Alexei Navalny's team on Tuesday released a two-hour video featuring details of a luxurious property on Russia's southern Black Sea coast purportedly belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The YouTube feature, accompanied by a blog post from the jailed dissident, claims Putin's property cost $1.35 billion (€1.1 billion) and was paid for "with the largest bribe in history."
The video, released less than two days after Navalny was arrested at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport and subsequently jailed. It alleges that the private estate is 39 times the size of Monaco. Among the facilities it is said to boast are an ice rink and vineyards, with the sprawling mansion containing a theater and casino.
Described as the "most expensive palace in the world," the palace complex spans some 7,800 hectares (about 19,300 acres), and also includes a church, an amphitheater, a teahouse and a helipad. The palace was allegedly funded through an elaborate corruption scheme involving Putin's inner circle in return for a favor.
"It is the most secretive and well-guarded facility in Russia, without exaggeration," Navalny says in the video. "This isn't a country house, it’s not a cottage, it's not a residence — it's an entire city, or rather a kingdom. It has impregnable fences, its own port, its own security, a church, its own permit system, a no-fly zone, and even its own border checkpoint. Its like a separate state inside of Russia. And in this state there is a single and irreplaceable czar. Putin."
Video appeal for protests
The video, which finishes with a call for Russians to take a stand against the government, echoes a video from 2017 in which Navalny accused then-Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of being at the helm of a luxury property empire. That investigation led to large-scale protests by Putin's opponents.
DW's Moscow correspondent Emily Sherwin said the latest investigation may add to the number of protesters on Saturday, when Navalny’s team have already announced plans for a Russia-wide protest. But for now, the overall numbers will likely be tempered by new restrictions, the ongoing pandemic and unusually cold weather.
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
Face of Russia's opposition
The lawyer-turned-political campaigner has been among the most prominent figures of Russia's opposition to President Vladimir Putin. Navalny came to prominence in 2008, when his blog exposing malpractice in Russian politics and among the country's major state-owned companies came to public attention. Revelations published on his blog even led to resignations, a rarity in Russian politics.
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
Disputed parliamentary elections
In 2011 Navalny was arrested for the first time. He ended up spending 15 days in prison for his role at a rally outside the State Duma in Moscow. A recent parliamentary election victory for Putin's United Russia had been marred by instances of ballot stuffing, reported by demonstrators on social media. Upon his release, Navalny pledged to continue the protest movement.
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
Second jail term
After being reelected president in 2012, Putin ordered Russia's Investigative Committee to launch a criminal inquiry into Navalny's past. The following year the campaigner was charged and sentenced again, this time for five years, for alleged embezzlement in the city of Kirov. However, he was released the following day pending affirmation from a higher court. The sentence was later suspended.
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
Anti-Kremlin platform grows
Despite being embroiled in legal troubles, Navalny was allowed to run in the 2013 Moscow mayoral election. A second-place finish behind Putin ally Sergei Sobyanin was seen as an overwhelming success and galvanized the Russian opposition movement.
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
Navalny takes to social media
His anti-Kremlin rhetoric led Navalny to be banned from appearing on Russian state-owned television. That forced him to deliver his political message over social media and his blog. His talent for public speaking, punchy use of language and humorous mockery of Putin and his loyalists mobilized a legion of young followers.
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
Presidential ambitions
In December 2016, the opposition leader announced the formal start of his campaign to run for the Russian presidency in March 2018. However, repeated accusations of corruption, which his supporters say are politically motivated, ultimately barred him from running for public office.
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
Convicted of corruption
In 2016 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia had violated Navalny's right to a fair trial in the Kirov case. Although Russia's Supreme Court overturned the five-year sentence, the verdict was sent back to the Kirov court. In 2017, this court again handed Navalny a suspended five-year sentence.
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
Moscow's biggest protests in 6 years
In February 2017, anti-corruption rallies across dozens of Russian cities led to the arrests of over 1,000 demonstrators, including Navalny. The protests, believed to have been the largest in the Russian capital since 2012, were spurred by a report published by Navalny linking Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to a property empire valued at billions of euros. Navalny was released 15 days later.
