Putin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that the investigation conducted by the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) about Vladimir Putin's palace near the city of Gelendzhik in Southern Russia was "nonsense and compilation." According to him, the palace has "nothing to do with either the president or the Kremlin," whereas the relevant topic of the bogus story surfaced "three or four years ago." There was nothing new in the materials provided in the investigation by Alexey Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, Peskov said.
The only new part of the story was the way it was edited, Dmitry Peskov added.
"They included the footage of Putin swimming in the Yenisei River when showing the footage of the pool in a certain palace. The footage of Putin swimming in the Yenisei were distributed globally. It was a dry statement to make," the press secretary said.
Others criticised Peskov for not taking the joke about Putin in the swimming pool in Navalny's new documentary.
However, according to Peskov, they make Putin the owner of the property that he does not own.
"The President of Russia declares his property annually, which can be seen in the annually published declaration too," Peskov said.
The prime goal of such "pseudo-investigations", as Peskov put it, is to collect money.
"This is the essence of this scam. We warn all citizens, especially given such a large number of views: think before donating your money to those swindlers. The swindlers work all the time to make their methods to take money away from the population more sophisticated. Because the ways to withdraw money from the population from crooks are constantly improving. Think ten times before doing it," Peskov warned, adding that information attacks against Putin, which the Kremlin "has long been aware of," would continue.
Navalny's documentary about "Putin's palace" is currently trending on YouTube with 23 million views and counting. Navalny and his FBK Foundation claims that it is the President of Russia, who is the true owner of the Black Sea coast property, the size of which can be compared to 39 principalities of Monaco.
According to Navalny, this is not even a residence, but "a whole city, a kingdom, a separate state." The property includes its own port, security service, a church, its own access control, no-fly zone and even a border checkpoint. The complex includes an underground hockey rink, a greenhouse, a tunnel leading to the beach and an underground tasting room. The palace also has a theater, a casino, saunas, hammams, and an aquadiskotheque.