"Putin's Palace"*
() is an Italianate palace complex located on the Black Sea coast near Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai, Russia.
The complex first came to public attention in 2010 after whistleblower Sergei Kolesnikov published an open letter to Russian president Dmitry Medvedev exposing the construction of the palace. Kolesnikov also stated that the undertaking was run by Nikolai Shamalov who was acting on behalf of Vladimir Putin. Alexander Ponomarenko was later reported to have ownership.
The complex drew wider public attention in 2021, when Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's Anti Corruption Foundation (FBK) released an investigative documentary film about it which detailed a corruption scheme allegedly headed by Putin and claimed that the palace was built for the president's personal use. The FBK investigation estimated the cost of the build to be over 100 billion rubles (US$956 million) at 2022 prices. Putin denied that the palace belonged to him, with the Kremlin saying that it is a private venture owned by various businessmen whose names could not be revealed by the state. Following the film's release, Arkady Rotenberg, who has close ties to Putin, claimed ownership of the palace.
In 2024, the Russian outlet Proekt reported that parts of the Palace had been reconverted, reconfiguring various entertainment rooms – such as a casino, pole-dancing room and room for miniature railroads – into lounging rooms and a chapel with a dedication to Saint Volodymyr of Kiev.
Location and buildings
The residence is located at on Cape Idokopas, near the village of Praskoveyevka. Cape Idokopas () is a promontory on the Black Sea coast of Russia near Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai. The headland is lined with cliffs but is mostly flat on its summit, which is heavily forested with Turkish pine trees. It is bordered by a reef that makes offshore navigation hazardous.
The residence overlooks Russia's Black Sea coast, and is built on a block of land with a total area of . The airspace around the palace (see image) is regulated as Prohibited Special Use Airspace P116 (i.e. a no-fly zone), which the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) stated was to protect an FSB border-post in the area from increased foreign intelligence activity.
There is a vast number of buildings on the palace complex, including a house with an area of , an arboretum, a greenhouse, a helipad, an ice palace, a church, an amphitheater, a "tea house" (guest house), a gas station, an bridge, and a special tunnel inside the mountain with a tasting room.
The main building boasts a large indoor swimming pool, aquadiskotheque arrangement, spa, saunas, Turkish baths, meat and fish shops, vegetable and dessert shops, a warehouse, a reading room, a music lounge, a hookah bar, a theater, a cinema, a wine cellar, a casino, and about a dozen guest bedrooms. The master bedroom is in size.
The house was designed by the Italian architect Lanfranco Cirillo, who has designed properties for many of Russia's elite.
Palace interiors Photographs of the palace's interiors from 2010 were published in January 2011 on the RuLeaks website (a Russian analogue of WikiLeaks). They were presumably taken by ordinary workers servicing the facility (one or more of them appeared in the photos themselves, their faces were obscured).
As noted above, on 20 January 2022, Navalny's team published 479 photographs taken inside the facility around 2014, before the mold damage.
Observers noted the similarity of the interiors captured in the new photographs to the initial 3D visualization, created from architectural plans, previously available photos, and furniture catalogs for the 2021 investigative film. At the same time, the investigators themselves focused on the hookah lounge (striptease hall), which, in their opinion, actually looked "much worse" than in the 3D visualization, which was created without any real photographs of the room. The abundance of double-headed eagles in the interior design and the excessive gilding of the rooms also drew criticism. In May 2024, the FBK and Proekt published secretly made video recordings of the updated interiors and working documentation for the palace reconstruction project.
History
Start of construction (2005) On 10 June 2005, an investment agreement was concluded between the Presidential Property Management Department of Russia, FSUE "Tuapse Holiday House", OAO "Lirus", and FSUE "Enterprise for the Supply of Products" of the Presidential Property Management Department of Russia for the construction of a "boarding house in the area of the village of Praskoveevka, Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai". The subject of this agreement was the construction of a facility on a 740,000 m² plot of land. The project's investor, the Lirus company, was to invest at least 400 million rubles in the construction. The project was scheduled for completion in 2008, after which 30% of the total area was to be transferred to the Presidential Property Management Department, and 70% to the investor. Under an addendum dated 10 November 2008, to the previously concluded agreement, the client-developer became the FGU "Military Unit 1473" of the Federal Protective Service (FSO).
As early as November of the same year, the first reports of construction starting on Cape Idokopas appeared in the press. The fence and the construction site that appeared there for a "year-round children's camp," a facility of the FSUE "Dagomys" of the Presidential Property Management Department of the Russian Federation, also attracted the attention of eco-activists.
