An Exercise App May Have Accidentally Confirmed Vladimir Putin As The Owner Of A $1.4 Billion Black Sea Palace

According to his most recent financial disclosure, Vladimir Putin's primary assets consist of a savings account with around $200k, a few Russian-made automobiles, and a plot of land in the Moscow suburbs. He has proclaimed his net worth to be less than $250,000. As President of Russia his official salary is equal to around $187,000 per year. On the other hand…

It has long been alleged that Vladimir has used his position as dictator of Russia over the last few decades to secretly amass one of the largest private fortunes in the world. Vladimir's full net worth has been estimated in the $200 billion range. If true, not only would he be the richest person in Russia by a longshot, he would be the fourth richest person in the world right now behind Mark Zuckerberg ($210 billion), Jeff Bezos ($212 billion) and Elon Musk ($270 billion).

One of the most conspicuous and controversial alleged assets in his alleged empire is an enormous palace located on a clifftop overlooking the Black Sea coast near the town Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai. Putin has adamantly denied owning the palace, which is estimated to be worth $1.4 BILLION. Unfortunately, his bodyguards may have just accidentally outed him… thanks to an exercise app.

$1.4 Billion Palace

The estate (pictured above) is set on 180 acres. There are dozens of visible buildings and likely a number of underground structures as well. The main palace spans 190,000 square feet and reportedly features a large indoor pool, spa, saunas, theater, cinema, wine cellar, casino, music lounge, nightclub, a dozen guestrooms, Turkish baths, and a grocery complex with meat, vegetable, and dessert shops. The master bedroom is reportedly 2,800 square feet.

Outside of the main palace, the grounds apparently feature a church, amphitheater, gas station, arboretum, a large exercise facility, vineyard, and a dozen additional structures.

The palace first came to worldwide attention when a whistleblower named Sergei Kolesnikov published an open letter to then-Russian "president" Dmitry Medvedev. The letter claimed that the place was being constructed for Putin.

In January 2021, the late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation released an investigative documentary about the palace. In addition to claiming that the palace cost Russia $1 billion to construct and now has a value of $1.4 BILLION, the documentarians took a boat out into the Black Sea and sent a drone up to video the property for the first time. That's where the image above comes from. You can see the full documentary in the YouTube video below. I've queued it up to minute 29-minute mark where the drone footage begins:

That video was viewed over 70 million times within a week. Today, it has around 130 million views. Soon after its release, a spokesman denied Putin was the owner in a statement to CNN:

"This is not true. There is no palace, he is not an owner of any palace. Those are all rumors and there were some disputes between the owners of those premises, but they really have no connection with President Putin." 

For someone who does not own the house and has no connection to it, his bodyguards sure seem to be there a lot!

According to an investigation by French newspaper Le Monde, Putin's bodyguards frequently go for runs near the palace. How did LeMonde discover what you might assume would be a closely guarded state secret? Apparently, the bodyguards use the exercise app Strava to share and document runs 🙂

Members of Putin's protective guard have apparently been using the app for years at Putin's known residences, and these same bodyguards have allegedly posted runs near Putin's secret palace in 2019, 2020, 2023, and 2024. One bodyguard allegedly went for a run right out of the palace's main gate on three consecutive days early this year. Another bodyguard clocked a four-mile run around the perimeter of the property. LeMonde found these same runners going for runs at various other global locations at times when Putin was on state visits.

The French outlets also reported on the Strava activities of bodyguards protecting Joe and Jill Biden, Donald and Melania Trump, French President Emmanual Macron, and more. The US Secret Service subsequently released a statement saying its staff "are not allowed to use personal electronic devices while on duty during protective assignments, but we do not prohibit an employee's personal use of social media off-duty."

I have a feeling Putin's bodyguards will soon no longer be allowed to have phones or go for runs at all!