# Sergei Roldugin **Sergei Roldugin** is a St. Petersburg cellist, a longtime friend of [[Vladimir Putin]] and godfather to Putin's daughter Maria, who emerged from the [[Panama Papers]] as the nominal owner of offshore companies that moved very large sums. ## The Panama Papers The April 2016 leak from [[Mossack Fonseca]] showed offshore entities connected to Roldugin handling money on a scale reporters put at around $2 billion (OCCRP) or $1 billion (the *Guardian*). In 2014 he had told the *New York Times*, "I don't have millions." ## The award On July 4, 2016 — three months after the leak — Putin awarded Roldugin the Order of Alexander Nevsky. ## RWKB angle Roldugin is the standard illustration of the "wallet" figure in a personalist [[Kleptocracy]]: a trusted friend from outside the business world recorded as holding assets on a scale his profession cannot explain. ## See Also - [[Ozero Cooperative]] - [[Panama Papers]]