No one knows Putin's exact net worth, but many speculate he's the wealthiest person on the planet —

[polanski]

Vladimir Putin may be the wealthiest man in the world.

• Forbes won't even estimate his net worth, because it can't verify his financial assets, Newsweek reported.

• The Russian president does indulge in some displays of immense wealth, however.

• Putin is reported to own luxury watches, a fleet of yachts, and multiple expensive properties, including a $1 billion palace.

• American financier Bill Browder estimated that Putin had "accumulated $200 billion of ill-gotten gains," according to the Atlantic.

Vladimir Putin very well may be the richest man in the world.

But it's impossible to say for sure. According to the Kremlin, the Russian president earns around $133,000 a year and lives in a small apartment.

That description doesn't jive with most accounts of Putin's lifestyle. Former Russian government adviser Stanislav Belkovsky estimated his fortune is worth $70 billion. Hedge fund manager Bill Browder, a noted critic of Putin, claimed it was more like $200 billion. A fortune that enormous would propel him straight past Amazon founder and richest man in the world Jeff Bezos, who Forbes estimates has $150.2 billion to his name.

So why can't we pin down Putin's net worth with any certainty? The 2015 Panama Papers revealed that Putin may obscure and bolster his fortune through proxies.

We've put together a list of all the clues that indicate Putin is likely one of the richest people on the planet:
As president of Russia, Putin's official residence is the Moscow Kremlin. However, he spends most of his time at a suburban government residence outside of the city called Novo-Ogaryovo.

Shutterstock/OlegDoroshin
He reportedly has access to 20 different palaces and villas.
Official records published in 2016 by the Kremlin would have us believe that Putin has a very modest real estate portfolio. The report said he owned a small plot of land and an apartment with a garage.

Reuters
Source: Newsweek

But over the years, Putin has been linked to other properties. The most controversial of which is the so-called "secret palace." This was reportedly built for Putin using illegal state funds.

Wikicommons/Ruleaks
This epic mansion reportedly cost $1 billion to build. It has a private theater and landing pad with room for three helicopters.

Wikicommons/Ruleaks
The bedrooms are suitably grandiose.

Wikicommons/Ruleaks
And the wall art is just as opulent.

Wikimedia Commons
Snapshots of the then-under-construction mansion leaked in 2011.

Wikimedia Commons
And the following year, opposition leader and Putin critic Boris Nemtsov produced a dossier claiming that Putin owned multiple private jets, helicopters, and yachts.

Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP
Source: New York Times, "The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin"
Nemtsov alleged that, out of the 20 state residences Putin had access to, nine were built during his tenure as president.
Source: New York Times, "The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin"

The president was also accused of owning 58 different types of aircraft, including a Dassault Falcon, which seats 19.

This is not Putin's plane but an example of what his plane would look like.Wikimedia Commons
One of his planes was said to have an $11 million cabin fitted out by jewelers and that toilet which cost close to $100,000. This plane has room for up to 186 passengers. Putin is accused of owning five of these.

This is not Putin's plane but an example of what his plane would look like.AP/Alexander Zemlianichenko
The dossier claimed Putin has a collection of four yachts, each costing thousands of dollars to maintain. Rossiya, one of his yachts, was upgraded in 2005. It reportedly cost $1.2 billion to do. "The Graceful," another of his yachts, (shown below) reportedly sleeps 14 people and has six bedrooms.

YouTube/SuperYachtFan
Source: Time

Then there's Olympia. He was reportedly given this 57-meter luxury yacht, worth $35 million, as a gift from Chelsea football club owner and oligarch Roman Abramovich. According to a former head of a state shipping company in Russia, Putin runs the yacht using state money.

Roman Abramovich.Clive Mason/Getty Images
Source: The Telegraph

Putin also likes to take pride in his appearance. The 2012 dossier claimed it Putin has 11 watches worth an estimated $687,000.
Source: New York Times

According to the Russian government-owned paper "Russia Beyond the Headlines," Putin owns an A. Lange & Söhne Tourbograph Perpetual 'Pour Le Mérite,' which costs half a million dollars.
According to the Russian government-owned paper "Russia Beyond the Headlines," Putin owns an A. Lange & Söhne Tourbograph Perpetual 'Pour Le Mérite,' which costs half a million dollars.

