© Sputnik/Michael Kilmentyev
The deluge of leaked files on tax dodging by the global elite appeared to be aimed at smearing Russian President Vladimir Putin. But it is the British authorities who have ended up being "dangerously exposed".
When news headlines on the s0-called Panama Papers were circulated in Western mainstream media earlier this week, the main focus was on speculation that Putin was somehow implicated in scamming millions from tax avoidance.
For more discerning viewers, the sensationalist speculations had the hallmark features of another wild-eyed smear-job. All hype and no substance, just as in many other previous attempts by the Western media to blacken the Russian leader's reputation — based on nothing else but prejudice and innuendo. Recall the downing of Malaysian airliner MH17 and Putin's "gunslinger walk" as but two such tawdry episodes.
Despite the convoluted hype, the Russian leader was not even named in the latest files leaked from the Panama-based law firm, Mossack-Fonseca. The firm specializes in setting up shell companies for rich clients in overseas jurisdictions, thus helping these clients evade tax in their home countries.
Western media outlets predictably leapt to racy implications about Putin because, among the thousands of clients named, some apparently had a personal friendship with the Russian president. The Kremlin dismissed the speculation of financial impropriety as "more fibs" that the Western media periodically indulges in in order to smear Putin.
Turns out, however, that the seeming attempt at smear has gone awry, and instead has backfired badly, with gooey egg running off the face of British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Comment: Imagine if this happened on the U.S. border.