’s Power. Why Europe Needs Russia” was finally published in 2021. Neither the NDR nor the book’s publisher, the Hoffmann and Campe publishing house from Hamburg, found out anything about the deal in the background.

But who ultimately paid the enormous sums of money? As the data breach reveals, the ‘sponsor’ is hiding behind a shell company called De Vere Worldwide Corporation. The owner of the company is a high-ranking manager in the Severstal Group. This in turn is owned by the Russian oligarch Alexei Mordashov (58).

As the secret documents show, the money Seipel received came from Mordashov himself. The German journalist is said to have received 200,000 euros in 2018 and even 400,000 euros in 2019.

Seipel denies the allegations

It has not yet been definitively clarified whether and to what extent the payments are related to the “Putin-friendly” character. In a written statement about the investigation, Seipel denies being influenced.

In fact, this is also stated in the sponsorship agreement: “The author has no obligations to the sponsor in relation to the project. Neither with regard to the content or composition of the book, nor in any other respect or its completion.” Yet the entire story will have consequences for Seipel. (dzc)

Source: Blick