Russian pres. Putin lives life of extreme luxury: report

Russian President Vladimir Putin lives a luxurious life, enjoying the use of a private plane with a toilet costing 75,000 U.S. dollars and a 74-hectare palatial luxury villa with a helipad, a recently released report says.

Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who once served as deputy prime minister, and Leonid Martynyuk, a member of the Solidarity movement, described Putin’s luxurious excesses in their 32-page report called “The Life of a Galley Slave.”

A U.K. daily said the report`s title was sarcasm of Putin’s comment that he worked “like a galley slave” for eight years in his previous two terms as leader.

According to the report, Putin receives 115,000 dollars in annual salary and reported personal assets of 179,612 dollars before the Russian presidential election earlier this year. Also included, however, is his presidential privileges of using 20 official residences and villas, 43 airplanes worth 1 billion dollars each, 15 helicopters and 11 watches, all paid with tax money.

Nine of the villas were built after he took over as president in 2000. One villa near a lake in northeastern Russia covers 9.3 square kilometers and has a chapel, movie theater, pool and helipad. The interior of his Ilyushin Il-96 plane is decorated with 180 million dollars’ worth of gold and other jewelry products and has a stool that cost 75,000 dollars.

Among his four yachts, the Olympia is the most luxurious with a pool and marble bathrooms on its five floors, and costs some 50 million dollars to maintain per year. The value of his 11 watches, including the Swiss-made Blancpain and A. Lange & Söhne, is 687,000 dollars.

The report blasted Putin for his luxurious lifestyle despite 20 million Russians living on a subsistence level, adding he was obsessed with gaining power to enjoy such a lifestyle.

imsoo@donga.com