The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has denied that a lavish palace built on Russia’s Black Sea coast belongs to him, following a video expose by opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
In a sign that Navalny’s investigation has touched a nerve with the Kremlin, Putin took the unusual step of claiming he had nothing to do with the property. It never “belongs to or ever belonged to me or my close relatives. Ever,” Putin declared.
Putin dismissed the video so far seen by more than 70 million people as “boring”. He said he hadn’t had time to watch it and had merely glanced at a few clips compiled by his assistants. The montage of him swimming in a giant pool was “fake”, he said.
Putin’s denial is unlikely to convince the hundreds of thousands of Russians who took to the streets on Saturday, demanding Navalny’s release from custody. Navalny shot the video while recuperating in Germany from novichok poisoning, before his arrest a week ago when he flew back to Moscow.
Navalny claims the FSB spy agency was behind the bungled operation in Siberia last August – following a personal order to kill him by Russia’s president.
The video investigation describes the palace near the southern resort town of Gelendzhik as “the most secret and guarded facility in Russia”. “This is not a country house, not a dacha, not a residence. It has impregnable fences, its own port, its own guards, a church, its own access control, a no-fly zone and even its own border checkpoint,” Navalny alleges.
He adds: “It is directly a separate state within Russia. And in this state there is a single and irreplaceable king. Putin.”
Putin’s carefully worded comments about ownership do not contradict the investigation. According to Navalny, the residence formally belongs to four proxies. All have ties either to Putin’s close friends and to official state security bodies, he suggests.
The palace’s actual ownership is revealed by the fact that the federal security service guards the building round the clock, he adds. There are other clues including a ban on boats cruising past the property and a golden double headed eagle, not to mention its vulgar and overpriced Italian furniture.
Critics of Putin joked on Twitter that the palace actually belonged to “Mikhail Ivanovitch”, a codename used by those involved in the secret construction project to refer to the Russian president, in power for more than two decades. “Putin could not ignore what the whole country is discussing,” Lyubov Sobol, a Navalny ally, tweeted.
Meanwhile, European Union foreign ministers will consider potential “next steps” against Russia after western nations condemned the Kremlin’s harsh treatment of demonstrators calling for the release of Navalny.
The United States, Britain and EU countries criticised Putin’s government on Sunday, with the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, describing the mass arrest of thousands of protesters in several Russia cities as “an intolerable affront” and a “slide towards authoritarianism”.
Clashes broke out in Moscow, St Petersburg, Vladivostok and other cities on Saturday and some protesters clashed with riot police in body armour and helmets. Dozens of people were injured.
Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, has called for the EU to step up sanctions against Russia over the treatment of Navalny, who was arrested on 17 January as he returned to Russia from Germany for the first time since being poisoned.
“The only way to [avoid conflict] is to force international law to be observed. The only way to do this without rifles, cannons and bombs is via sanctions,” Duda told the Financial Times.
The Polish leader also said the EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, should reconsider plans to visit Russia next month unless Navalny is released.
EU foreign ministers were expected to discuss their response to Navalny’s detention on Monday, with Borrell saying the “next steps” would be discussed.
Manfred Weber, a senior German conservative and head of the centre-right EPP grouping in the EU parliament, told Germany’s RND newspaper group that the arrest of protesters should not be tolerated and that Russia should face financial sanctions.
“It’s unacceptable that the Russian leadership is trying to make short work of the burgeoning protests by arresting thousands of demonstrators.
“The EU foreign ministers are not allowed to dodge this once again and stop at general appeals,” Weber said. “The EU has to hit where it really hurts the Putin system – and that’s the money,” Weber said, adding that the bloc should cut financial transactions from Putin’s inner circle.
In addition, a threat to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is meant to double natural gas deliveries from Russia to Germany, must remain on the table, Weber added.
A German government spokeswoman declined to comment when asked whether Berlin was willing to support new sanctions against Russia following Navalny’s arrest.
EU lawmakers passed a resolution on Thursday calling for the bloc to stop the completion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline as a response to Navalny’s arrest.
Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, who has continued to back the project despite criticism elsewhere in the EU, said on Thursday her view of the project had not changed despite the Navalny case.
During the protests, a spokeswoman for the US embassy in Moscow, Rebecca Ros, said on Twitter that “the US supports the right of all people to peaceful protest, freedom of expression. Steps being taken by Russian authorities are suppressing those rights”. The embassy also tweeted a state department statement calling for Navalny’s release.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said comments by the US were “inappropriate,”, and accused Washington of “interference in our internal affairs”.
Putin’s carefully worded comments about ownership do not contradict the investigation. According to Navalny, the residence formally belongs to four proxies. All have ties either to Putin’s close friends and to official state security bodies, he suggests.
The palace’s actual ownership is revealed by the fact that the Federal Security Service guards the building round the clock, he adds. There are other clues including a ban on boats cruising past the property and a golden double headed eagle, not to mention its vulgar and overpriced Italian furniture.
Critics of Putin joked on Twitter that the palace actually belonged to “Mikhail Ivanovitch”, a codename used by those involved in the secret construction project to refer to the Russian president, in power for more than two decades. “Putin could not ignore what the whole country is discussing,” Lubov Sobol, a Navalny ally, tweeted.
Meanwhile, the US ambassador in Russia, John Sullivan was summoned on Monday for a conversation with Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov. Ryabkov protested about the Biden administration’s statement over the weekend in support of demonstrators who gathered in cities across Russia calling for Navalny to be set free.
The US was guilty of meddling in Russia’s internal affairs by allowing its tech companies to circulate pro-Navalny content, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
SOURCE: The Guardian