Award-winning German journalist received hundreds of thousands of euros from Russia. Hubert Seipel explained Putin and his empire to the Germans for years. But now it is becoming clear that Moscow has paid handsomely for the reporter’s ideological closeness. The SPIEGEL investigation. (see comments)

by cito

11 comments

  1. One of the many ways in which Putin turned Germans into Putin-Verstehers.

  2. *Translation*:

    —

    **Hubert Seipel is a renowned filmmaker and author; as an expert on Russia, he explained Putin’s empire to the Germans for years. But now it is becoming clear that Moscow has paid handsomely for the reporter’s ideological closeness. The SPIEGEL investigation.**

    In the end, what remains is a letter, eight pages long. The tone changes, sometimes it is aggressive, mostly self-righteous, in some places it becomes confused. It is a long reply to questions posed to the sender by SPIEGEL and ZDF, without him actually answering them in concrete terms. Instead, the man refers primarily to his films and books, to his entire life’s work, which is now likely to be nothing more.

    The author of the letter is Hubert Seipel, journalist, filmmaker and publicist, winner of the Grimme Prize and the German Television Award. At the beginning of his career, until the early nineties, he also worked for SPIEGEL.

    [Image: Hubert Seipel and Vladimir Putin: The German Putin expert par excellence](https://cdn.prod.www.spiegel.de/images/76d6e428-0001-0004-0000-000000319817_w800_r1.7526501766784452_fpx68.43_fpy49.97.webp)

    Seipel is regarded, at least in German talk shows, as one of the best experts on Vladimir Putin’s Russia. And as the Western reporter with the best connection to the Russian president: By his own account, Seipel has “met Putin almost 100 times”, accompanying him on a red deer hunt in Siberia. He stood with him in the snow with steaming mugs in sub-zero temperatures and drove with him through Moscow in a limousine. Much of this is captured in his films. Seipel is “the German Putin expert par excellence”, according to the ARD magazine “Titel, Thesen, Temperamente”. SPIEGEL has also repeatedly interviewed Seipel in the past.

    ### Apparently impressive proximity

    “I, Putin – a portrait” is the name of the film that established Seipel’s fame, broadcast on ARD in February 2012, repeated 51 times (!) to date and sold in eleven countries. The reporter was the first Western journalist to conduct several long interviews with the Russian ruler.

    Since then, Seipel has repeatedly devoted himself to the Russian president and created a closeness that seemed impressive: In his 74-minute ARD portrait, he showed a sweaty Putin playing ice hockey alone, he showed Putin at judo training or in the swimming pool, even cuddling with a dog. Seipel was sure to attract attention.

    ### Generous “sponsorship contract”

    Two years later, again as the first Western television journalist and operating as an “NDR author”, he was able to interview the US whistleblower Edward Snowden, who had fled to Moscow. A scoop that earned Seipel the German Television Award for the second time.

    And then, in November 2014, he took over ARD’s best slot, Sunday evening, with an interview with Putin. Seipel’s half-hour interview with Putin was followed by a special broadcast of the talk show with Günther Jauch, in which Seipel naturally also sat, explained, lectured and discussed. Presumably no one in this group, and to this day no one in the German public, knew that Seipel was probably already receiving hidden payments from Russia at this point.

    [Image: Seipel and Putin at the 2016 book launch in Moscow: 600,000 euros in financial “support”](https://cdn.prod.www.spiegel.de/images/25e24707-f283-45d6-a70f-3d3da24e188d_w800_r1.5_fpx53.96_fpy52.95.webp)

    But this is exactly what confidential documents from a Cypriot financial services provider now show. They are part of a data set that was leaked to SPIEGEL a few months ago and analyzed together with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) was evaluated. The results of this research are currently being published worldwide under the title “Cyprus Confidential”.

    The internal documents show that Seipel signed a “sponsorship contract” in 2018, originally called a “Deed of Sponsorship” and very generously remunerated. A handwritten note also suggests that there was already a similar contract in 2013 for a “Putin biography”. Two books that Seipel would write were to be financed. And indeed, 2015 saw the publication of “Putin. Inside views of power” was published in 2015. A biography of Putin. Then in 2021, “Putin’s power. Why Europe needs Russia”. Both books were published by Hoffmann und Campe, a renowned Hamburg book publisher.

    ### 600,000 euros – payable in three installments

    The second work was planned earlier, at least by Seipel and his Russian sponsors. “The author is writing a book about the political environment in the Russian Federation, to be published in 2019,” reads the contract dated March 16, 2018. “The sponsor would like to support the development of the project and make this political and historical development accessible to a wider audience by supporting the author.” Seipel was also to receive “logistical and organizational support” during his research in Russia.

    At the same time, however, the contract also states that the author has no “obligations to the sponsor in relation to the project (neither in relation to the content or composition of the book nor in any other respect) or its completion”.

    The journalist’s financial “support” was lavish: Hubert Seipel was to receive 600,000 euros for his second book alone, payable in three installments in April 2018, 2019 and 2020 according to the contract. The first installment was released for transfer on 4 April 2018. The missing 400,000 euros were then transferred in one go on April 11, 2019. The documents show this.

    But who funded a book with so much money that was published by a major German publishing house and was also honored by it? Which third party was interested in secretly paying an author to make the “political and historical development” of Russia accessible to a wider audience? Who benefited from a renowned and award-winning journalist writing books that presented Russian politics in a rather one-dimensional way?

    —

    *next part in reply to this comment*

  4. Keep kicking those rocks over. No matter who it turns out is squirming around underneath. There are more to come, for certain. Past harm can’t be undone but future harm can still be prevented.

    The modern world was never well served by these paid agents. Exposing them and discrediting their long labors on the Kremlin’s behalf can only improve things in the long term.

    Especially — but by no means exclusively — for Ukraine.

  5. Germany is on a roll now. When they get into gear, and make internal cleaning, they can put pressure on France Italy Spain via EU.

  6. Maybe look at the bank account of a certain TIME magazine reporter too…

  8. I also have the suspicion that many of the COVID disinformation channels that were/are popular in Germany (or the rest of the world) were sponsored by Putin. Let’s see what time will dig up.

  9. No shit. We already know that Putin has been funding enemy fascist traitors in the West for years now. Donald Trump and the Republican Party is another example of that.

  11. More on this subject from other reputable sources:

    —
    – Focus (D+): [Hubert Seipel: German ARD journalist received hundreds of thousands of euros from Moscow](https://www.focus.de/panorama/welt/hubert-seipel-deutscher-ard-journalist-erhielt-hunderttausende-euro-aus-moskau_id_245645821.html)
    – Der Spiegel (A): [Secret payments from Russia: NDR sets up an investigative commission in the Seipel case](https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/putin-kenner-ndr-setzt-nach-spiegel-recherchen-im-fall-hubert-seipel-untersuchungskommission-ein-a-6fd47b1c-717a-4506-89e0-3db94c78bab9)
    – ICIJ (A-): [German journalist dubbed the ‘Putin connoisseur’ had secret book deal with Russian oligarch – ICIJ](https://www.icij.org/investigations/cyprus-confidential/german-journalist-putin-documentary-cyprus-secret-payments/)
    – Der Bund (C+): [Cyprus Confidential Hubert Seipel: Putin biographer with secret fee from Russia](https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/hubert-seipel-cyprus-confidential-putin-biograf-mit-geheimhonorar-888801632739)

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