Paradise Papers: Russia's Sibur Surprised With Biased Coverage of Its Affairs

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia’s Sibur in a press release expressed surprise at politically biased interpretation in some media reports about the "Paradise Papers" offshore dossier of ordinary commercial activities, which "for many years have been fully reflected in the company's published financial statements."

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The news comes as the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), as well as multiple media parts of it, published on Sunday materials, based on the leaked database of powerful individuals’ and corporations’ offshore activities. The materials said the Russian company Sibur cooperated with a shipping firm Navigator, in which US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has a stake. According to ICIJ, the deal between Navigator and Sibur was reached despite the fact that some of Sibur auctioneers were under the US sanctions.

Sibur pointed out that Navigator had never been the only company providing shipping services for the new Russian port of Ust-Luga. The press release also reads that "all contracts with shipping companies are recorded in the companies' documents on corresponding periods."

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The company noted that after the introduction of sanctions against one of its auctioneers all its partners carried out legal checks whether they could cooperate with Sibur stressing that "no restrictions have been found."

The official statement of the US Department of Commerce reads that Wilbur Ross "was not involved in Navigator's decision to engage in business with Sibur… has never met the Sibur shareholders referenced in this story and, until now, did not know of their relationship".

Ross himself told CNBC that "a company [Navigator] not under sanction is just like any other company, period. It was a normal commercial relationship and one that I had nothing to do with the creation of, and do not know the shareholders who were apparently sanctioned at some later point in time."

The United States, the European Union, and their allies introduced sanctions on Russia over the latter's alleged involvement in the Ukrainian conflict. Russia repeatedly refuted the allegations and in response imposed a food embargo on the states, which introduced restrictions on it.