A Secret Putin Palace on Russia’s Black Sea?
Extravagant mansions are popping up along Russia’s Black Sea coast. Activists say one belongs to the president—and that it was built with illicit state funds. Anna Nemtsova reports.
On
a recent morning, in the village of Praskoveyevka, located on the
northern coast of Russia's Black Sea, a few hours’ drive from Sochi,
host of the 2014 Winter Olympics, a group of activists—some in bathing
suits, others in the nude—went for a swim at a public beach. Their goal:
to get a closer look at an extravagant mansion, set in the middle of a
nearby forest. The house, with its black, iron gate and Soviet era
façade, looked surreal, as if someone had transported it from Moscow and
dropped it in the middle of nowhere.
As the activists swam toward the mansion, two security guards
in black uniforms spotted them from a distance. Soon a motor boat with
more men in black appeared, its engine growling ominously as it sped
over the water. Hoping to make an escape, activists swam toward a dredge
with a “Spetcstroi Rossii” sign on its side, for the special state
construction company of the Russian government. Yet as the boat
approached, the guards realized that some of the activists were naked.
Disgusted, they gave up pursuit. On that day at least, they had no
desire to take nude prisoners; instead they simply ordered them to
return to the shore. "Tell us when you plan to visit us next time," one
of the guards said snidely.
For
months, the activists have been camping in the woods near the mansion,
sneaking past the guards and the "No Trespassing" signs to photograph
the massive home. Last week, they posted photos online of its lush
courtyard and Tsar-like bedroom on their popular blog. On paper, the
house and the surrounding 40 acres are owned by Indocopas, a mysterious
company without a Web site
or even a phone number. Yet two years ago, a disgruntled investor named
Sergei Kolesnikov, who is not involved in the project, sent a public
letter to then-President Dmitry Medvedev claiming that state money was
being used to build the private mansion on state-owned land. Its real
owner, he said: current President Vladimir Putin. (Department for
Presidential Affairs did not return calls for comment).
Since then, more people have come forward alleging that the construction
of Putin's Palace on the Black Sea, as it's commonly known, and the
construction of summer homes belonging to other Russian luminaries, have
involved the illegal use of state funds and the violation of
environmental regulations. Meanwhile, Russia's growing political
opposition has cast a spotlight on these extravagant mansions, which
have come to be viewed as symbols of official corruption. "Historically,
each Russian tsar built himself a new palace," said Andrei Petrov, a
researcher for Green Peace in Moscow. "But our current leaders'
appetites seem wild [by comparison]. They are destroying the most
beautiful parts of the country."
The
trend allegedly began in 2001, when President Putin decided to turn
Strelna Palace outside of St. Petersburg into one of his summer homes
(though unlike the Black Sea mansion, this one is open to the public).
By 2005, a building rush had begun, critics say, as other top Russian
officials sought similarly posh seasonal residences. Today, activists
count as many as 26 new mansions across the country with picturesque
views of the ocean or nearby rivers or lakes—all allegedly built by
oligarchs or politicians on protected public land using Russian tax
dollars. "We find Putin's palaces in the most beautiful spots of the
Russian federation, from Siberia's Altai, where he has a huge villa, to
my hometown on the Volga River," said Sergei Mitrokhin, the leader of
the opposition Yabloko Party.
New
mansions continue to spring up along the coast. Not far from Putin's
alleged home, in Divnomorsky, is another enormous white stone residence,
set on a 49 acres of land that opposition leaders say belongs to
Patriarch Kirill, the leader of Russia's Orthodox Church. (Kirill’s
office denies this, saying it is a southern administrative center for
the church.) Photographs of the building, which were reviewed by The
Daily Beast, show a house with an onion-like dome awkwardly stuck on top
of multiple verandas. Greek columns and large arched windows decorate
the front.
Determining
precisely who owns these mansions is difficult. Public documents show
that the Russian government owns some of them, but others appear to
belong to private companies, which activists say are little more than
fronts for politicians and other luminaries. Robert Schlegel, a deputy
in Putin's ruling United Russia party said that it's "close to
impossible" to receive an official comment explaining details about
Putin's mansions, or anyone else's for that matter, as "nobody in the
Kremlin's press service has authority to talk about that."
This
lack of transparency has sparked a public backlash in places like
Krymsk, a city in Russia's Krasnodar region on the country's northern
Black Sea coast. After floods recently killed dozens and left thousands
homeless in the area, the mansions have come to be viewed as stark
reminders of rampant inequality and official corruption in the country.
One such home, in the city of Sochi, used to be a sanitarium. But in
September of 2010, the Kremlin’s administration reportedly took it over,
fired its 300 employees and asked its 750 patients to find other places
for treatment. "Even Stalin did not build himself huge palaces," said
one of the sanitarium's former managers, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity for fear of repercussions from the government. "Today's
leaders have no shame."
"Sometimes I think I see Putin, also naked, strolling along the beach towards us in black sunglasses!"
Aside
from the alleged misuse of public dollars, some critics are upset that
they no longer have the same access to what was once public land. For
decades, nudists frequently came to sunbathe along the pristine six
mile-long beach outside Putin's alleged home in Praskoveyevka. Now their
access is restricted. "Moscow oligarchs treat people like common
fools," said Viktor Gavrilov, a local park ranger. Suren Ghazaryan, one
of the activists who frequently takes photos of the mansion, agreed.
"What an absurd world we live in!" he said. "Sometimes I think I see
Putin, also naked, strolling along the beach towards us in black
sunglasses!"
Over
the past six months, Ghazaryan and other critics have begun to fight
back. Green Peace reports that activists have managed to slow the
construction of two luxurious homes—Lunnaya Poliana, a mountain resort
formally owned and financed by the Putin administration, and Bolshoi
Utrish, a residential complex reportedly owned by Medvedev. Yet a bevy
of complaints about these mansions, lodged to Russia's ministry of
environment by opposition leaders and environmental activists have
largely been ignored. And sometimes, exposing just who owns these homes
comes with a cost. Last year, two local environmentalists were sentenced
to three years of probation for writing "Sasha is a thief" on the fence
outside a home that Alexander Tkachev, the governor of Krasnodar,
allegedly built on state-protected land. The Tkachev administration
denies that the house belongs to the governor.
In
the end, however, critics are confident that by ignoring the backlash
against these mansions, the regime and its backers are making the same
lavish mistakes that their predecessors did roughly a century ago, in
the leadup to the Bolshevik Revolution. "Putin's policy is
short-sighted," said Gennady Gudkov, the deputy of the Duma, the lower
house of Russia's parliament. "Sooner or later, history is going to
repeat itself."
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