Special for the Yabloko web-site, 22.01.2021

Photo: The cover of Yabloko’s brochure about the Black Sea country houses of Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev, Patriarch Kirill and Alexander Tkachev, then Governor of Krasnodar Territory, 2011

Recently, Alexei Navalny has released a documentary about President Putin’s palace in Gelendzhik. It graphically retells media investigations, revelations by the palace builders, and Yabloko’s investigation of 2011. Few expected such a luxurious decoration inside the palace with an area of ​​17,691 sq m and vineyards of imperial proportions.

However, Putin also owns other estates. In addition to four luxurious official residences, Vladimir Putin  built at least two other palaces for himself: on the banks of Valdai Lake and in the Altai Republic. One can easily guess where the money comes from.

On the peninsula between lakes Valdai and Uzhin in the Novgorod region a famous residence of Putin is situated, and there is a large investigation of it by RBC. The entire peninsula, with an area of ​​about 250 hectares, is fenced off with a blank fence and protected by the Federal Security Guard Service. According to the documents, oligarachs, the Kovalchuks brothers, own part of the land plots and lease them to the same presidential security service.

A forest was cut down for the Valdai estate, and a residence (3,443 sq m) was built, with an indoor skating rink, a bathhouse, a sauna, a guest house (1,098 sq m), two restaurants – the main one (1,146 sq m) and a pub (523 sq m), a Russian hut, a Chinese pavilion and much more. Putin’s friends settled around. Meanwhile, the neighbouring village heats houses with firewood.

Putin seems to have another cozy nest in Altai. Maybe even a whole bunker. There is the Altayskoye Podvorye, allegedly a hotel complex for Gazprom, in the Ongudaysky district of the Altai Republic. In fact, this is a closed area with a palace of about 3,000 square meters, a tennis court, helicopter landing sites, service buildings, a high-voltage line and air ducts in the field – probably for a bunker.

The approaches to the “hotel” are blocked by three security cordons. To build the palace, at the expense of the budget, an impeccable road was built in the mountains and archaeological sites of 2,500 years old were dug up. Shoigu [Russian Minister of Defence] and Putin love to rest in the vicinity. The Sobesednik newspaper was the first to tell about the estate in 2010. In 2017, the Dozhd TV channel showed the secret residence.

So it is not surprising that the president has luxurious secret palaces in a country where corruption has become the basis and raison d’être of power. The estates and vineyards are just the tip of the iceberg of the mafia state. Anti-corruption fighters will remain the main threat to Putin.

The detention of Alexei Navalny and his associates is unacceptable. This is a cowardly reprisal and lawlessness, one cannot be indifferent to them. Freedom for all political prisoners!

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ALEXEI KARNAUKHOV

is lawyer, Director of the Yabloko Anti-Corruption Policy Centre and municipal deputy of the Moscow district of Khamovniki