Back in 2010, we all learned about the construction of a palace for Putin on the Black Sea coast. Five years later, the Anti-Corruption Foundation decided to find out whether Putin’s people still control the palace, and who these people are in general.
It is an astonishing story even by Russian standards. An entire cape has been seized, and a full-fledged palace complex has been built — with gardens, parks, fountains, swimming pools, and sports grounds. Around the palace, an entire settlement has been set up, apparently for staff, roads have been laid, and three helipads have been built. It is luxury so extravagant that all the country’s “fur coat storage” scandals pale in comparison. And all of it is still there right now, surrounded by ten layers of fencing, guarded by an army of private security contractors and the FSO (Federal Protective Service), while for many years no one has been willing to call themselves the owner of this palace.
Having looked into it, we state the following: the owner of this palace is still Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin can pretend all he likes to be “Mikhail Ivanovich,” Nikolai Shamalov, businessman Alexander Ponomarenko, or the owner of the “guesthouse” under whose name this property is registered, but that does not change the fact that the palace was built for him and is effectively controlled by him.
You would think that even the concentration of double-headed eagles per square meter would be enough to settle the question of ownership.
But journalists from Reuters, Novaya Gazeta, The New Times, and many others assembled a unique body of evidence detailing everything down to bank transfers and invoices for marble.
Let me briefly recap the story. In December 2010, businessman Sergei Kolesnikov published a letter in which he described the construction of a huge residence for Vladimir Putin, whose cost had already reached $1 billion at that point.
Later, in 2014, Reuters and Novaya Gazeta published invaluable documents confirming that Putin’s associates Shamalov and Gorelov siphoned off hundreds of millions of dollars from the Russian budget through the supply of CT scanners under the national (!) “Health” (!) project (!). Their company supplied medical equipment at prices twice the market rate, and the difference ended up with sham intermediary companies. Funds from these shell firms were later used to pay about $48 million to the palace’s architect, Lanfranco Cirillo, who arranged the supply of construction materials to the site.
We know an astonishing amount about this story — where the money came from, exactly which companies were used to launder it, who built the place, and who signed the documents. We have seen photos of the palace interior, FSO security, investment agreements signed by Kozhin, head of the Presidential Property Management Department, and we have also seen the “presidential” superyacht Olympia near the palace. There is even a published recorded conversation in which the palace builders discuss how much of the “boss’s” “personal” money they have at their disposal.
Someday, this scam will be turned into a Hollywood blockbuster, but for now we will add our own two cents. Today, the ACF will tell the story of what became of the people who built this palace and now manage it.
The huge plot of land, covering 678,583 m², and the palace itself with its many buildings are registered to Kompleks LLC, which in turn is owned by an offshore company from the British Virgin Islands. The plot on which the access road sits is, remarkably, registered to the FSB Border Service. Apparently, a special state border has been drawn there.
We have finally learned the area of the main structure in this architectural ensemble, which had previously never been stated and was only very roughly estimated. It is now official — 17,692 m².
And that is only the main building. There is also one structure measuring 4,471.2 m², another measuring 2,775.1 m², and several buildings larger than 1,000 m². The full set of registry extracts can be viewed here.
Here is the most recent photograph of the palace, which we happened to find on social media.
Although it was claimed shortly after the first publication about the palace that the property had been sold, the people who built it and now manage it received excellent bonuses in the form of official posts, bank shares, and other perks.
From the very beginning of construction to this day, the palace’s management company has officially been listed as UK Investstroy LLC, with its founders Tatyana Kuznetsova and Inna Kolpakova.
And if anyone thinks these are just some nominal women from the village of Praskoveevka, that is not the case at all.
The husband of Inna Kolpakova, Alexander Kolpakov, in 2014, after Kozhin’s resignation, became head of the Presidential Property Management Department. Before that, he headed Directorate “V” of the Presidential Security Service. Apparently, the “V” stands for Valdai, where one of Putin’s residences is located.
The Kolpakovs were not the only ones smiled upon by fortune.
