Vladimir Putin has a new palace in the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia, reveals the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), created by the deceased Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny.
According to Navalny’s supporters, this palace, valued at $127.6 million, is located in Cape Aya, in the south of the Crimean peninsula, and was built on land that housed a sanatorium during the Soviet era. In 2007, the land was purchased by the family of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to build a country villa there, as reported by The Moscow Times.
"This secret property was miraculously overlooked by society, but we found it and proved that it belongs to Putin," FBK stated on its official portal, where it published a video of the investigation.
After the annexation of the Crimean peninsula, the pro-Russian governor of Sevastopol, Sergey Menyailo, stated that this land would be handed over to the Russian authorities to build a sanatorium, but later the lands came under the control of the Presidential Affairs Directorate of Russia.
According to FBK, the property passed into the ownership of companies controlled by Yuri and Boris Kovalchuk, close associates of the Russian president, who significantly expanded the works.
Navalny's project has published architectural plans and photos of the palace, which features a 233-square-meter hall, bedrooms of 154 and 183 square meters, a marble bath, as well as a pool, a cinema hall, and other luxury amenities. There is also a medical center with an operating room and a dental office, as well as a cryochamber and X-ray equipment. A separate guest house with a view of the Black Sea has also been built on the property.
At the beginning of 2021, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny denounced the fact that President Vladimir Putin owns a castle valued at over a billion dollars, provided by Russia's corrupt elite, in Gelendzhik, on the shore of the Black Sea. After the release of that video, watched by nearly 100 million YouTube users, hundreds of thousands of Russians took to the streets to protest against Navalny's arrest and the corruption of the Russian president.