Leaked documents from an offshore law firm show that Wilbur Ross, the billionaire U.S. Secretary of Commerce, has investments in a firm connected to Russian President Vladimir Putin's son-in-law, The Guardian reports.
Ross holds a stake in Navigator, a shipping company that partners with the Russian gas company Sibur. Two of Sibur's stakeholders have close ties to the Russian president: Kirill Shamalov is Putin's son-in-law; Russian oligarch Gennady Timchenko, who is under U.S. sanctions, is an associate. "Shamalov is a very important member of Putin's circle and there is no question that he is closely trusted," Karen Dawisha, director of Russian and post-Soviet studies at Miami University in Ohio, told The Guardian. "He was not well-trained for the job at Sibur, but he was well connected."
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