Putin ‘has slush fund to pay for his mistresses and their families including his love child, 17’, jailed Alexei Navalny claims after revealing details of Russian leader’s ‘£1billion palace’

• Navalny accused the Russian leader of using state cash to pay for his mistresses
• He claims Putin ‘has slush fund’ to cover the expense of his alleged other women, former gymnast Olympic Alina Kabaeva and ex-mistress Svetlana Krivonogikh
• Putin allegedly also spent the sum on his 17-yea-old love child with Krivonogikh
• The Kremlin critic also claims to have the leaked floor plans of ‘Putin’s palace’ 
• Navalny has been detained while facing sentenced for fraud charges from 2014

Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny has accused Vladimir Putin of using state cash to fund his secret mistresses.

Navalny, 44, claimed that the Russian leader – who he labels the world’s richest man – uses a ‘slush fund’ to cover the expenses of his other women and their families including his 17-year-old love child. 

He has also claimed that Putin has a £1billion palace on the Black Sea with a red velvet pole-dancing boudoir and a casino. 

Navalny, 44, claimed that the Russian leader Vladimir Putin (pictured) – who he labels the world’s richest man – uses a ‘slush fund’ to cover the expenses of his other women and their families including his 17-year-old love child

The Russian leader is said to have had an affair with Svetlana Krivonogikh and fathered Elizaveta, 17, during his first term as president

Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny has accused Vladimir Putin of using state cash to fund his secret mistresses, including alleged partner Alina Kabaeva, a former gold-medal winning Olympic gymnast (pictured in a file photo in Moscow on September 16, 2016)

Navalny claims that Putin has a £1billion palace (pictured) on the Black Sea with a red velvet pole-dancing boudoir and a casino

The opposition leader – who was allegedly poisoned by a chemical nerve agent planted by an FSB hit squad – makes the allegations in a new video issued after his arrest in Moscow.

This comprises alleged partner Alina Kabaeva, a former gold-medal winning Olympic gymnast, and ex-mistress Svetlana Krivonogikh, who is reportedly the mother of his love child, Elizaveta now aged 17, he alleged.

The lawyer and anti-corruption campaigner claimed: ‘Putin – as befits a person who imagines himself a monarch – has a rich and eventful personal life.’

‘The needs of our humble president are not at all limited to the Black Sea palace,’ said Navalny in a video report prepared before he flew back to Moscow and faced immediate arrest on Sunday.

‘What about the relatives?

‘You do not expect that they, like some ordinary people, will live on a salary?’Everyone needs a place to live. Everyone needs a plane. Everyone needs a yacht.

Vladimir Putin’s rumoured gymnast lover Alina Kabaeva, pictured, is now earning more than £7.5million a year as the boss of a pro-Kremlin media giant, according to leaked tax records

‘All this must be paid for. This means that we need a financial scheme and people who will fill this scheme with money.

‘This slush fund….is used by Putin in order to cover the expenses of family members.’

Former cleaner Krivonogikh, 45, ‘was just a pretty young girl, but now she has turned into an incredibly rich woman, a shareholder of Rossiya Bank.

‘No-one can understand how such happiness fell on Krivonogikh, who once worked as a cleaner.

‘Here’s the answer.

‘Krivonogikh met Putin in the late 1990s, and in 2003, according to Proekt (media), she gave birth to his daughter Elizaveta.’

Putin and Kabaeva during a meeting between the Russian president and Olympic team at the Kremlin in 2004 

Navalny claims to be in possession of leaked floor plans of Putin’s lavish property on Russia’s southern Black Sea coast which have been used to draw up artists’ impressions of the palace’s interior. Pictured: Navalny claims ‘Putin’s palace’ includes a casino fitted with a number of poker tables and chandeliers 

She then received a number of luxury apartments via oligarch friends of Putin, said Navalny.

‘After Krivonogikh gave birth to Putin’s child, a bunch of assets – including a 3 per cent stake in Rossiya Bank – were registered for her’ – as was a yacht, the 118-ft yacht Aldoga.

‘There can be no random women in this scheme,’ he alleged.

‘This is another example of how Putin’s friends steal from the entire country, and as a token of gratitude they support Putin’s mistress and her child.

‘Putin’s personal life concerns only him.

‘He can even have 20 families if he desires, it’s none of our business.

‘We pay attention to something else.