A $1 million Patek Phillippe going up for auction in July 2017 was also said to be owned by Putin. Accompanying documentation claimed he was the owner. The Kremlin denied these claims.

Monaco Legend Auctions
Source: Business Insider

In the past, Putin has even given away his watches. The president reportedly owned five Blancpain watches at one time but gave away one to a Siberian boy while on vacation and another to a factory worker who asked for a keepsake. The watches were reportedly worth $10,500 each.

Then there's his clothing. Newsweek's Ben Judah spent three years researching Putin for his book and claimed that Putin prefers bespoke suits and "dour" Valentino ties over anything else.

AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky
Source: Business Insider

Russian government-owned paper “Russia Beyond the Headlines” confirmed Putin’s expensive taste for tailored suits. In 2015, it published an article claiming that the president's preferred brand of suits was Kiton and Brioni, “Such suits are made from start to finish by one tailor, take dozens of hours to complete, and have a starting price tag of $5500,” the article said.
Source: Russia Beyond the Headlines

According to "Russia Beyond the Headlines", Putin also has a stylist who has been dressing him for over 10 years. “The stylist rips off all the labels from his clothes, so these do not accidentally catch the eyes of journalists."
Source: Russia Beyond the Headlines

In 2015, Putin was photographed working out with Russian Prime Minister Dimitri Medvedev. Quartz reported that his Loro Piana silk and cashmere-blend sweatpants cost $1,425. Putin teamed this with a matching top, making the outfit cost a whopping $3,200 in total.

In 2007, ex-Kremlin official Stanislav Belkovsky claimed that Putin had a $40 billion fortune hidden away in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. At the time, that would have made him the fourth wealthiest person in the world, between business magnate Carlos Slim and late IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad.

Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool Photo via AP
Source: TIME, Forbes

At the time, Belkovsy said Putin secretly controlled 37% of the shares of Surgutneftegaz and 4.5% of Gazprom, two giant Russian oil companies. He also said he controlled "at least 75%" of Swiss oil trader Gunvor, the Guardian reported, but added, "I suspect there are some businesses I know nothing about." Gunvor has refuted these claims, however. "President Putin does not and never has had any ownership, beneficial or otherwise in Gunvor," a Gunvor spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider. "He is not a beneficiary of Gunvor or its activities."

Estimates of Putin's net worth have only risen over time. Browder, the CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, believes that Putin has access to a secret fortune of $200 billion. Browder had invested in Russia in the 1990s, but ultimately came into conflict with Putin.

Bill Browder.Getty Images/ AFP/ Bertrand Guay
Source: Fortune, The Washington Post

After Browder's lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was jailed and brutally killed while investigation corruption, Browder advocated for the passage of the "Magnitsky Act" in 2012, leading to US sanctions against Russian oligarchs.

Sergei Magnitsky.Wikimedia Commons
Source: Fortune, The Washington Post

Putin's inner circle is actually the reason why no one can seem to pin down Putin's exact worth with any certainty. The Guardian reported that in 2010, "US diplomatic cables suggested Putin held his wealth via proxies," including his best friend Sergei Roldugin and banker Yuri Kovalchuk.

Source: "The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin," The Guardian

Some of those connections were exposed in the 2015 Panama Papers. The massive leak didn't include any files directly pertaining to Putin, but they did reveal that "his friends have earned millions from deals that seemingly could not have been secured without his patronage," the Guardian reported.

Source: The Guardian

Russian journalists Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan have said that, as a result, the Panama Papers leak was "seen as an attack on personal friends of Putin, his immediate circle." But Putin and the Kremlin have denied allegations that he's used his role to enrich himself and his friends.