Kolesnikov's letter (2010) and Reuters investigation (2014) In December 2010, a letter about corruption addressed to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev appeared online in Russian and English, authored by St. Petersburg businessman Sergey Kolesnikov. The letter alleged that a "recreation complex" was being built on the Black Sea coast since 2005 for the personal use of Vladimir Putin, with a cost that, according to the author, had reached 1 billion US dollars. Kolesnikov stated that he wrote the letter so that "the Russian people and the president would know the truth," and awaited a reaction from Dmitry Medvedev, which never came.
In the letter to Medvedev and later in an interview with the RTVI television channel and other media, Kolesnikov revealed the financing scheme for the residence's construction. According to Kolesnikov, in 1992, with Putin's involvement, the company "Petromed" was created, which dealt with healthcare projects and of which the letter's author himself was a shareholder. After Putin became president, his friend, businessman Nikolai Shamalov (who, along with Putin, was a co-founder of the Ozero cooperative) came to the company. Shamalov "offered a number of prospects" on the condition that 35% of the income be transferred to foreign accounts. In 2005, Kolesnikov, on Shamalov's instructions, created the company "Rosinvest", whose ownership structure was hidden behind anonymous "bearer shares", but the main part of the shares was managed in Putin's interests. One of Rosinvest's projects, personally supervised by Shamalov, was the construction of "Putin's palace". In the documents, Shamalov was listed as the owner of the palace under construction, and of the high-ranking officials, only the name of Vladimir Kozhin, who at the time held the post of head of the Presidential Property Management Department, appeared in the documents. In 2005, the design of the palace began, and in 2007, this project was combined with a project to create vineyards and produce elite wine. The combined project was named "Project South". Kolesnikov claimed that during the 2008 financial crisis, Putin ordered Shamalov to suspend all other projects and focus on "Project South". When Kolesnikov last saw the project documents and estimates in October 2009, the construction costs were approximately US$1 billion.
A 2014 journalistic investigation conducted by the Reuters agency confirmed the existence of corrupt financing schemes for the construction of "Putin's palace". Reuters journalists found that part of the funds allocated in 2005 for the National Project "Health" went to the construction of the palace. According to the investigation, two "wealthy individuals" from Putin's circle (Petromed owner Dmitry Gorelov and Nikolai Shamalov) were involved in scams involving the supply of tomographs and other medical equipment to Russian hospitals at prices inflated by two to three times and were never punished for it. They sold medical equipment for at least 195 million US dollars and, as shown by bank documents studied by Reuters, transferred 84 million dollars to accounts in Swiss banks. Reuters found that at least 35 million euros from these accounts were transferred to the account of a company involved in the construction of "Putin's palace".
In 2009, all facilities and land under "Project South" were transferred to the ownership of the private company "Indokopas", which was owned by Shamalov. Nevertheless, despite the allegedly private nature of the project, the palace construction was carried out by Spetsstroy, and the project was supervised, guarded, and all design requirements were issued by the Federal Protective Service (FSO).
In 2005–2010, funds were allocated from the state budget for the construction of a mountain road, a power line, and a special gas pipeline leading to the residence. According to Kolesnikov, to conceal the cost, quantity, and nomenclature of the supplied materials, Shamalov decided to import them, bypassing proper customs clearance procedures, paying with cash or from offshore accounts.
Resale to Ponomarenko After media scandals, the residence, along with its owner "Indokopas", was resold by Nikolai Shamalov at a reduced price to Alexander Ponomarenko, co-owner of the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port. According to Sergey Kolesnikov, Vladimir Putin remained the real owner of this offshore company. Ponomarenko paid the formal owners of the palace only about 10 million rubles, and after the sale, their controlled companies continued to manage the residence.
In the autumn of 2011, Alexander Ponomarenko began leasing several facilities within the complex: a service house, an administrative building, and rooms in the main house. The total area of the leased premises was about 7,700 m², and the rental price reached a record 35 million rubles per month. The lessee was the Federal Agency for Special Construction. According to Ponomarenko, he exited the project in March 2016.
Mold infestation (2017–2018) In February 2021, BBC News Russian published an anonymous interview with several employees who had worked at the residence at different times. According to them, in 2017–2018, mold appeared in the palace, affecting the entire building—both rooms and basement areas, mainly on the walls and ceilings. According to the workers, the palace's finishing was done using false walls: metal guides were attached to the concrete wall, which was covered with plaster, and these were then sheathed with drywall sheets, onto which the expensive finishing was applied. Mold filled the space between the false wall and the main wall and was discovered when a piece of plaster fell off near the pool (according to another version, part of the false wall was opened for cosmetic repairs).
According to the workers' assumption, the mold appeared due to high humidity and the lack of a proper ventilation system. This version was also considered plausible by the building's architect, Lanfranco Cirillo, in a conversation with the BBC. According to other versions, the cause could have been poor basement waterproofing and water ingress from the outside.