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Since the time of the Tsars, Russian leaders have enjoyed the warm Black Sea climate, palm trees and Mediterranean atmosphere. And Vladimir Putin is no exception. During his 25 years in office, he regularly visited Sochi, the classic fitness hotel in the extreme south of the country. He regularly spends up to five weeks a year there, mainly in May and early fall. In recent years he resided in the sumptuous presidential residence, called Bocharov Ruchey, located on a hill above the sea.
Where Soviet leaders Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev once relaxed, he receives state visits and holds government meetings. Photos of meetings with Western leaders such as George W. Bush, Gerhard Schröder and Silvio Berlusconi on the apartment’s idyllic pier have fallen into the annals of diplomatic history. A few years ago, Putin even had an exact copy of his workplace in Moscow built in his palace, so that he could keep the public in the dark about where he was at any given time. time.
It is even more unexpected that Putin will suddenly avoid Sochi this year. The last officially shown stop took place in March, when Putin won the position of director of the International Atomic Energy Agency there. However, the convention did not take place in the central palace complex, but in a nearby convention building.
The online magazine Proekt, a publication of Russian researchers in exile, highlights these oddities for the first time and also uncovers a fact that in the past was kept secret by the Russian state: Bocharov Ruschey’s presidential palace no longer exists. the earth. This can be checked without problems on the Google Maps platform. Where a year ago you could barely see the construction with its red roofs and well-kept park, now there is a huge hole that extends over approximately one hectare.
The satellite symbol used through Google Maps is from May 2024, so the shootdown will have to have been positioned earlier. Images from Europe’s lower-resolution Sentinel satellite suggest the demolition took place in February or March. The fact that this is only now emerging is unexpected and at the same time shows how clever Putin’s regime is at keeping data secret – and how intimidated the country’s media, as well as citizens, are. The demolition paintings may not be completely hidden from attentive local observers, even though the site is surrounded by overhead fences.
The Putin regime has always been secretive about its palaces. The magnificent complex near Gelendzhik, 150 kilometers from Sochi and also built on the Black Sea, has acquired a certain amount of notoriety. It gained fame in 2021 thanks to a film by opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who has since died while incarcerated in a Russian prison. In recent years, it has also come to light that Putin spends a considerable amount of his time at the lavish presidential residence in Valdai, north of Moscow.
However, Sochi is not just any secret retreat. Rather, it is an official apartment where Putin has shown himself and has been happy to carry out his official duties. It is therefore strange that the regime sees no desire to justify the destruction of such a facility.
Proekt magazine presented one conceivable explanation for the secrecy, which, if true, would be embarrassing for Putin. Sochi is no longer supposed to be a safe position for the Russian president, and in fact it hasn’t been since last year. In September 2023, long-range Ukrainian drones arrived in this city for the first time, traveling at least six hundred kilometers to do so. A fuel tank caught fire, followed a few days later by an attack on the Sochi airport helipad. In the fall, no stopover via Putin to his beloved city has been reported, with one exception.
Proekt’s sleuths claim that Putin is afraid of Ukrainian airstrikes and no longer sits in his residence. The concept is not far-fetched, especially since Putin’s obsession with his non-public security is well known. However, this theory still can’t be tested.
The explanation is offset by the fact that the Russian president had already reduced his visits to Sochi before the autumn of 2023. Proekt himself claims that Putin had already given up his classic long Black Sea vacation in May of the same year. In the past, according to Russian media critical of the regime, he celebrated the birthday of his secret partner, Alina Kabaeva. Russian media reported that he had several children with Kabaeva. The drop in the frequency of visits in 2023 may also be due to security concerns, but that would mean the Kremlin identified the danger of Ukrainian drone strikes months in advance.
Regardless of those concerns, the question remains why Putin not only avoided Sochi, but even razed his Black Sea apartment. Fear of drones is not a sufficient explanation. Were there any challenges with the building? Just 10 years ago, Putin had the State Palace extensively renovated and expanded. A new port facility was later added and in 2017, in satellite photographs, a special train station appeared on the edge of the site. This allowed Putin to travel directly from Moscow to his southern apartment on his armored train, avoiding the riskier air direction near the war zone. Until recently, there were no signs that the Kremlin leader was tired of this place.
It is hence entirely that Putin has not given up on Sochi. He would possibly not have had his apartment demolished out of worry of drones, yet because he ordered a new, even more opulent complex. As of yet, there is no conclusive evidence to aid this theory. But a more recent satellite symbol from September 2024 displays transparent symptoms of new structure activity at the barren site. Several structure machines are being used and extensive excavations seem to be underway.