Although he presents himself as a standard man, Russian President Vladimir Putin has led a clandestine life crammed with mysterious affairs, czar-worthy palace intrigue and incalculable wealth.
New York Put up photograph composite
Vladimir Putin claims to be an emblem of “Otechestvo” — or the Russian Fatherland itself.
Each certainly one of his speeches, photo-ops and press briefings is meant to convey the clear message that the Russian president is a person of the folks. He'll defend his citizenry from enemies, overseas and home, repel Ukrainian “Nazis” from committing genocide towards ethnic Russians in Donbass, wrestle a NATO soldier to the judo mat and rescue a Russian youngster from the claws of a Siberian Tiger.
However beneath this façade of altruism that Putin has been rigorously crafting for over 20 years, is a cold-blooded, egotistic dictator, who has led a clandestine life crammed with mysterious affairs, czar-worthy palace intrigue, and incalculable wealth handed to him by oligarchs who stole from the Russian frequent man.
In April 2014, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine’s Crimea, the Kremlin introduced that Putin had finalized his divorce from his spouse, a former flight attendant, Lyudmila Shkrebneva, with whom he has two grownup daughters, Katerina and Maria. The 30-year marriage seemingly fell aside as a result of, like many Russian czars, he was having an extramarital affair and didn’t wish to be constrained by a conventional household. Putin’s paramour was a dreamy-eyed, high-cheek-boned, gold- medal-winning Russian rhythmic gymnast, Alina Kabayeva, who's 31 years his junior. Though the Kremlin has denied the connection, there are rumors that Putin and Kabayeva are married and have twin sons collectively.
Putin has beforehand hinted that he does have a romantic relationship, however he has demanded it off-limits for the Russian public and broadcasters to debate it. Russian media, most of which is below direct or implicit management by the Russian authorities, is prohibited from overlaying Putin’s private life — and Putin verbally slams anybody who disobeys this order. When a Russian reporter requested Putin in 2008 a couple of rumored wedding ceremony with Kabayeva, he stated, “I at all times disliked these obsessive about erotic fantasies who stick their flu-ridden noses in different folks’s lives.”
Putin is rumored to have one other love youngster, Elizaveta Krivonogikh, from an affair that he allegedly had throughout his first time period as Russian president with a mistress, Svetlana Krivonogikh. A cleaner-turned-millionaire, Krivonogikh is nearly unknown to the Russians, however her daughter Elizaveta, often known as Luiza Rozova, is the spitting picture of Putin.
Putin formally attracts a wage of between $115,000 and $225,000-a-year as Russia’s head of state. However, in actuality, he has amassed incalculable wealth, starting from $100 to $200 billion, making him one of many world’s richest leaders and probably wealthier than both Jeff Bezos, Invoice Gates or Elon Musk. Invoice Brody, an American financier who ran one of many largest funding companies in Russia in 1996-2005, testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2017 that Putin had “gathered $200 billion of ill-gotten positive factors.”
The fortune of the Russian spymaster is stashed away, nonetheless, in offshore tax havens, invested in luxurious properties inside and outdoors Russia, and unfold out among the many accounts of his relations and trusted buddies who maintain tens of millions and billions of dollars for his or her boss.
His most large and lavish property lies on the Black Sea and price greater than $1 billion to construct. “Putin’s Palace” features a spa, a movie show, a teahouse, a wine cellar, a on line casino, a hookah lounge, a pole-dancing disco, a helipad, a hockey-rink, a church and even a gold-plated rest room. An unlimited swimming pool, gymnasium with the most recent train gear, and a judo mat additionally assist hold Putin in high form.
The residence is protected by Fort Knox-level safety, together with an unscalable fence and a border checkpoint. It isn't accessible by floor, sea or air. The airspace above the palace and approaches by water are extremely restricted. In his investigation report of Putin’s wealth, Russian opposition chief Aleksei Navalny known as this property “a state inside a state,” “not a residence” however an “complete metropolis” — “extra seemingly a kingdom” inside Russia.
Putin’s eight official residencies embody his important home close to Moscow — a Nineteenth-century mansion constructed by order of the brother of Emperor Alexander III — and his summer season residence, Bocharov Ruchey, in Sochi, which sprawls throughout 40 hectares of woodland and boasts an impressive view of the Black Sea.
Putin’s extra enigmatic belongings embody a villa within the South of France and a million-dollar house in Monaco, that are linked to his ex-wife Lyudmila and an alleged former mistress respectively. The luxurious French villa — with its 4 bedrooms, lavish eating room with a terrace, and a billiard room — is surrounded by a 5,000-square-meter personal park plus an outside pool and music pavilion, in keeping with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Venture (OCCRP).
The $4.1 million house situated beneath the Monte Carlo On line casino in Monaco belongs to Putin’s alleged former mistress, Krivonogigh, who reportedly grew up, like Putin himself, in a communal house in St. Petersburg, sharing a kitchen and toilet with a number of different households. Immediately, her neighbors are the world’s elites, royals, and mafia-types frolicking of their “gentle and ethereal” residences, in keeping with one actual property company, playing their incalculable fortunes in casinos, crusing round of their luxurious superyachts.
Putin, who wouldn’t wish to miss out on a single scrumptious trapping of the aristocracy, additionally owns a tri-deck superyacht, a $100 million vessel known as “Sleek.” At 270-feet lengthy, the yacht comes with a gymnasium, a spa, a library, a 49-foot indoor pool that may be transformed right into a dance ground, and a saloon that includes a white Steinway piano. It accommodates as much as 12 visitors and 14 crew, in keeping with Boat Worldwide.
Putin has gathered his wealth by operating a mafia-like enterprise the place he grants safety or “krysha” (actually a roof) to the oligarchs who occupy each main Russian enterprise in key industries, corresponding to oil and fuel. He retains the newly minted capitalists in energy, and so they give him ransom cash in change.
Whereas Putin preaches household values and ethical traditions as Russia’s different to the “decadent” West, he's really a cold-blooded tyrant and the incarnation of decadence itself. Decadence that was constructed on billions stolen from the Russian folks.
Rebekah Koffler is a former Protection Intelligence Company officer and at the moment a strategic intelligence analyst with The Lindsey Group. She is the creator of “Putin’s Playbook: Russia’s Secret Plan to Defeat America.”
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