Media: Putin's Palace Near Gelendzhik Was Bought For Nothing

• 27.02.2026, 12:51

At the same time, Kabaeva was transferred 6.5 billion Russian rubles.

The team of the late Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny reported that businessman Arkady Rotenberg, close to the Kremlin, arranged the purchase of the so-called Putin's palace near Gelendzhik for 800 thousand rubles (about 10 thousand dollars), writes UNIAN.

The total construction area was 7,000 hectares, and the palace includes an underground hockey complex and a 5,000-square-meter restaurant complex, with chandeliers worth nearly 50 million rubles each.

According to the investigation, the purchase deal was registered on March 31, 2021: Rotenberg acquired 100% of shares in Binom, which owns Complex, the company registered for the palace. The hotel that Rotenberg planned was never built.

According to the investigators, the company Investment Solutions, which financed the construction, transferred 6.5 billion rubles to the Alina Kabaeva Foundation and the association of rhythmic gymnastics clubs "Heavenly Grace" in 2023. In particular, the Kabaeva Foundation received 3 billion rubles, and the association - 3.5 billion rubles. Most of the funds are kept on deposit and earn interest that exceeds the budget of the official Russian Gymnastics Federation.

Investigators note that Kabayeva's organizations are not engaged in large-scale charity or real support for athletes.

"If you examine all the receipts and expenditures of Kabaeva's funds, it becomes obvious that they are just wallets to which Putin's friends transfer funds to her for entertainment, shopping and hobbies," Navalny's team concluded.

The chain of financing for the palace included loans from anonymous offshore companies from the British Virgin Islands, which gave money to the company Binom, and the latter to the company Complex, which paid for construction work.