This past weekend I was driving back with my family from a vacation we’d spent in Karelia. I really didn’t want to spend 14 hours behind the wheel, so I said to my wife, let’s stop overnight in Valdai. It was exactly halfway, and if you keep hearing “Valdai, Valdai” everywhere, then surely there must be plenty of good hotels there in beautiful surroundings.
It turned out that wasn’t the case at all. There was literally only one decent place, and it had no vacancies. We had to drive all the way to Moscow, and on the way we kept discussing it: what a bizarre mess, such a remarkable protected lake is being used in a very unclear way.
And here’s the answer. Read the excellent investigation — and, apparently, a farewell piece for many journalists, judging by the note that “the authors are former RBC journalists” — “Who Settled Around Putin’s Residence.”
Roughly speaking, the Ozero dacha cooperative (a well-known group from Putin’s inner circle) moved there. They seized part of a national park and fenced it off for themselves. The Rotenbergs, the Kovalchuks, Timchenko, security guards, FSB officers, FSO officers. A new aristocracy made up of greedy ghouls who treat the country like their own little felt suitcase: open it, take what you want, close it, shove it back under the bed.
Apparently, they don’t feel like driving all the way to Lake Ladoga and the Gulf of Finland either. So they found a place closer by. Among themselves, they even call it “Kremlin-3”: