On paper, Vladimir Putin is modesty personified. Officially, he only calls a small apartment and two cars his own. The Kremlin chief has palaces built for himself. Now there are details about his mountain villa.
Ever since the Russians spotted Ukrainian drones flying over their own rooftops, fears have been growing in Russia that the war could return to them from Ukraine. However, the Kremlin cares little about the fears of the population.
Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the State Duma’s Defense Committee, made this clear in a comment: he advised Russian companies to acquire their own air defense systems if drones worried them. “There are fairly inexpensive means of combating unmanned aerial vehicles that any self-respecting company can buy and place on their assets,” he explained in an interview with Vladimir Solovyov, one of the most important faces of Kremlin propaganda.
In other words, if you want protection, you have to take care of it yourself. The defense ministry’s funds are limited and are “concentrated on covering important state and military facilities,” added the colonel general, who is also deputy defense minister Sergei Shoigu.
Putin’s mountain mansion
Vladimir Putin’s mountain villa is apparently one of the “important state and military facilities.” This was found out by the team of the imprisoned opposition politician Alexej Navalny based on corresponding recordings. The location of an air defense system can be clearly seen in the images, say Navalny’s supporters. The localized Pantsir-S1, a modern Russian short-range anti-aircraft missile system, stands in a meadow about a kilometer from a favorite place of Putin.
On 20 hectares of land, hidden between tall trees, there are two large villas on a hilltop. A helipad and a private ski lift enable undetected arrivals and departures. Both are easy to see from the air, for example Yandex Maps.
Officially, the plant belongs to Gazprom. During a site visit, locals report who is enjoying the mountain sun here: Vladimir Putin. A high wall shields the area for miles. Experience shows that anyone who approaches the winding path that loops up the annex to the property is stopped by heavily armed men – and roughly sent back in the opposite direction.
Natural paradise around Sochi
But while the Kremlin is looking for further excuses to extend Navalny’s sentence until the end of his life, his allies have dedicated themselves to the hunt for the Russian dictator’s secret riches.
Putin has placed some of them in the area around the city of Sochi. The area is one of the Kremlin boss’s favorite places to stay. No wonder: you can go from a sandy beach on the blue waters of the Black Sea to the snow-capped peaks of the Caucasus mountains within half an hour.
In this natural paradise, Putin has an official residence and at least three private estates. This also includes the notorious palace on the cliffs above the Black Sea, which Putin has probably never been able to move into due to a mold infestation. The woman at his side also has a suitable domicile in Sochi (Here you can find out where Putin’s lover leads the life of a secret queen).
The handwriting of the true owner
For skiing, however, Putin goes to the heights around the village of Krasnaya Polyana, which has trendy ski areas such as Rosa Khutor to offer. The 2014 Winter Olympics were held here. So the ski slopes are good enough for Putin.
Navalny’s team has now managed to find out what exactly is hidden behind the high walls, which have to be protected by an air defense system. Reveal blueprints for one of the main buildings: The villa has four floors, two above ground and two below ground. The total living area is 3800 square meters.
On the bottom floor there are rooms for staff and chambers with names such as “egg processing room”, “vegetable department”, “bakery department”, “fish freezer room” or “pickles room”. “.
The handwriting of the true owner is clearly visible here. Also in the palace on the Black Sea coast there are rooms that have exactly such designations in the building plans. Each type of food that Putin eats apparently requires separate storage and processing.
The mountain villa also reflects Putin’s fondness for underground spaces. The Russian independent investigative platform “The Insider” once found out that the palace on the Black Sea houses a 16-story bunker.
A cryochamber and kitchen for the FSO
Everything that Putin usually has in his residences can also be found on the upper floors: a huge spa area including a pool, several sauna rooms, a salt grotto, Kneipp baths and the indispensable cryochamber.
A room on the top floor provides the key clue as to the owner of all the splendor: “Kitchen for the FSO,” it says on the blueprint. FSO is the protection service whose main task is the security of the Russian President. The men of this service guard the Kremlin boss around the clock. Their arsenal of weapons now also includes air defense systems.
Air defense systems everywhere
The secret mountain villa isn’t the only Putin property shielded by air defense systems. Such a system is also in the vicinity of his residence in the Valday region, as well as not far from his official office in Novo-Ogoryovo. In Moscow, air defense systems have been installed on the roofs of public buildings in recent weeks. “They are positioned in such a way that the Kremlin is protected from all sides,” says Georgi Alburov, one of Navalny’s comrades-in-arms. “Putin is truly afraid that he will be attacked with a rocket while he is working.” And apparently also while enjoying the comforts of his palaces.
The career of a dictator
From the “moth” to Putin, the eternal – the bloody path of the Kremlin boss in pictures
Vladimir Putin and his riches
Putin keeps his property an even bigger secret than his private life. He last published a tax return in 2021. An annual salary of 114,000 euros, three cars, a trailer and a 77-square-meter apartment: that’s all the Kremlin boss wants to own. Experts assume that Putin is one of the richest people in the world. In Russia, too, no one takes the official information seriously. And so this year, as in the previous year, the Kremlin did not even consider it necessary to publish a tax return, at least in appearance.