Update
600,000 euros – just for what?
Did ARD journalist Seipel allow himself to be bribed by Putin?
November 14, 2023, 10:50 p.m
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The German TV journalist Hubert Seipel has not only interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin several times. He has also written a biography of the Kremlin leader. Research now suggests that Russia paid him a large sum of money as part of a sponsorship agreement.
According to media reports, the German TV journalist and Putin biographer Hubert Seipel is said to have received hundreds of thousands of euros from Russia without informing broadcaster NDR as his employer. As the “Spiegel” and the ZDF magazine “Frontal” reported, citing confidential documents from Cyprus, it is about 600,000 euros that were paid as part of a so-called sponsorship contract.
Seipel’s contractual partner was officially a shell company called De Vere Worldwide Corporation based in the British Virgin Islands. This apparently belongs to the company network of the Russian oligarch and long-time major TUI shareholder Alexei Mordashov, whom the European Union imposed sanctions on after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. A handwritten note on the contract with Seipel also suggests that a similar agreement for a Putin biography already existed in 2013. Seipel is the first renowned Western journalist who is known to have been paid by Putin’s entourage.
Publisher no longer offers books for sale
Seipel, who interviewed Putin several times for NDR television, admitted “support” from Alexei Mordaschov when asked. However, the now sanctioned oligarch had no influence on the content of his books, said Seipel. In fact, the contract states that the author has no “obligations to the sponsor in relation to the project (whether with respect to the content or composition of the book or otherwise) or its completion.”
Seipel had interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin several times. His biography “Putin. Inside Views of Power” was published in 2015. The book “Putin’s Power. Why Europe Needs Russia” followed in 2021. Both books were published by the Hamburg publishing house Hoffmann and Campe.
The publisher and also the NDR stated that they knew nothing about the payments. In response to a request from the German Press Agency, the Hamburg publisher said: “Due to the report on Hubert Seipel published by “Spiegel” and ZDF, the Hoffmann und Campe Verlag has decided to no longer offer his books for sale.” The publisher had no knowledge of the facts described.
NDR is examining legal steps
The NDR said: “Seipel did not disclose the conclusion of the contracts to the NDR at the time. The broadcaster sees this as a significant conflict of interest, which casts doubt on Seipel’s journalistic independence.” The journalist would therefore have had to disclose the conclusion to the production company and the broadcaster. Seipel last worked for the public broadcaster NDR in 2019.
NDR director Joachim Knuth was quoted in the statement as saying: “There is a suspicion that we, and thus also our audience, have been intentionally deceived. We are now investigating this and are considering legal action.” The processes surrounding the commissioning and implementation of the films that Seipel made for NDR will be thoroughly examined. The former “Spiegel” editor-in-chief Steffen Klusmann was won over for this. The NDR requires in production contracts and compliance rules that possible conflicts of interest are disclosed and that journalistic work is carried out free from the influence of third parties, it said. None of Seipel’s films are currently in the ARD media library.
According to “Spiegel” and ZDF, the payments were uncovered as part of “Cyprus Confidential”, an international investigative investigation into questionable transactions in the EU country Cyprus.