Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who was arrested on his return to Russia last weekend, released an investigation Tuesday into a lavish Black Sea property he claimed is owned by President Vladimir Putin.
The investigation, published on the opposition figure’s blog with an accompanying two-hour YouTube video recorded before his return to Russia, claims the property cost $1.35 billion and was paid for “with the largest bribe in history”.
The report alleges that the property, located along Russia’s southern Black Sea coast, is 39 times the size of Monaco and features a casino inside a 17,691-metre mansion, along with an ice rink and vineyards.
The investigation claims that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) owns some 7,000 hectares of land surrounding the property and that the complex was financed by Putin’s close allies, including Igor Sechin, chief of Russian oil giant Rosneft, and billionaire tycoon Gennady Timchenko.
“It is a separate state within Russia. And in this state there is…