And they mention all these dictators. Why on earth Putin & Co will try to evade taxes and hide his money? Putin owns Russia, he is the taxman and the hangman. He doesn't have to hide anything.
> Why on earth Putin & Co will try to evade taxes and hide his money?
There's plenty in Russia who believe that while his cronies live off bribes and embezzlement, Putin himself is a Platonic father of the nation. One argument you hear often is he doesn't need to steal anything because he could have everything. This has certain moralistic beauty of a man one with his country. It also provides a way for an average broke Russian to identify with the sacred figure.
Finding out he earmarked some just in case undermines that and suggests Putin himself might not be so certain in near future. And while this revelation will have no immediate social consequence and indeed will be feverishly denied by his supporters, with time it will still sink in.
I'm not sure to what leader you're thinking about. If you're thinking about the US, you probably mean Syria, in which case I'll need a lot of convincing that events down there would have evolved differently without US involvement, considering the agendas of the local players.
The laundering could be for a whole sets of reason. Two offhand examples; having money available for barred transactions due to sanctions[0] or having untraceable money available for intelligence or other related illicit activities. Some people rather have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-revenue-kpmg-secret-a...
And they mention all these dictators. Why on earth Putin & Co will try to evade taxes and hide his money? Putin owns Russia, he is the taxman and the hangman. He doesn't have to hide anything.