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets Russian gymnasts Alina Kabayeva (centre) and Svetlana Khorkina ahead of the Olympics in 2004

Alexei Navalny has claimed a theatre – fitted with red curtains and a golden ceiling – is  among a series of luxurious rooms inside President Putin’s £1billion ‘palace’

‘His tumultuous relationship is paid for by bribes and corruption.

‘Get this – there are 20 million beggars in the country, and he buys a yacht for his mistress.’

But this was a ‘trifle’ compared with the funding of Kabaeva, he claimed.

‘Billions of stolen money are being spent on supporting another woman of Putin,’ he said.

Kabaeva’s grandmother received an apartment in St Petersburg from an oligarch close to Putin, Gennady Timchenko, he alleged.

The grandmother also received two houses, Navalny claimed.

Meanwhile, Kabaeva controls major newspapers and TV stations in Russia as chairman of National Media Group, which belongs to another close Putin oligarch Yury Kovalchuk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his then-wife Lyudmila Putin (pictured) in the Kremlin Palace in Moscow. They announced their divorce in July 2013

‘Kabaeva is the best in the world at jumping with a ball and a ribbon, but she would not have been able to manage television companies and newspapers if not for her connection with Putin,’ he said.

Her official salary is £7.8 million.

He taunted Putin: ‘The life of a polygamist brings not only pleasure, but also problems.’

Putin provided for the mothers of Kabaeva and Krivonogikh via a Gazprom subsidiary called Teplo Invest, he claimed.

Gazprom’s slogan is ‘national treasure’.

‘I think they need to change the slogan,’ he said.

‘Gazprom: Using the national treasure to support Putin’s mother-in-laws.’    

Navalny, who was arrested on his return to Russia last weekend, has claimed a strip club, casino and a theatre are among a series of luxurious rooms inside President Putin’s £1billion ‘palace’.  

Astonishing 3D images of the estate’s interior allege ‘Putin’s palace’ features an arcade room with slot machines and a dance mat, a spa and a theatre inside the mansion, along with an underground ice rink and even vineyards in the grounds. 

Navalny claims the estate, which also includes a church and strip club fitted with a lap dancers’ pole, is 39 times the size of Monaco.

The images are part of a mammoth investigation published on Navalny’s blog with a two-hour Youtube video recorded before his arrest. 

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who was arrested on his return to Russia last weekend, has claimed a strip club, casino and a theatre are among a series of luxurious rooms inside President Putin’s £1billion ‘palace’. Pictured: An interactive 3D image of a strip club fitted with a lap dancers’ pole allegedly inside Putin’s property 

Astonishing 3D images of the estate’s interior allege ‘Putin’s palace’ features an arcade room (pictured), a spa and a theatre inside the mansion, along with an underground ice rink and even vineyards in the grounds

‘There are impregnable fences, its own port, its own security, a church, its own permit system, a no-fly zone and even its own border checkpoint. It is absolutely a separate state within Russia,’ Navalny says.

The opposition figure accused Putin of owning the estate, which he claims cost £1billion and was allegedly funded through an elaborate corruption scheme involving Putin’s inner circle. 

The report includes detailed interactive floor plans that Navalny says were leaked to his team by a contractor.

They were able to create 3D images of the interiors based on the floor plans, which included a gym, swimming pool and an underground wine cellar.

Navalny claims the estate and grounds that Russian media had linked to Putin years ago was paid for ‘with the largest bribe in history’.

The investigation alleged that the estate, located in a secluded area that is heavily guarded by Russia’s security forces, also had a tunnel from the mansion to the shore.

Navalny’s team were able to create 3D images of the interiors based on the floor plans, which this reading room, which features accents of gold throughout 

The images are part of a mammoth investigation published on Navalny’s blog with a two-hour Youtube video recorded before his arrest. Pictured: A artists’ impression of a luxurious bathroom in Putin’s palace

 The opposition figure accused Putin of owning the estate, which he claims cost £1billion and was allegedly funded through an elaborate corruption scheme involving Putin’s inner circle. Pictured: A large swimming pool is claimed to be within the estate

Navalny claims the estate and grounds that Russian media had linked to Putin years ago was paid for ‘with the largest bribe in history’. Pictured: The large estate is also said to include a gym which is fitted with the latest equipment

‘It is the most secretive and guarded facility in Russia,’ Navalny says in the video. ‘It isn’t a country house or a residence – it’s an entire city, or rather a kingdom.’   

The investigation was published a day after Navalny, who was detained after returning from Germany for the first time since he was poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent in August, was sentenced to 30 days in jail. 

