Panama Papers: The Hypocrisy of the Ruling Elites

The Panama Papers leak offer for the first time a clear understanding of how world elites engage in shady financial mechanisms to avoid paying taxes and thus contribute to the financing of their national welfare system and development efforts. 

” in the words of Edward Snowden, underscores the hypocrisy of many rulers who shamelessly opened offshore entities to protect personal assets while enforcing fiscal burdens on their populace.

All have demonstrated the same blatant cynicism while exempting themselves from the fiscal rules they imposed on their subjects or electorate.

Unfair propaganda? 

and will claim instead to be the from foreign forces to . However, it will be hard for Vladimir Putin to explain how his best friend, a musician, is at the centre of a .

Similarly, it will be tough for authorities in China to explain why the names of family members of at least eight current or former members of the Communist Party’s elite Politburo Standing Committee – including Deng Jiagui, the brother-in-law of President Xi Jinping – can be found in the data leaked. Even if the state apparatus immediately tries to contain the spread of the information in both countries, the magnitude of the scandal will eventually force explanations.