Text version
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Look at me carefully. I am
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furious, enraged, deeply upset,
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tearing my hair out and very sad. We
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spent several months preparing a great
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investigation for you about yet another of Putin’s
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dachas, looking for evidence and confirmation,
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filming with a drone, and coming up with a script where
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I, like Sherlock Holmes in a hat with a pipe,
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solve the mystery right before your eyes.
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The secret dacha mystery. Zhora had already grown
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a mustache and tried on a tweed suit like
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Watson’s, and it was all for nothing: TV Rain (an independent Russian TV channel) last
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week beat us to it and released
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a report about this very dacha, located
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near Vyborg.
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Meow.
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Well, nothing to be done. TV Rain did a great job, and
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there’s nothing left for us to do except
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entertain you with something TV Rain doesn’t have: footage
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of this Putin dacha. After all, our
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drone, Volodya, did not go on a business trip
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a few weeks ago for nothing. But first,
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a brief recap for those who haven’t seen
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TV Rain’s report. They claim that on
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Lodochny Island, not far from Vyborg,
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a new dacha was built for Putin. This is
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confirmed by their source in the local
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administration. The same source says
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that Putin vacationed at this dacha
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in the company of friends. The same information
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was also confirmed to the TV channel by local residents. And
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we, too, have repeatedly received messages about this place,
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so there is no reason not to
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believe TV Rain. The dacha
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is located right here, in
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Leningrad Region. And as usual, when it comes to
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our most modest
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national leader, we are not talking about a standard 600-square-meter garden plot
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around a house, but an entire
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peninsula, plus a very large
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surrounding area—almost 50 hectares (about 124 acres). Here
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stands a historic villa. In fact, there is
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an entire estate there, several more houses, and even
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a helipad nearby. But
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the most interesting thing, of course, is the villa itself. It is
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a historic building: Villa Sellgren.
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It was built in the early 20th century to a design by a
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well-known architect—a beautiful
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three-story house with terraces, summer gardens,
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and its own pier. When the villa was in
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good condition, it was used for
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film shoots. The surrounding area is very
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picturesque, and the building itself is
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really wonderful and atmospheric. Here is a clip from
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the Soviet Sherlock Holmes film. In the
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story, a German spy lives in this villa.
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For a German, he is quite a respectable man.
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Who would think otherwise? A quiet
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country house—the very center from which
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half the troubles of the English
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kingdom originate. But now, instead of
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a German spy, Putin lives there. Although
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judging by the way he treats our
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country, I would not be surprised if he were a spy too.
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Yes, as TV Rain claims, the secret villa for the president
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began to be reconstructed
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around
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2011–2013. The construction involved
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Ilya Traber, a criminal boss
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from 1990s St. Petersburg, closely connected through his
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past to the city’s then deputy mayor,
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Vladimir Putin. And in general, all
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the available data indicate that all of this was built
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for him and his family. Here are
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the main facts we established, and
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some of them were also uncovered by TV Rain.
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First, this huge plot of land
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is leased by Sergei Olegovich
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Rudnov, the son of the recently deceased Oleg
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Rudnov, head of the Baltic Media Group, and
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the media call Oleg Rudnov a longtime friend
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of Putin. I am quite willing to believe that. By the way, exactly
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the same scheme as with Villa Sellgren
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was used with one of the buildings
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of the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna. It
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was also leased out to
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Rudnov, and he opened there no more and no less than
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a Putin museum—a literal museum
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of Putin, with paintings, personal belongings, and
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his first car, a Zaporozhets (a Soviet compact car), which he supposedly
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restored personally. This same Rudnov
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also had a joint company with
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another of Putin’s closest friends and
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Putin’s financial proxy, the cellist
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Roldugin. The latter is well
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known to you as a musician and a dollar
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billionaire whose incredible wealth
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was exposed thanks to the Panama
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Papers, and we all understand perfectly well
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who really owns the money in
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those accounts. Well, he is a creative person.
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A great many creative people in Russia—I
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don’t know, maybe every second one, if you
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pay attention—
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try to get into business.
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And as far as I know, Sergei Pavlovich does too. Second,
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the land under the villa and the other
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buildings has, since 2005, been leased by
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another man, Sergei Kolesnikov.
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Kolesnikov is also well known to many of you,
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primarily because
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it was he who told the world about Putin’s palace in
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Gelendzhik, which they were building together with
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another of Putin’s closest friends,
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Shamalov. Third, just look at what
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the entrance to this territory looks like. Local residents told TV Rain
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with confidence that even
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trying to go deeper into the peninsula
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is impossible: there are guards everywhere, checkpoints, dogs. We
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managed to speak with one of the builders
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of this villa, and the information was fully
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confirmed: no one is allowed near the houses.
