Vladimir Putin’s private life is a “secret with seven seals,” as they say in this country. In the last two days, investigations by the proekt.media group into Vladimir Putin’s finances and especially the possessions he shares with his alleged partner, former Olympic gymnast Alina Kabayeva, have been going around the world. Title after title, comments.
There was no news in Russia. In the sense that it really didn’t get into anyone’s eyes or ears. Not even a denial, not even an indignant comment from an MP sympathizing with the President’s invasion of privacy. Only the opposition sites have mentioned it, the “foreign agents” blocked on the territory of the country, who can only be consulted with the private VPN networks, which Roskomnadzor, the federal telecommunications authority, is closely monitoring and increasingly shutting down from the plot.
The shackles of censorship tighten when it comes to the royal family. It is not exaggerated zeal, but the simple implementation of a line that he himself dictated. Putin has always said that he accepts any criticism of his political work and his decisions. But at the same time, on each of these occasions, he has always strongly advised to drop the rumors about him. “I don’t like brats who interfere in other people’s lives with their erotic fantasies,” he said in an interview. In 2008, the Moskovsky-Korespondent tabloid dared some rumors about the President’s intention to marry Kabayeva. The newspaper closed a week later. Imagine today.
The Valdai mansion, two hundred kilometers from Moscow and recently equipped with a Pantsir-S1 air defense system for its protection, is not only the president’s favorite residence, according to Proekt. But it is also the place where he lives together with Kabayeva, nicknamed “Queen without a Crown”, probably with their two children, whose gender and names have never been revealed. If true, it would be confirmation of the existence of a relationship that everyone knows about but no one can officially confirm.
The house is furnished for all the needs of women. Assistant and his family also live in a house in the park. A wooden terem was built within the district, a separate residence based on those reserved for female aristocratic elites in Tsarist Russia. The former Olympic champion and her children would live there. The private part is more noticeable. But the one about Kabayeva’s finances also contains unpublished details. The woman would also own a massive 2,600-square-foot penthouse with a swimming pool, cinema and helipad, described as the country’s largest apartment, of other Black Sea apartments registered in her grandmother’s name.
The value of his real estate portfolio would be around $120 million. According to Proekt, Putin’s alleged partner had access to the funds of the Cypriot offshore firm Ermira Consultants, which other investigations had already identified as one of the private vaults of the president and his inner circle. Ermira also controls Real Invest, owner of Putinka vodka brand, whose proceeds between 2004 and 2019 would have brought the president $500 million between 2004 and 2019, according to another recent Proekt investigation. The Cypriot company would also have financed the purchase of the mega-residence in Sochi, which was put up for sale in 2009 for 450 million rubles, the equivalent of fifteen million dollars, but then bought two years later for just 90 million ($3.2 million). ), a fifth of the stated value. Oleg Rudnov, a personal friend of the Russian president who disappeared in 2015, would have directed the whole operation, and the echo that Proekt’s investigations evoke everywhere is normal. Because everything about Putin is new. Except in your country.