The palace Alexei Navalny accuses cronies built for Putin on the Black Sea coast

As protests against Russian President Vladimir Putin sweep the country, the explosive two-hour video released by the aides of his critic Alexei Navalny has been seen by over 100 million people.

Mr. Navalny, a lawyer, has been accusing the Russian President of massive corruption and was poisoned with a nerve agent last year. He survived the attack and remained in hospital in Germany for five months before deciding to return to Russia on January 17 last month. He was arrested on arrival.

The video has Navalny as the anchor and has clearly been put together after several months of painstaking research and footage and photographs of documents, Putin and his accomplices. In the video the Russian President is described as possibly the “richest man in the world” and is accused of owning a breathtaking palace on the Black Sea coast.

While Putin and the Russian Government agencies have denied the charges, they have added to the confusion by refusing to identify the ‘real owner’ of the palace. Government spokesmen have merely said that the palace is probably owned by one or more businessmen. Navalny and his aides insist that businessmen close to the Russian President built the palace for him and according to his specifications.

“They built a palace for their boss with this money,” Navalny says in the video. A Reuters investigation in 2014 had claimed, “Two associates of President Vladimir Putin profited from a state scheme to buy expensive medical equipment - and sent money to Swiss bank accounts linked to a property known as “Putin’s palace”.

“This is like a state within a state where one irremovable czar rules,” Navalny says in the documentary. “It is built in a way that no one can reach it by land, sea or air, thousands of people working there are banned from bringing even a simple cell phone with a camera...”

According to the plans, the video claims, the castle features 11 bedrooms, several living rooms and dining halls, a private theatre, a movie theatre, a Las Vegas style casino, two spas and a hammam, a bakery and a room with an unknown purpose. The rooms, adorned with velvet and lush carpets, feature marble floors, columns, and intricate ceiling decorations made to resemble St. Petersburg royal palaces.

Described on the FBK site as “the most controversial room in the palace”, the plan also features a hookah lounge with what appears to be a dancer’s pole. As the Navalny site sarcastically states: “On the plan it is designated as a ‘hookah room’. And all would be fine, but there is not a single window in that room, but for some reason there is a stage, a dressing room, spotlights, and something very similar to a pole drawn on the plan. We thought for a long time what it could be. Perhaps they make giant shawarmas there... Or it’s a training ground for firefighters.”

According to the drone videos shot by FBK, the estate features a private hockey rink, personal church, amphitheatre, and a 2,500-square-metre greenhouse. The territory is heavily guarded with multiple checkpoints leading up to it; the plot of land itself is listed as a no-fly zone, claims FBK.

The territory also boasts of sprawling vineyards where classical music is played around the clock, apparently to help the grapes mature, according to members of the vineyard association for the region who heard the music playing during a tour of the estate, the FBK says. Bathrooms at a processing facility in the vineyard are reportedly equipped with an $850 Italian toilet brush and a $1,250 toilet paper holder.

Navalny claims that wine-making is Putin’s “very expensive hobby”. “He drinks it with his friend from China, Xi Jinping,” according to pictures of menus he says were served during official receptions.