Three of the world’s most important leaders have been put in danger due to their security guards’ use of a sports social media, Strava. In this third installment of our investigation, we look into Vladimir Putin’s bodyguards and their strolls around the luxurious properties that the Kremlin denies owning.
On the one hand, there’s a sumptuous palace on the shores of the Black Sea, said to have cost over a billion euros to build. On the other, a luxurious dacha on one of the countless lakes in the Russian republic of Karelia, on the border with Finland. Almost 2,000 kilometers separate the two properties, but they have one thing in common: Their immediate surroundings are regularly frequented by Vladimir Putin’s bodyguards.
Is the Russian president the proud owner of these second homes? That’s at least what his opponents have been claiming: The late Alexei Navalny claimed Putin owned the palace in 2021, and more recently ex-oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky put the spotlight on the dacha, through the Dossier Center investigative unit he funds. Embarrassing accusations about the Russian president’s supposed fortune, which the Kremlin has always vigorously brushed aside. However, Le Monde has discovered new information that lends these accusations further credence.
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