Putin’s life of luxury questioned
Russian President Vladimir Putin once compared ruling Russia to being a “galley slave,” but four yachts that come with the job, as well as a string of palaces and a wealth of luxury perks help explain his refusal to quit the presidency, leading critics said Tuesday.
Listing 58 planes and helicopters and 20 homes with opulent fittings worthy of the czars, not to mention 11 watches that alone are worth several times Putin’s annual salary, a report published under the ironic title The Life of a Galley Slave by opposition leader Boris Nemtsov denounced the lavish spending as an affront to millions of Russians living in dire poverty.
“One of the most serious reasons prompting (Vladimir) Putin to hold on to power is the atmosphere of wealth and luxury to which he has become accustomed,” wrote the authors. “In a country where more than 20 million people barely make ends meet, the luxurious life of the president is a blatant and cynical challenge to society. .”
The Kremlin, which has long portrayed the 59-year-old president as a man of simple tastes with a liking for popular sports and active outdoor pastimes, did not immediately comment.
Intended to foster faint stirrings of opposition to Putin’s recent re-election for a further six years, the report may struggle for attention. In a mark of the reluctance of Russians to challenge the Kremlin, Nemtsov said he had struggled to find a printer willing to produce the booklet. And after publication, it was largely ignored by the country’s major media outlets.
Many Russians seemed indifferent to opponents who revelled in eye-catching details, such as the $75,000 toilet on a presidential jet. The authors also calculated the total value of the 11 luxury timepieces on the wrist of the head of state at some $700,000, while noting Putin had declared an annual income less than $115,000.
The president has long denied rumours he has built up a vast personal fortune. The report did not address that but it illustrated how the former KGB spy has expanded the trappings of office since he rose to power in 2000.
Tales of extravagance in the leadership come at a potentially awkward time for Putin after the biggest protests of his 12-year rule, mostly from middle-class urban liberals who are now trying to fire up indignation more widely.
“I hope that after this report the numbers of people believing that Putin and his allies are swindlers and thieves will approach 70 per cent,” Nemtsov said, using the labels for the ruling elite which have become a slogan for the opposition.
“After that, I think we will be able to free the country of them,” he said at an event to launch the pamphlet.
But the responses of the likes of Moscow pensioner Yelena Nikitichna suggested it might be an uphill battle to turn any dismay over Putin’s perks into a boost for the protest movement.
“It’s obviously too much, way beyond what is needed to do the job,” she said. “But of course that is no surprise to me. I’ve lived here for 70 years. It’s always been like that.”
Among the young, too, many did not share Nemtsov’s anger:
“Russian authorities and leaders have always been famous for their rather luxurious ways. This is a historical pattern and he is not the first to live a fairly luxurious life,” said Yelena Malmova, a first-year university student in the capital.
“Personally, I don’t care,” she said. “For me, how well he does his job is most important.”
The text was accompanied by photographs of luxurious homes, jets, helicopters, cars and watches, complete with footnotes citing Russian media as sources for many of the items. Nine new residences had been added to the list available to the president since Putin first became head of state in 2000, it said.
One 53.7-metre yacht with a designer interior, a spa pool, waterfall and wine cellar is relegated to second best, it said.
“The real diamond of the Kremlin flotilla,” the authors judged, is a five-deck yacht with a Jacuzzi, barbecue, a maple wood colonnade and a huge bathroom faced in marble.
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