Lanfranco Cirillo (La7/Non è l’Arena)
“Putin’s architect” on trial. But he defends himself: “Do I have to go to prison because I worked day and night and made a fortune?”
His trial begins in Brescia on February 23, he is Lanfranco Cirillo, the so-called “Putin’s Architect”. For twenty years in Russia, a Russian citizen since 2014, he has worked for over forty of the most powerful oligarchs of the nomenklatura, bringing Made in Italy into their homes and villas. An expert interior designer, he built Rublyovka, the luxury residential district in the heart of Moscow, from scratch.
Currently, he is being investigated by the Brescia prosecutor’s office for foreign investment, self-laundering and smuggling, but in an interview with Paris Match he asks himself “Should I go to prison because I worked day and night, made a fortune and love Picasso?”. In fact, it cannot be denied that Lanfranco Cirillo has a considerable patrimony: last August, the prosecutor seized 140 million euros between real estate and movable assets, including several executives: in addition to the aforementioned Picasso also Cezanne, Kandinsky, De Chirico and Fontana. At the origin of the investigation is the accusation of foreign investment, i.e. the fictitious localization of tax residence abroad, essentially aimed at evading taxes, an accusation based on the hypothesis that in reality Cyril is the center of of thePutin’s architect has remained Italy.
The reason? The Architect’s frequent trips to his home country due to the illness of his daughter Elisabetta: “It cannot be concluded that, since my daughter has had cancer and my wife lives in Italy, my center of interest is Italy . This is simply not the truth. I was accused of self-laundering because, for example, I transferred 500,000 euros to my wife who used them to repair the roof of his farm. With these criteria, I assume that all expats can go to jail. Anyone who works abroad and pays local taxes correctly should be able to send their money to Italy without obstacles”.
Cirillo, on the other hand, underlines that he was clear with the prosecutor, determined to defend his case: “I went to the prosecutor twice; I told her that I am a Russian citizen, that I have lived in Moscow for twenty years, that this house in Italy belongs to my wife. I’ve never lived there. ” He He also spends a lot on the so-called“Putin’s dacha”the building on the Black Sea designed by him and at the center of the video-investigation of the opponent Alexey Navalny, who made him known to world news as Putin’s architect: “I’ve never spoken to Putin about this project, I’ve never met him on this construction site where I’ve been hundreds of times”. And in closing he launches a provocation: “Sand if I had been Macron’s or Biden’s architect, would they have put me in prison? Why should I be a danger? Ok, here’s the answer: because I’m considered the architect of Putin“.
#Lanfranco #Cirillo #Architect #Putin #trial #February #Brescia