Navalny 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 a single and irreplaceable tsar. Putin,’ Navalny says. 

Navalny claimed Putin had been able to grant his powerful old friends high-profile positions on lucrative government projects and hide his wealth through his allies.  

‘Putin’s friends, who received from him the right to steal whatever they wanted in Russia, thanked him a lot. But they also chipped in, collected 100 billion rubles and built a palace for their boss with this money,’ Navalny said.

Navalny 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. Pictured: A 3D image released by Navalny of one of Putin’s many living rooms

An artists’ impression of Putin’s Palace also includes this sitting area with a large sofa for guests to relax

Navalny claimed Putin had been able to grant his powerful old friends high-profile positions on lucrative government projects and hide his wealth through his allies. Pictured: A 3D image which shows one of the many grand bedrooms in the property

Navalny claims Putin ordered the poisoning which left him fighting for his life in August, an allegation the Kremlin has repeatedly denied. 

On February 2 a court will begin deliberating over whether a suspended sentence of three years and six months that Navalny received in 2014 for fraud charges should be converted into prison time.

The Kremlin opponent on Monday called for his supporters to take to the streets in response to his arrest, with his allies planning rallies in Moscow and in cities across the country on Saturday.

The new investigation, which ends on a call for Russians to rise up against the authorities, echoes a 2017 YouTube video in which Navalny accused then Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of controlling a luxury property empire.

Alexei Navalny was led away in handcuffs after being remanded in custody for 30 days by a makeshift court in Moscow – as he waits to hear whether a three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence will be converted into real jail time 

That investigation sparked large-scale opposition protests.

The existence of the Black Sea property and its links to Putin first became known in 2010 when whistle-blower businessman Sergei Kolesnikov described them in a public letter to Medvedev.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday brushed aside the claims in comments to the state news agency RIA Novosti, calling them ‘untrue’.

The video accompanying Navalny’s investigation had garnered three million views within the first two hours after it was published Tuesday. 

A Moscow court on Wednesday postponed the start of the trial of detained Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on charges of defaming a World War II veteran, his lawyers said.

Olga Mikhailova, a lawyer for Navalny, told journalists the court pushed back the trial until February 5 because the opposition figure is currently in virus quarantine after returning from Germany on Sunday and being immediately put behind bars.

The court ruled that the ‘hearing has to take place with his participation’, Mikhailova said, adding that Navalny’s allies supported the decision.

Navalny was detained in a Moscow airport after returning for the first time since he was flown to Berlin in August following a poisoning attack.

Lawyers Vadim Kobzev (pictured right) and Olga Mikhailova (left) of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny speak outside the Babushkinsky district court in Moscow on Wednesday

The 44-year-old anti-graft campaigner is accused of violating probationary terms of his 2014 suspended sentence on fraud charges by not appearing at Russia’s prison service for checks twice a month.

On Monday, a makeshift court at a police station ordered Navalny placed in custody until February 15. He was then moved to Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina detention centre, where he is spending his first 14 days in quarantine.

The libel charges due to be heard Wednesday are part of a separate case launched in June by the Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes.

The Committee charged Navalny with ‘discrediting the honour and dignity’ of the veteran after describing him and others who appeared in a pro-Kremlin video as ‘the shame of the country’ and ‘traitors’ in a June tweet.

The video was in favour of constitutional amendments that passed last summer allowing President Vladimir Putin to remain in office until 2036. 

The Investigative Committee had suspended the probe while the Kremlin critic was hospitalised following the near-fatal poisoning attack with a nerve agent.

Navalny accuses Putin of ordering the attack, a claim the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.

On February 2, a court will consider whether Navalny’s 2014 suspended sentence of three years and six months on fraud charges should be converted to jail time.

Last month investigators also opened a criminal probe into Navalny for large-scale fraud, alleging he used more than 356million rubles (£3.5million) of donations to his organisations for personal purposes including holidays abroad.

The charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Navalny and his supporters believe all three cases are politically motivated.

The Kremlin critic hit back Tuesday with a report into a lavish Black Sea property he claimed is owned by Putin alongside a call for donations to his Anti-Corruption Foundation to produce more investigations.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday said the main purpose of the report – which was published alongside a YouTube video that has 20 million views – was to syphon off money.

‘We caution all citizens – particularly given the large number of views: Think before transferring money to people who are actually crooks,’ Peskov said.

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