On paper, Russian President Vladimir Putin looks as if a humble statesman with a modest earnings.
The Kremlin claims that Putin earns an annual wage of $140,000. His publicly disclosed property embrace an 800-square foot condo, a trailer, and three automobiles.
However in line with some specialists, he often is the wealthiest man on the earth with property totaling up to $200 billion.
Whereas that may be a ridiculous sum of money for anybody to have, this determine is probably not so far-fetched for Putin. Right here’s why:
Luxurious watch assortment
Putin is commonly seen sporting high-end luxurious watches which might be retailed for a number of occasions his supposed annual earnings.
He has been pictured sporting Patek Philippe’s Perpetual Calendar watch value $60,000 and allegedly owns a $500,000 A. Lange & Sohne Toubograph, in addition to different fancy designs.
$1.4 Billion Black Sea mansion
Putin is rumored to be the proprietor of a stunning 190,000 square-foot mansion sitting atop a cliff that overlooks the Black Sea. This coastal property is reputed as the biggest personal residence within the nation and serves as his personal palace endearingly referred to as “Putin’s Country Cottage”.
The property is Putin’s playland, boasting frescoed ceilings, a marble swimming pool lined with statues of Greek gods, a 27,000 square-foot visitor home, spas with conventional hammams, a musical parlor, dressing rooms for all his workers, an amphitheater, a state-of-the-art ice hockey rink, a Vegas-style on line casino, a nightclub outfitted with stripper poles, a barroom showcasing greater than $100,000 of wine and spirits, an underground tasting room overlooking the water, and way more.
A lot of the mansion is reportedly embellished by an unique luxurious Italian model referred to as Citterio Atena together with Louis XIV fashion sofas, $500,000 in eating room furnishings, and a $54,000 bar desk. It even has decked-out bogs with fancy $850 Italian bathroom brushes and $1,250 bathroom paper holders.
On high of all of the extravagant furnishings, an annual $2 million is spent simply to keep up the property’s landscaping by a 40-person workers.
The Black Sea Mansion was designed by Italian architect Lanfranco Cirillo and price $1.4 billion to assemble. In line with a Reuters investigation, the cash for this extravagant undertaking was supposedly laundered by way of the nation’s 1.3-trillion-ruble nationwide undertaking referred to as “Health” by which the state purchased costly medical tools from an organization owned by Putin’s associates Shamalov and Gorelov at a a lot larger price than the market worth. Information present that the 2 males despatched round $56 million to Swiss financial institution accounts of a Belize firm. Then the Belize account transferred roughly $48 million to an account managed by Medea Funding- an organization managed by Cirillo himself. Moscow Instances stories that Shamalov, Gorelov, and Cirillo denied all allegations.
The Kremlin denies Putin’s possession of the palace saying it belongs to a rich businessman. However Russian analysts name it a blatant lie, saying that no businessman can have properties guarded by the FSB (Russia’s federal safety service) with a no-fly zone over it.
Plane, helicopters, and automobiles
Other than the Black Sea Mansion and 19 different homes and 700 automobiles, Putin supposedly has a set of 58 plane and helicopters together with a $716 million greenback aircraft referred to as “The Flying Kremlin” that has a rest room manufactured from gold. Not stunning contemplating his style for grandiose, neoclassical structure.
And to maintain his choices open by land, air, or sea, he additionally has a $100-million-dollar megayacht designed by a nuclear submarine maker from the Russian navy.
$200 Billion Greenback Blackmail
The $200 billion determine was estimated by financier Invoice Browder who, in a testimony to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017, stated that Putin amassed most of his wealth after a Moscow court docket jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003 for fraud and tax evasion:
“After Khodorkovsky’s conviction, the other oligarchs went to Putin and asked him what they needed to do to avoid sitting in the same cage as Khodorkovsky. From what followed, it appeared that Putin’s answer was, “50%” He wasn’t saying 50% for the Russian authorities or the presidential administration of Russia, however 50% for Vladimir Putin personally.”
On high of all this, the well-known Panama Papers revealed a community of secret offshore offers and loans value $2 billion pointing to Putin in 2016.
However in fact, Vladimir denies all these allegations, solely admitting to a completely different type of riches:
“I am the wealthiest man, not just in Europe but in the whole world: I collect emotions. I am wealthy in that the people of Russia have twice entrusted me with the leadership of a great nation such as Russia. I believe that is my greatest wealth.”
And regardless of all of the paper trails and testimonies stacked in opposition to him, the Russian president continues his charade of being a dutiful bureaucrat with a easy, middle-class way of life.
A model of this story was initially printed on Fortune.com on March 2, 2022.