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At the entrance, they even take away
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mobile phones so that people do not
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take photographs. But that is how special
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facilities are guarded—and very important special facilities at that. Even
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Medvedev’s houses and palaces can be approached
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right up close, but here it really is
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an ultra-secret regime. Fourth:
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a few kilometers from the site, right at the entrance to
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the peninsula, there is a sign like this.
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SIBUR's recreation center. In none of SIBUR's public
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company documents were we able to find this recreation
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center. Nor could we find any SIBUR employees
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who had received vouchers to go there.
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They simply don't turn up. But among the largest
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shareholders of the company, we see Putin's best
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friend, Gennady Timchenko,
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and Putin's son-in-law, Kirill Shamalov, who
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until recently owned more than
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20% of the company. Fifth, look at what
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the people who directly
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built the site call it. Here is the chief engineer's résumé:
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he refers to the villa on Lodochny Island as
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"a residence for the highest command staff,"
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whatever that is supposed to mean. Also note
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the other sites where this
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engineer worked: Putin's official residence in Sochi
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and a certain Federal Protective Service (FSO) facility in Gelendzhik. Overall,
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the body of evidence clearly
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points to a standard
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Vladimir Putin corruption scheme: his
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personal assets are registered in the names of his
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closest friends. These friends have become fabulously
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rich over the past 17 years, and as long as
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they face no anti-corruption
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investigations from the authorities,
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it is because their wealth, as that of full-fledged
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partners, also belongs to the president
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of Russia himself.
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All right, enough talking. Let's
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fly.
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[music]
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So, here we are approaching that very
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Lodochny Island. Right now we're over the neighboring
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peninsula, and immediately, among the trees,
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you can see a large residential building. It is most likely
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staff housing or a guesthouse, and a little
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farther on, a garage.
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We fly on. On the left, where the forest ends,
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you can see a neat road. It connects
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Lodochny Island with the main property. There
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they also built a helipad. And
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right away you can see one of the guest houses, 1,500
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sq. m. (about 16,150 sq. ft.). This is not Villa Sellgren itself, but
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a new building done in the same
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style. We continue our flight and
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head to the farthest edge of
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Lodochny Island, and now the red
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roof and recognizable silhouette come into view. This is
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the famous Villa Sellgren, practically in
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its original form. According to the documents, its
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area is relatively modest: 745 sq. m. (about 8,020 sq. ft.),
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not exactly presidential scale. But that
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problem was solved. We will soon see how the villa
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is located at the very edge of the island, surrounded
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by gardens. Everything is very neat and
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well maintained, and of course there is an incredibly beautiful
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view of Vyborg Bay. Let's
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enjoy it too.
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We turn around and immediately realize that the historic villa
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has had added to it
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an additional wing twice the size of
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the villa itself.
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On the left we see a pier, and on the right, an illegally
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seized stretch of shoreline. They grabbed an entire bay.
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People used to go there for fishing,
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tourists too. But now nobody goes there.
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Amazing, isn't it? In no normal
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country could something like this happen in principle.
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The people who built a whole series of residences
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for Putin, on land leased by
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the son of Putin's closest friend, under
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the cover of a pocket oil company
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for Putin's friends and family, are now building
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a vacation villa for Putin. A special-facility regime has been imposed there.
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Local officials
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see Putin there.
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Putin—so that no one offends him. Someone like Putin—
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so that he doesn't run away. And meanwhile, online there is
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a design project for a house lavishly decorated
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with giant double-headed eagles, and at the same time
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everyone around pretends that this site has
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nothing whatsoever to do with Putin.
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That it doesn't belong to him. That our
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president owns nothing except a Skif-brand trailer (a Soviet/Russian trailer brand)
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listed in his official disclosure. Don't let yourself be fooled. This is
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real corruption. This is the luxurious life
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of the head of state, paid for with
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money stolen from us. And this is the reason
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for poverty. That is why wages in Russia
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are so low. A country cannot develop and
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grow rich when theft and lawlessness so blatantly
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rule. Do not put up with this.
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Do not accept it. Support the fight
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against corruption. Support my candidacy.
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Demand that I be allowed onto the ballot.
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Sign in support of my movement; in
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the video description there is a link.
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And subscribe to our channel. Here
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we tell the truth.