Putin’s secret love lair
Revealed: Palace where despot lives like medieval tsar with mistress
PIcTUrES of vladimir Putin’s secret palace were published for the first time yesterday.
They reveal that the despot and his lover live like a tsar and tsarina, enjoying a lavish lifestyle that ‘seems to have been copied from medieval history books’.
Putin, 70, and Alina kabaeva, 39, are said to have had several children together, but their relationship has never been made official.
construction work on the spectacular residence began ‘almost immediately after Putin came to power’ at the turn of the millennium, according to Proekt, an independent media outlet that published the pictures.
After he divorced his wife Lyudmila in 2013 he used the ‘golden house’, which is in a national park between Moscow and St Petersburg, for trysts with Ms kabaeva.
As their relationship progressed, he had a wooden mansion built for the former Olympic gymnast and her children in 2020, about 800 yards from his own residence.
‘In 2021, a boat dock was built,’ said the report. ‘From it, one can take a boat across a small canal to a huge, classic palace park laid out on a 69-acre plot.
‘These lands were once the site of a tree nursery, where seedlings of conifers were grown to restore the national park.
‘Located about the same distance from Putin’s and kabaeva’s houses is a huge spa complex with a solarium, a cryo chamber, an 80ft swimming pool, a sauna, a mud room, massage baths, cosmetology and dentistry areas.’
The Proekt investigation says there is a ‘constant presence of children’ with a karting track and children’s playground at the property in valdai. Putin uses his ‘personal armoured train’ to travel to the hideout, terminating at a ‘secret, guarded station’.
A retinue of ‘chaperones’ tend to the whims of the despot and his mistress, some of whom are relatives who earn vast sums from firms owned by his cronies.
The damning report adds: ‘Putin’s vassals provided a royal life for Alina kabaeva and her children, while secret services hid the existence of this family from the rest of the country.’ Proekt also alleged the despot had benefited hugely from an ‘inconspicuous cypriot company’.
Among the developments linked to the firm is Putin’s £1billion clifftop palace at Gelendzhik on the Black Sea, complete with poledancing boudoir and vineyard.
Among Ms kabaeva’s properties is said to be a penthouse in the royal park complex in Sochi, described as ‘the brightest diamond in a necklace of real estate’.
considered the largest apartment in russia, it includes a swimming pool, a movie theatre, a patio and a rooftop helipad.
The report added: ‘ The royal scale of the purchase as well as the regal name of the residential complex seem to hint at the special status of the person who was to live in this luxury.
‘She is the uncrowned queen of russia, the secret concubine of President Putin and the alleged mother of his children.’