On Sunday night at the Kings Place headquarters of the Guardian, journalists prepared to publish the first revelations from the “Panama Papers”, leaked documents from the financial firm Mossack Fonseca. It was the end of a long journey, and the timing of publication had to be carefully co-ordinated with media partners such as the BBC and the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.
But they were sure they had a cracking story – one that would lead the news agenda for days. It concerned a network of friends surrounding Russian president Vladimir Putin, and how they accrued $2bn in assets.
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