‘The Steeple Times’ takes a look around a palace that allegedly cost $1 billion to construct
Located on the Black Sea coast is a palatial residence that the press have named ‘Putin’s Palace’. The reported construction cost of this property is an astounding $1 billion.
Born into a middle class family, President Vladimir Putin is now said to be one of the world’s wealthiest men. The “President’s perks” are said to include 4 yachts, 20 palatial residences and 58 aircraft.
Amongst the many homes that have been linked to Putin, who announced his divorce from Lyudmila, his wife of nearly 30 years, last week is an “Italianate style” palace close to the village of Paskoveeka in Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai.
Stories about the construction of this vast dacha began to circulate in late 2010 and in January 2011 the Russian language version of Wikileaks published photographs of its “lavish interior décor”. The website was temporarily blocked as a result and though spokespeople for Putin and the Russian government have continued to deny his having any connection with the property, rumours about it continue to circulate on the Internet.
In March 2011, a businessman with links to Putin named Alexander Ponomarenko was reported to have bought ‘Putin’s Palace’ for the sum of $350 million but mystery surrounds this suggestion even.
We have no knowledge of whether the “palace” belongs to President Putin or A. N. Other but thought readers might like a chance to look around a Russian equivalent of Buckingham Palace.
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An excellent story. The poor Russian peasants…Western capitalism, in collusion with Yeltsin, stole their state industries. And what was left over was nicked by the the likes of Abramovitch(sic?) and friends. So having moved from the oppression of the tsars….to the oppression of communism and Stalin they now find themselves oppressed by their ex KGB president. No wonder their music and literature is so full of pathos.
Doubtless we are giving foreign aid to Russia….
Well, a very smart pad in Knightsbridge can be built or refurbished for approx £500 per square foot. I have heard of private individuals spending £900 per square foot or more (builders making lots of money!). Hence if we assume that it would be unnecessary to build something larger than 200,000sqft (very very big indeed!), then at £1,000/sqft build cost (VERY unlikely!) and a site purchase of supposedly £350m (really?), I think it safe to say the costs of this building have been grossly over estimated!!
One thing to remember, is that even if money is no object, or if someone else is paying for it, no one likes to be thought of as financially incompetent. I am sure Mr Putin is no different. Lets face it, there are much better investments out there!
As for taste, there is no accounting for it!