In 2010 some minor Russian businessman, Sergei Kolesnikov, who had pissed off people above his pay grade, resettled from Russia to Estonia. To make himself interesting, and likely to get financial support, he made up a story. David Ignatius, the CIA's resident writer at the Washington Post, picked it up:
You can see the sprawling, Italian-style palace on the Black Sea in satellite photos. There's a fitness spa, a hideaway "tea house," a concert amphitheater and a pad for three helicopters. It's still under construction, but already the cost is said to total more than $1 billion.And most amazing of all, according to a Russian whistleblower named Sergey Kolesnikov, it was predominantly paid for with money donated by Russian businessmen for the use of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The funds have come "mainly through a combination of corruption, bribery and theft," charges Kolesnikov, a businessman who until November 2009 worked for one of the companies he alleges was investing money for Putin.
In 2012 BBC Newsnight again picked up the story and made it into a nine minutes long anti-Putin segment.
Putin's palace? A mystery Black Sea mansion fit for a tsar
On a thickly wooded mountainside overlooking Russia's Black Sea coast, an extraordinary building has gradually taken shape. It is alleged to be a palace built for the personal use of Vladimir Putin, with massive and illegal use of state funds.Originally conceived, it is said, as a modest holiday house with a swimming pool, it now boasts a magnificent columned facade reminiscent of the country palaces Russian tsars built in the 18th Century.
The massive wrought-iron gates into the courtyard are topped with a golden imperial eagle. Outside are formal gardens, a private theatre, a landing pad with bays for three helicopters, and accommodation for security guards.
At the end of 2020 the 'Putin's palace' story was recycled to promote the rightwing Russian nationalist and anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Navalny. Navalny was at that time in Germany's Black Forrest area where he recovered from an alleged poisoning. A studio was needed to produce a video about the 'palace'.
A German producer couple who had recently opened a TV-studio received a request. As the German daily Badische Zeitung reported (my translation):
Early December a request arrived via email from a U.S. production company in Los Angeles. There was talk of a documentation. It was looking for adequate locations, people and equipment in southern Germany. The German producers did not know the company, even though they have good contacts in L.A., but the request made a very professional impression.
The studio was rented to create the 'palace' material for the Navalny campaign.
The studio was actually only rented for just under a week, but the filmmakers liked the location with its atmosphere and the cinematic possibilities so much that the shooting was extended to a total of two weeks and parts of the 20-person international crew from Berlin, where actually a last shoot was planned before the flight to Moscow came to Kirchzarten.
On January 17 Navalny flew back to Russia and was immediately arrested for having violated his probation in a case where he had been sentenced for funneling a company's money into his own pockets. On January 19 Navalny's anti-corruption campaign FBK uploaded a two hour long polemic in which Navalny repeats the decade old claim that there is a palace at the Black Sea that is actually owned by Putin. But none of the many documents he provides proves that Putin is in any way involved in the project.
There is indeed a palace like building at the Black Sea coast but its purpose is unclear. The floor plans, which Navalny shows in the video, let one presume that it is a luxury hotel for very exclusive guests. The second floor plan shows 11 bedrooms of which four are exclusive suites.
Source: Katya Kazbeck - bigger
Navalny also shows computer generated pictures of what he claims is the extremely luxurious interior. He also claims that there are some exclusive vineyards attached to the 'palace'.
Navalny points to one room on the plans mockingly as a 'room where they put their mud'. The word 'mudroom' does not exist in Russian but is a rarely used English expression for an entranceway. That suggests that the script he was reading from was originally written in English and then badly translated into Russian.
Lots of western media have picked up on Navalny's exaggerated descriptions. Time writes:
As for the palace’s interior, FBK produced visuals based on descriptions and photos from workers at the residence. Using architectural plans that listed Italian furniture brands, they inquired with the manufacturer about the appearance and cost of the products. “Each couch was the cost of a small flat on the outskirts of Moscow, and if you took all the furniture from the reading room you could buy a decent flat in London,” says [Maria Pevchikh, head of the investigations department at FBK].It’s not clear how often Putin frequents the residence. According to FBK, all but essential staff are dismissed when he visits. Several sources told FBK that Putin takes “select” guests including world leaders to the palace for the “real fun”, after meetings in his official residence in Sochi, which the independent investigative news site Proekt has confirmed, says Pevchikh.
Julie Cassiday, a U.S. professor for Russian language, remarks in the Moscow Times:
Navalny’s careful reconstruction of the interior of Putin’s palace shows the full extent of the Russian president’s love of expensive kitsch. In addition to a curiously named aqua-discotheque, the ground floor houses a cocktail lounge, movie theater, spa zone, four separate hot tubs, and a two-story swimming pool.The first floor takes us to Putin’s personal gym, game room, casino, home theater, and hookah bar (cleverly equipped for pole dancing, should the need arise), and the top floor contains a series of opulent bedroom suites.
According to “A Palace for Putin,” the Russian president has abused his power not merely by stealing his country’s wealth, but by squandering it on furniture and fixtures so gaudy and overpriced that they make Liberace look like an arbiter of good taste.
How embarrassing. For those authors.
The enterprising Russia journalist Maksim Iksanov actually went to the 'palace' and talked with the people working there. His video shows that the 'palace' is still an empty concrete shell with dozens of workers busy with drilling into concrete walls and setting up basic installations.
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"It’s not clear how often Putin frequents" the construction site. Or what source "told FBK that Putin takes “select” guests including world leaders" to admire the concrete walls. Or why a none-smoker like Putin would insist on having a hookah bar.
Besides that obvious nonsense one has to ask why it would take Putin so long to build a 'palace'. Kolesnikov said the project started in 2005. Sochi was prepared for the Olympics in just six years. The bridges to Crimea were built within five years of its liberation and the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg, which Putin in 2001 ordered to rebuild, was re-opened in 2003. It is the Russian president's official summer residence but also open to the public. When Putin says something should be built it will be built on time and not take sixteen years to end up as an empty concrete shell.
As for the 'palace' Navalny describes. It seems to have always been a hotel project. It had run into financial trouble. It several times changed ownership and its construction was at times stopped for years. The Russian construction mogul Arkady Rotenberg now claims to be the current owner of the 'palace':
[Rotenberg] added that he intends to use the location as an apartment hotel, once it is finished.“I like the hotel business…and have been involved in it for several years now,” Rotenberg said, adding that he owns several ‘objects’ throughout Russia. He explained that the site in question has a troubled financial history, but he nevertheless acquired it a few years ago, putting faith in its “gorgeous” coastal location, near the resort town of Gelendzhik.
As Rotenberg is a good friend of Putin -they know each other since their youth- Navalny will of course claim that Rotenberg is only the front man while Putin is the real owner of the place.
I doubt that many Russians will believe such nonsense. Putin is known to spend his holiday's with outdoor activities. He does not seem to indulge in ostentatious luxury. Nor is there any evidence that he is willing to take bribes. The U.S. certainly tried and failed.
The CIA, or whatever service helped Navalny to produce the nonsense, should take more care with the details. The golden imperial eagle that was supposed to top the gate in the 2012 BBC story still does not exist at all but was photoshopped into the BBC and the Navalny's footage. Unfortunately it was the wrong one:
Ruslana Boshirova Альянс пианистов @ValLisitsa - 19:26 UTC · Jan 29, 2021In case one needs further proof that the whole "investigation" was a sham. The mock-up gate, crowned with the double-headed eagle, conspicuously absent in real life, but passed for a real deal by unscrupulous Navalny team, has Montenegro coat of arms eagle, not Russian one.