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
Physically assaulted
Navalny was assaulted and hospitalized in April 2017 after being hit in the eye with a chemical green dye. The attack permanently damaged his right cornea. Navalny accused Russian authorities of stopping him from seeking medical treatment abroad due to the embezzlement conviction against him. He was eventually permitted by the Kremlin human rights council to travel to Spain for eye surgery.
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
Repeated arrests
In 2018, Navalny was jailed for 30 days. After his release in September, he faced another 20-day stint. In April 2019, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Russia had violated Navalny's rights by holding him under house arrest for most of 2014 during the Kirov embezzlement case.
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
Alleged poisoning
In July 2019, only weeks after being released from a 10-day jail sentence, Navalny was again jailed for 30 days for violating Russia's strict protest laws. The opposition leader accused Russia of poisoning him with an allergic agent while in jail.
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
Raids and frozen assets
Using YouTube and social media, Navalny had amassed a following of millions by late December 2019. Then police raided his Anti-Corruption Foundation headquarters (above), detaining him in the process. His staff said officials wanted to confiscate their tech equipment. Just a few months later, in March, Navalny reported that his bank accounts and those of his family members had been frozen.
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
A plane — and a coma
On August 20, Navalny's spokesperson announced the activist became violently ill during a flight from Siberia to Moscow. The plane made an emergency landing, and Navalny was rushed to a hospital in Russia's Omsk and later evacuated to Berlin's Charite clinic (above). Doctors said he was in a coma. Navalny's associates claimed he had been poisoned and pointed to previous attacks on the activist.
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
Back from the brink
Navalny was taken out of the coma less than three weeks later and was said to be responsive. Not long afterwards, he was posting on Instagram, saying he was slowly regaining strength following weeks of only being "technically alive." The German government said labs in France and Sweden both confirmed that Navalny had been poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
A smoking gun?
Months later, Navalny released the recording of a phone call he made to a man he said was a member of Russia's Federal Security Service, whose headquarters is pictured above. The alleged agent said he was not directly involved in poisoning Navalny, but deeply involved with efforts to clean up any traces of Novichok. Moscow dismissed the recording as fake.
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
Return, arrest, and trial
Navalny had promised to return to Russia and he did so, despite warnings that he would be arrested. He was taken into police custody shortly after arriving in Moscow. The dissident, seen here at a passport control point, had said he was "not afraid of anything." He was sentenced to 30 days in prison at a swiftly convened trial the following day.
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
Conviction and sentencing
Navalny was ordered to spend two years and eight months in a penal colony for violating terms of his probation while recovering in Germany from his poisoning. He dismissed the proceedings an attempt by the Kremlin to scare Russians into submission.
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Who is Alexei Navalny?
Ruling sparks unrest in Russia
Navalny supporters took to the streets soon after the prison sentence was announced. Navalny's aides called for a rally in Moscow's Manezhnaya Square, which was blocked off by riot police.
Author: David Martin
"The new Putin investigation will likely attract a lot of clicks, but it's hard to say if it will lead to more to protests, due to tightened protest laws, COVID-19 restrictions and freezing temperatures."
"Protests may build up closer to the Duma elections in September, especially because the coronavirus pandemic has hit Russia's economy hard."
Within two hours, the video had been viewed almost three million views on YouTube. According to the report, the film was produced while Navalny was still in Germany, where he was recovering from an attack with the nerve agent Novichok in August.
Moscow dismisses allegation as old
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the allegations were old but that the property, near the resort town of Gelendzhik, did not belong to Putin. The allegations were first made in 2010 by Sergei Kolesnikov, a businessman with connections to Putin before his time in politics. On paper, the property appears to be owned by businessman and billionaire Alexander Ponomarenko.
"I am not familiar with the investigation," said Peskov. "However, I can say right away that this record is old. Many years ago, we already explained that Putin has no palace in Gelendzhik."
The video was released soon after Navalny was detained upon his return to Russia from Germany for the first time since he was poisoned. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail.
The 44-year-old claims that Putin ordered the poisoning, an accusation that the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.
rc/aw (dpa, AFP, Interfax)
