Where Vladimir Putin built a tsar’s village

Tsarskoye Selo is the name of one of the most beautiful tsarist residences in Russia – in English “Tsar’s Village”. Catherine the Great, Tsar Alexander I and the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II once resided here. The Catherine Palace is the heart of the complex not far from Saint Petersburg. From here the infamous Amber Room disappeared during World War II. The magnificent building is surrounded by parks, landscaped gardens, pavilions, excursion houses, stables, kitchens and much more. In the immediate vicinity of the Catherine Palace is the Alexander Palace. After all, all members of the Tsar’s family were to be accommodated appropriately when they stayed here.

An idea that Vladimir Putin also liked. The Kremlin boss likes to see himself alongside the great Russian tsars. What he had achieved was not even achieved by Peter the Great, he recently announced. So why not do as the Tsars did and gather the family around you – and provide them with appropriate accommodation, of course.

This emerges on the one hand from official documents from Russian authorities, on the other hand from the email traffic of Kirill Shamalov, the former son-in-law of the Kremlin boss, who for several years was allowed to consider himself the husband of Katherina Tikhonova – one of the daughters of Putin’s official marriage.

E-mail correspondence including ID card

Shamalov’s personal email details were discovered in a major password leak back in 2019. Eventually they were leaked to the Russian media “Meduza” and “Important Stories” and then ended up with the journalists of “Project”.

The leaked documents contain conversations between Shamalov and Putin’s daughter Tikhonova, correspondence with lawyers, wedding planners, oligarch friends and employees, invoices and purchase orders. Even a scan of Shamalov’s identity card ended up in the hands of journalists.

Family tradition of the Putins

These documents show that there was never an official marriage between Shamalov and Tikhonova. They were only married in church. This is proven by the leaked passport of Shamalov, where the stamp for a marriage, which is usual in Russia, is missing. This is also confirmed by several notarized documents in which Shamalov states that he is single. In addition, there is the course of the wedding ceremony. The master of ceremonies sent it to Shamalov by email – and it was also leaked.

Forgoing legal marriage is not uncommon in Putin’s family — though Putin himself never tires of extolling traditional orthodox family values, which include marrying before the law. He himself keeps his marital status a secret. His eldest daughter Maria Vorontsova lives with her lover Jorrit Faassen, apparently without a marriage certificate. And his younger daughter Tikhonova is no exception. For them, the Orthodox Church apparently even ignored its own ban. A church wedding is forbidden for a couple who have not registered their marriage at the registry office. But there are no laws in Russia for the Putin family.

Villas as a dowry

But why do the Putins have such an aversion to legal marriage? The reason is prosaic: money. The lack of marriage certificates makes hiding property a breeze. The example of Shamalov and Tikhonova now shows how simply the system is knitted.

In 2006, Putin had offshore companies buy up several properties in the country. Two properties were purchased by a Cyprus based company called Ermira Consultants. Previous research has already identified the Ermira company as the personal “purse” of the Russian head of state. Maria Vorontsova got it as a kind of dowry in her wild marriage with Jorrit Faassen.

Two more villas went into the possession of Kirill Shamalov in February 2013, two weeks before the secret church wedding, as the research of “Project” now shows. Tikhonova herself does not appear once in the documents. It later becomes clear that Shamalov is only allowed to play the placeholder.

Love nest by Katherina Tikhonova

First, however, the lovebirds set up their new love nest. In the hacked correspondence, the couple constantly discuss the furnishing of the property marked with the purple cottage on the map. The two have considered it their own since at least 2012, when the property was still owned by a Panamanian offshore company.

The emails held by “Project” show how they remodeled and furnished the four-storey building. The couple planned nine million euros for this, including a handmade gold-plated chandelier that was ordered for the dining room. Cost: 72,000 euros.

According to the leaked news, the couple paid around 53,000 euros for the patio furniture. A bar counter made of marble and mother-of-pearl for 120,000 euros was to decorate one of the many rooms.

A list of all the rooms that Tikhonova sent to her groom reveals what the two apparently did to pass the time. Listed are, among other things, a separate acrobatic hall and an art workshop in which a potter’s wheel and a loom should be set up.

