You may remember back in December, Vladimir Putin "performed" at a charity gala in St. Petersburg organized by a friend of his in order to raise money for sick children. Among the enthralled celebrities in the audience were actors Sharon Stone, Kevin Costner, Monica Belluci and Alain Delon.
Now the Moscow Times reports that no money has reached the children:
In what could prove an embarrassment to Putin, people linked to the event are even offering mixed accounts of whether any aid had been promised in the first place.
Putin played a tune from a popular Soviet-era spy movie and delivered a solid rendition of "Blueberry Hill," singing with a live jazz band, during the Dec. 10 charity show at the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg.
The show, also attended by the actors Monica Bellucci, Alain Delon and Mickey Rourke, aimed to help children with oncological and ophthalmological diseases, according to organizers, one of whom is an old acquaintance of Putin.
But a sick child's mother has told President Dmitry Medvedev via his Twitter page that hospitals still have not received money or equipment that the money was supposed to buy.
"I think I have a right to know how the raised money was used," wrote Olga Kuznetsova, mother of 13-year-old Liza, who has cancer.
She said seats at the private charity party were sold for up to 1 million rubles ($35,000), but the organizers behind a foundation called Federation have transferred none to the sick.
PS
Well, while waiting for the money to re-appear, you can always watch this, slitghtly improved version of Putin´s "Blueberry hill":
No comments:
Post a Comment