Tatyana Kuznetsova, the other founder, received a plot with a dacha right on the seafront in Gelendzhik.
Her husband, Oleg Kuznetsov, is also directly connected to the construction of the palace for the president. He commanded Military Unit 1473 of the Federal Protective Service and acted as the developer’s representative during the palace’s construction.
Right next door to the Kuznetsovs in Gelendzhik lives another very important figure in our story: the Italian architect Lanfranco Cirillo, the very man who designed the palace complex, imported construction materials through his company (apparently by smuggling), and whom we know from this wonderful dialogue:
Novaya Gazeta recently wrote about this house — until March 2015, it belonged to Roman Zolotov, the son of Viktor Zolotov, one of Putin’s closest associates, who headed his security service for 13 years and now commands the Internal Troops.
The younger Zolotov sold (or gave) the house to the architect just a month ago.
Here are those houses on the map, standing right on the seafront.
And shortly before buying the house from Putin’s chief bodyguard, Cirillo also received Russian citizenship directly from the president.
The rewards for the palace’s builders were not limited to resort homes, official posts, and citizenship. Even more generous gifts were still to come.
Kuznetsov and Cirillo are connected by more than just the palace and neighboring houses. In October 2014, they both became shareholders in Soyuzny Bank, receiving 10% each, and joined the bank’s board of directors:
We still have not figured out what kind of bank this is or whether it serves any real function other than laundering money. In November 2013, the bank was raided, and that ended with a fine from the central bank for violating anti-money-laundering law.
But Kuznetsova and Cirillo were not the only ones who had a good autumn last year.
Even the former general directors of the palace’s management company were lined up for new posts in the Presidential Property Management Department in Moscow.
Former general director Ivan Serditov on October 24, 2014, became head of the Enterprise for Product Supplies of the Presidential Property Management Department of the Russian Federation. Characteristically, in 2000–2001 this organization was headed by Smirnov, director of the Ozero cooperative. Serditov, however, lasted in the post only a couple of months.
Another former director of the management company, Bolat Kabykhenovich Zakaryanov, who is listed as chairman of the Gelendzhik city council, also in August 2014 became head of the Federal State Autonomous Institution “Rublyovo-Uspenskoye Health Complex” of the Presidential Property Management Department of the Russian Federation.
Very recently, in February, Zakaryanov was transferred to the post of acting head of the Main Catering Directorate of the Presidential Administration.
He now bears a special kind of responsibility — not like managing some empty “guesthouse” in Praskoveevka. Here is how the main tasks of Bolat Kabykhenovich’s department are listed on the website:
Given such a burden of responsibility, we are especially concerned that this official appears to be illegally combining public service with managing the private hotel “Krasnaya Talka” in Gelendzhik.
And that is on top of his duties as chairman of the Gelendzhik city council, a post he has not officially relinquished.
This is the curious way the lives of the owners and directors of the obscure management company Investstroy turned out. They say Putin has nothing to do with the palace, that it all belongs to some foreign offshore company, and yet for some reason everyone is handed posts precisely in the Presidential Property Management Department. The architect was not granted citizenship of the British Virgin Islands, but Russian citizenship — by personal decree of the president.
When we investigate Putin’s activities, we understand that without searches and other special operations, we will never in our lives obtain an offshore document bearing the name “PUTIN VLADIMIR” or some contract. At this level, much is built on trust, friendship, and personal ties, and what cannot be built on trust is built on bearer shares. We know perfectly well that the key requirement for Putin’s lawyers is complete anonymity. That is why we need your help. If you have documents related to this palace or anything else that could be useful, send them to us at https://blackbox.fbk.info. We guarantee anonymity.
And also read, share, and tell people you know about this. About the palace, the CT scanners, the stolen budget money, the $1 million audio equipment, the environmental activists who were robbed, and the brazen lies of officials now ready to deny the very existence of the palace.
P.S. Thanks to the ACF investigations department for its excellent work, and especially to Georgy Alburov (poor Zhora will probably now have another five criminal cases invented against him). If you like what the ACF does, you can support us here.