Vladimir Putin also equips ex-wife with villa

While it had long been known that he lived in this property, the second property, which Shamalov acquired in February 2013, was a mystery. But the leaked correspondence now reveals who lives in the villa, which is just 150 meters from their love nest: Lyudmila Ocheretnaya, Vladimir Putin’s ex-wife and mother of his two daughters Katherina and Maria.

Vladimir Putin and Lyudmila announced their divorce in June 2013. By that time, Lyudmila already had a new life partner: Artur Ocheretnyj.

In December 2013, Shamalov sent a letter to Lyudmila’s new husband – with a power of attorney that gave him almost complete right to dispose of the second mansion: a four-story cottage with an area of ​​u200bu200b1300 square meters. On the map above, the property is marked in turquoise.

Vladimir Putin wants to live here until his death

Two villas for his eldest daughter Maria, an estate for his younger daughter Katherina and an estate for his ex-wife Lyudmila – Putin has gathered his family around him in Novo Ogaryovo. Just like the Russian tsars did centuries before him. Why in Novo-Ogaryovo? Putin chose the presidential residence not far from Moscow as his home right after he came to power – and it will remain so until his death.

Russian law provides guarantees for ex-presidents and allows the holders of this office to choose one of the official residences for lifetime use. In 2008, Putin chose Novo-Ogaryovo. Therefore, this residence was equipped with everything that the Kremlin gentleman appreciates: a swimming pool, a banya, all kinds of baths and saunas, a gym. In 2015, a secret railway line was even laid to the residence.

In Nowo-Ogaryovo, Putin and his family members thought they were safe under the umbrella of air defense systems – until last Tuesday. On May 30, dozens of drones attacked Moscow and the surrounding area. At least one of the drones was shot down just four kilometers from the presidential residence. At that moment, Shamalov must have been happy for the first time that he had lost his place in Putin’s tsar’s village.

Shamalov loses son-in-law status and estate

Because in 2016 Shamalov lost the status of the son-in-law of the head of the Kremlin. Six months later he lost almost all of his shares in the largest Russian oil and gas company Sibur, which he had received after the church wedding with Tikhonova (20.8 percent). According to the most conservative estimates, that stake could be worth around $2 billion. After the separation from Putin’s daughter, Shamalov’s shares largely went back to the dictator’s friends in the Kremlin – as did the mansions that Shamalov was allowed to count on paper as his own for a few years.

In 2019, an operation to confiscate the properties began. They were entrusted to Gennady Timchenko and Arkady Rotenberg – two of Putin’s closest confidants, who manage, move and invest his funds on his behalf. Documents from the Federal Service for State Registration of Real Estate also show the central role Switzerland plays in this money game: on October 2, 2019, the Coral company, one of Rotenberg’s creations, received 2.37 billion rubles into a Swiss bank account – transferred from an account of Timschenko also in a Swiss bank.

Rotenberg, for his part, immediately transferred almost the entire sum – 2.35 billion rubles – to Shamalov’s personal account under a real estate purchase and sale agreement. This is also evident from the documents of the Russian authorities. Rotenberg not only bought the two properties in the immediate vicinity of the presidential residence in Nowo-Ogaryovo from Putin’s former son-in-law with the sum, but also a large property west of it. Here Shamalov and Tikhonova wanted to build a new palace – Dmitry Medvedev and Timchenko would have been their immediate neighbors. But nothing will come of it for Shamalov.

2.35 billion rubles – the equivalent of about 27 million euros – is only a third of the market value of the three objects, but a surprisingly high settlement amount for three years of wild marriage. After all, Shamalov isn’t just anyone. He is the son of another of Putin’s loyalists, the oligarch Nikolai Shamalov. So it all stays in the family.

Also read:

“Golden Madness”: Hundreds of new photos give an insight into Putin’s palace

A palace of superlatives: where Putin built a new Versailles

How Vladimir Putin vacations in the taiga: pictures from 14 years

Pool in golden tiles: Putin’s ominous new residence

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