Whistleblower of 'Panama Papers' claims that Russia wants him 'dead'

In an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel that was published on Saturday, the source of the "Panama Papers," which exposed widespread tax evasion and fraud of significant proportions, expressed his fear of Russian retaliation. He claimed to have proof of financial malfeasance by high Russian officials and their friends that helped finance the war in Ukraine, and the magazine cited him using the moniker John Doe. When Spiegel questioned him if he was concerned for his safety, he responded, "It's a risk that I live with, given that the Russian government has expressed the fact that it wants me dead."

When John Doe was questioned by Spiegel regarding the use of tax havens by "strongmen in autocratic regimes," he mentioned the purported function they perform in Russia, where authorities deny breaking the law. "Putin is more of a threat to the United States than Hitler ever was, and shell companies are his best friend," he said of the Russian president.

As Putin's rockets hit shopping malls, shell firms are supporting the Russian military and killing innocent civilians in Ukraine.He claimed that unnamed corporations.By removing responsibility from society, we open the door to these horrors and more. But society cannot run without accountability.He said that a "John Doe" figure "who suffered a torture-induced head injury during the opening credits" had appeared in a two-part Panama Papers documentary that had been shown on the Russian state-funded channel RT. It wasn't subtle, he declared, no matter how absurd and ugly it was. As with the tragedies surrounding Daphne Caruana Galizia and Jan Kuciak, two investigative journalists assassinated in Malta and Slovakia, we have seen others with connections to offshore accounts and tax justice turn to murder.

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John Doe stated he has no plans to step out from under the obscurity of the Panama Papers in what was billed as his first interview since their publication in 2016. It's impossible to conceive how it might ever be safe to identify myself given how many various international criminal organisations are mentioned in the Panama Papers, some of which have connections to governments, he said. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released a number of financial document breaches, including The Panama Papers (ICIJ). Their admissions led to the resignation of Iceland's prime minister and the overthrow of Pakistan's president.

(with inputs from agencies)