Vladimir Putin’s plush, exclusive dacha located near the Finnish border has been exposed in aerial footage, and it makes predecessor Joseph Stalin, who had a famous summer home in Sochi, look like a chump.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny exposed Putin’s holiday retreat by publishing aerial footage giving a bird’s eye view of the mansion hidden in forests on the tip of an island heavily guarded with security checkpoints and dogs.
The Guardian said the lush holiday home, situated on a 50-acre site on Lodochny Island in the Gulf of Finland, was known as Villa Segren and was owned by a close friend of the Russian president.
Aerial footage shows several new houses have been built on the land, including a helipad and large residential “outbuilding” with an area of about 1,500 square meters.
Nudging the edge of the island is the original villa which, according to Navalny, features a relatively small floor space of about 745 square meters.
“Not large enough for the president,” he said before exposing an annex twice the size of the villa that has been added to the building.
Footage also shows a newly extended pier which Navalny said was unlawfully occupying the coastline.
“They took a whole cove!” he said.
Navalny said security guards are refusing to let members of the public near the house.
According to Mindfood, 3D images and construction plans that were leaked onto the internet showed “a sauna, billiard room, study and large indoor swimming pool.”
Images also depicted luxury ceiling decorations and gold-plated tiles to enhance the home’s already impressive design.
Express said the villa was originally built in 1913 but in 2010 building and renovations for Putin’s holiday home began.
It’s reported that Putin visits the villa once a year but locals are no longer allowed to access the property or go fishing there.
Stalin spent three or four months every summer from 1936 until his death in 1953 at "Green Grove," where Putin has never stepped foot, USA Today said.