The anticorruption foundation FBK, leaded by Russian opponent Alexei Navalny has published online a report where he accuses President Vladimir Putin of owning a resort in Gelendzhik, on the Black Sea. In the report, it is written that the luxurious resort extends for 14 thousand square metres, and it would have costed 1,1 billion euros. Moreover, Navalny claims that the construction has been financed through illicit funds and he describes this place as the biggest act of corruption in the world. Putin’s spokesman denies everything.
Putin and the Gelendzhik resort: what do Navalny’s report say?
Russian opponent Alexei Navalny, after being survived to an attempted poisoning thanks to the cares received in Berlin, has been arrested soon after being arrived in Moscow, with accuses he defines “politically motivated”. However, Navalny has decided to shut up nor in prison. Through his anticorruption organization, he has thus published a report where he accuses Putin to have an enormous palace on the Black Sea cost made. The report defines the project as “the biggest act of corruption in the world”. In fact, according to what reported, the palace construction would have costed 1,1 billions euros, and it would have been financed through illicit funds.
The report on Putin’s palace consists of two parts and has been published on the site palace.navalny.com. the first part is a wide article, written in Russian, while the second one is a long two-hours-and-a-half video, a sort of documentary where Navalny is the announcer and Putin the main character.
Putin and the Gelendzhik resort: how the report does start
The report starts so: “There is a place where you can understand everything of Vladimir Putin. This is the most overwatched place in Russia, a State in the State of fact, and this is Putin’s biggest secret. Which is protected by hundreds, even thousands of people: by unknown guards, gardeners and constructers, up to the richest and most famous people in Russia. A building. And we are going to visit it. We are going to try to convince you with our eyes that this man, with his lust for wealth, is completely crazy. We are going to discover with who and how this luxury is financed. And how, at the moment and in the past 15 years, the biggest bribe in history is given, and the most expensive resort in the world is built up”.
The report starts with Putin’s life
The first part of the report covers a wide range of information about Putin’s life, from his past as a KGB agent up to his ascent to power. Then it speaks about the enormous resort on the Black Sea. According to the report, the palace is in Gelendzhik, a seaside resort 200 kilometres north of Sochi. Its existence was first mentioned in 2010, when Sergei Kolesnikov, a businessman close to the government, sent an open letter to President Dmitri Medvedev, a close ally of Putin. In his letter, Kolesnikov denounced the construction of a big palace on the Black Sea through illicit funds. Kolesnikov escaped from Russia soon after that.
The palace description
According to Navalny the complex, comprising 7,500 hectares of field managed by FSB, is composed by a hockey hall, an amphitheatre, a little space for the tea time connected to the main complex by an 80-metres-high bridge, as well as an underground access to the sea, that can become a bunker if it is needed. The three-level palace also comprises lots of the most luxurious comforts, entirely furnished by Italian companies. There are swimming pools, saunas, a cinema, a room with a pole for pole dance and a wine cellar. The main bedroom is 260 square metres. Moreover, there are vineyards and an oyster breeding in the park.
Putin denies the accuses
According to Navalny and his organization, the palace construction would have been financed by companies close to Putin, comprised State companies like Rosneft, a Russian oil company, and illicit funds may have been used, partly consequence of acts of corruption, such as financings given to inexistent projects. Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, has said that the accuses in the video are false. But Navalny says: “This is not a country house, it is not a dacha, it is not a residence: it is an entire city. Or better a kingdom. It has impregnable fences, a port, its own guards, a church, its own access control, a no-fly zone and even a place of border control. And in this State, there is only one, irreplaceable, king: Putin”.
