479 leaked photos purporting to show Putin’s secret palace, with an ice rink and pole-dancing room, published by Navalny foundation
Allies of imprisoned Russian activist Alexei Navalny published hundreds of photos of what they say is the inside of President Vladimir Putin's secret palace.
In January 2021, it said Putin had secretly been building a 17,691-square-meter palace at a cost of 100 billion rubles ($1.3 billion) since 2014.
The foundation said the palace was being built near Gelendzhik on the Black Sea. The foundation said it was funded via a corruption scheme in which Putin's inner circle paid the president for access and influence.
At the time, the Kremlin rubbished the claims. "These are all absolutely unfounded statements. This is pure nonsense and a compilation, and there is nothing else there," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The latest set expands on that with what it says are real images of the interior, which the video report matches to spots on a blueprint.
In a press statement last year, Navalny said the palace and grounds had security fences, a port, a church, a no-fly zone, a border checkpoint, a wine cave, a theater, a gym, a pool, an "aquadisco," and an ice-hockey rink.
