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A 2021 Russian documentary made through a Russian anti-corruption group has revealed a luxurious $1.4 billion estate in Russia on the Black Sea. The movie details an astonishingly large and opulent palace. And one critic is claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin is at the back of the development of the billion-dollar estate.
Alex Navalny is a fierce Putin critic. He launched the 113-minute documentary-style film earlier this yr with the lend a hand of his anti-corruption staff. The movie alleges Putin and his billionaire pals secretly built the mansion the use of illicit budget.
Within 24 hours of its free up, the video gained 20 million perspectives. Within per week, 93 million had noticed it, making it the activist’s most popular investigation.
“This is under no circumstances just a building. It is a logo of the 20 years of Putin’s rule,” Navalny claims.
Analysis of monetary paperwork reveals that the mansion cost nearly one hundred billion rubles, or about $1.3 billion. Money, he claims Putin funneled from quite a lot of oligarch cronies. Navalny is calling the palace the international’s biggest bribe.
The investigation doesn’t depend on financial data on my own. Navalny and his workforce have obtained detailed floor plans, drone pictures, and inside images. The extravagant mansion is reportedly 39 times the size of Monaco.
A Hidden Fortress
The estate stands in Cape Idokopas, close to the village of Praskoveevka. The palace is tucked away down a winding street on a thickly wooded mountainside overlooking Russia's Black Sea coast. The palace, surrounded by way of wooded area, sits on a block of land with a complete house of Seventy four hectares.
Centered around an attractive pearl-colored palace with a space of 190,500 square ft are many wonderful facilities. Navalny's report describes that the grounds feature an arboretum, a greenhouse, an underground hockey rink, a church, an amphitheater, and a sculpture garden.
Near the primary construction, there is a 260-foot bridge that ends up in a 27,000-square-foot guest house.
Insider reports that the estate may be accessible through yacht and helicopter, because it features its personal seaport and two helipads. Near the port, there is a particular tunnel built into the seaside cliff to provide access to the seaside. The tunnel includes a tasting room in the heart with the 'best possible possible view of the sea'.
Amenities Fit For The Richest Of Men
Reporting suggests the architect who designed the ostentatious palace is Italian designer Lanfranco Cirillo. Cirillo has spent a long time offering Moscow’s super-rich with villas and Italian-inspired designs.
"It's not overdone, but naturally it is rich, as it was supposed to be. And we used fantastic materials. I was proud of my job. It's very good 'Made in Italy',” the architect said of the palace.
Rich is also the term many Russians would use to describe the decor. Only the super-wealthy live in palaces featuring luxuries like those found in this. There is a private theater, a Las Vegas-style casino, an “aqua-discotheque” with a swim-up bar, a Turkish bath, a sauna, a cocktail lounge, a gym, A hookah bar, and staff quarters.
The 11-bedroom home features many living areas. There are also separate kitchens for meat and fish.
Among the additional areas are more than a dozen guest bedrooms near the master bedroom, which is spacious enough for a king. Navalny claims the master suite is nearly 2,800 square feet.
The home also features a wine cellar that holds wine produced from the grapes in the vineyard.
The furniture listed in the plans Navalny exposed are from Italian furniture companies Citterio, Pozzoli, and AB Italia, and the filmmaker has even managed to get prices for some of the items. These overstuffed chairs in the mansion’s 'room of entertaining games' cost the equivalent of $9,000 apiece. One leather sofa allegedly costs $28,000, while an ornate table with a built-in bar goes for over $49,000.
Putin Denies The Ownership
In a rare rebuttal, Putin denied that he owns the billion-dollar palace, according to The Washington Post . “Nothing of what was indicated there as my property belongs either to me or my close relatives,” Putin said.
Though Putin dismissed Navalny’s video as 'boring', it spurred demonstrations across Russia earlier this year. Many protesters took to the street to chat, “Putin is a thief!”
The extent of Putin's wealth remains a mystery. The Russian president has not appeared on Bloomberg's and Forbes' rankings of the world's billionaires. However, at a 2017 Senate Judiciary Hearing, Putin critic and financier Bill Browder estimated the president "has accumulated $200 billion of ill-gotten gains and described him as considered one of the richest males in the world."
Source: Insider, Washington Post, Spiegel
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