Scribes Find No Paper Trail For Putin's Claimed Enormous Wealth

The sprawling billion-dollar palace that sits on a hilltop overlooking the Black Sea is seen by some Kremlin critics as the ultimate emblem of Russian President Vladimir Putin's legacy of corruption, Curt Devine, Caset Toland, and Majlie de Puy Kamp wrote for CNN.

Photo Insert: Russia has the largest amount of wealth hidden in offshore tax havens, both in terms of absolute volume -- conservative estimates peg it around $800 billion in 2017 -- and as a percentage of national GDP.

Dubbed "Putin's Palace," the 190,000 square-foot mega-mansion was purportedly built for his personal use with funds from billionaire oligarchs, whom he allegedly allowed to flourish in Russia's notoriously corrupt economy so long as they shared the wealth -- with him.

The property has its own amphitheater, church, underground hockey rink, and private seaport, according to a documentary produced by jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny's anti-corruption group.

There is a no-fly zone in the skies above and a no-boating zone in the surrounding waters. The magnificent fortress stands in stark contrast to the tiny 800-square-foot apartment Putin claims in his official 2020 financial disclosure.

Russia has the largest amount of wealth hidden in offshore tax havens, both in terms of absolute volume -- conservative estimates peg it around $800 billion in 2017 -- and as a percentage of national GDP, according to a 2020 report by the Atlantic Council.

Reuters recently reported that Putin cronies had $213 million stashed in Swiss banks. On average, 10% of world GDP is held offshore. However, in Russia, offshore wealth accounted for as much as 60% of GDP in 2015, according to a 2018 Journal of Public Economics research paper, the most recent estimate available.

Several of Putin's closest associates -- including childhood friends, a woman who was reportedly his former lover, and a professional cellist who is the godfather of one of his daughters, have secretly amassed huge fortunes outside Russia during his time in power, according to leaked financial documents.

A complicated web of shell companies, offshore banks, and hidden deals obscures their wealth, with accounts spirited away inside one another like Russian nesting dolls. But a series of leaks in recent years from firms that facilitate the offshore finance system, including the Panama Papers and the Pandora Papers, have stripped away some of those layers of secrecy.

The assets tied to Putin's inner circle include an apartment in Monaco overlooking the principality's glitzy harbor. The fourth-floor flat was bought in 2003 for $4.1 million by a shell corporation called Brockville Development Ltd., a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, documents published by the Washington Post show.

The real owner of the company: Svetlana Krivonogikh, a former shop cleaner from St. Petersburg who rep very much like Putin. Her patronymic middle name means “daughter of Vladimir.”

The real owner of the company: Svetlana Krivonogikh, a former shop cleaner from St. Petersburg who reportedly had a romantic relationship with Putin two decades ago, according to documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and reported on by the Post and The Guardian.

The company was registered just weeks after Krivonogikh, who was 28 at the time, gave birth to a girl, who now acknowledges looking very much like Putin. Her patronymic middle name means “daughter of Vladimir.”

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