Source: The Washington Post, “"The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia's Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries"

Myers wrote that the Russian leader said, "I am the wealthiest man, not just in Europe but in the whole world: I collect emotions. I am wealthy in that the people of Russia have twice entrusted me with the leadership of a great nation such as Russia. I believe that is my greatest wealth."

Source: "The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin"

The repeated rebuttals have done nothing to dispel the scrutiny on Putin's alleged riches. "In a country where 20  million people can barely make ends meet, the luxurious life of the president is a brazen and cynical challenge to society from a high-handed potentate," Nemstov wrote in one 2012 white paper. The politician, a longtime and vocal critic of Putin, was assassinated in 2015.

Boris Nemtsov.Alex Wong / Getty Images
Source: The Telegraph

 

[Yongpeng Sun-Tastaufen]

Putin is tsar. All of Russia belongs to Putin. I would say trillions if not quadrillions.

 

[Hakikat ve Hikmet]

#FakeNews

 

[polanski]

#FakeNews

Pictures don't lie.

 

[T-Rex]

Putin is tsar. All of Russia belongs to Putin. I would say trillions if not quadrillions.

This is one of the few sensible posts from you.

#FakeNews

Sarcasm at its best!

 

[Skull and Bones]

Putin is a connoisseur of watches. We have similar taste, only difference is I cannot afford his timepieces.

 

[Jinn Baba]

Putin is rich until he is in power. The day he loses that power, he will probably lose all his wealth and may be even his life.

 

[Yongpeng Sun-Tastaufen]

Putin is rich until he is in power. The day he loses that power, he will probably lose all his wealth and may be even his life.

USSR reborn?

 

[oprih]

Putin own america too, trump is Putin's bitch.

 

[Yaseen1]

If it is true then it is indication of corruption as we should look whether he was so wealthy or not before coming to power

 

[polanski]

Russia's Navalny Claims Medvedev Tied To 'Secret' Property Empire In New Investigation
March 02, 2017 17:23 GMT

• Tom Balmforth

The investigation was quickly dismissed by Dmitry Medvedev's office as political bluster and "propaganda."

MOSCOW -- Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has long styled himself as a liberal-leaning lawyer who loathes corruption, having launched an initiative to combat rampant graft in 2008 -- one of his first acts as president during his four-year stint in the Kremlin.

But now Medvedev is taking fresh fire on the issue from opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, who is accusing the former president of being one of Russia's richest men and one of its "most corrupt" bureaucrats.

In Navalny's latest investigation, released online on March 2 and delivered in his trademark caustic style, the Kremlin opponent accuses Medvedev of using an array of charity and nonprofit organizations to collect donations from oligarchs and state banks and then redirecting the funds to purchase pricey assets.

Navalny called these donations naked bribes. "The only recipients of this 'help' are Medvedev and his family," he said.

The report, accompanied by an explanatory video, alleges that at least 70 billion rubles ($1.2 billion) in funds and assets have been transferred to organizations controlled by people close to Medvedev. It claims that this alleged empire includes palaces, elite residences, estates, yachts, and vineyards in Russia and abroad.

"The real owner of the assets is almost impossible to trace because by being registered to charity foundations, they essentially belong to no one. Medvedev's property is managed by his friends, schoolmates, and trusted people," Navalny alleges in the investigation.

He called Medvedev "one of the richest people in the country and one of the most corrupt bureaucrats."

The investigation was quickly dismissed by Medvedev's office as political bluster and "propaganda."

'Nothing To Do With Charity'

Citing public property records, the investigation alleges that Alisher Usmanov, a billionaire with deep connections in Russia's ruling elite, donated a property in the wealthy Rublyovka village outside Moscow worth 5 billion rubles ($85 million) to a nonprofit fund for state social projects reportedly led by two former university classmates of Medvedev.

"This fund has nothing to do with charity," Navalny said.

Usmanov had not responded publicly to the report as of March 2, and the respected Russian daily RBK reported that his company, Metalloinvest, declined to comment when reached by the newspaper.

The investigation did not uncover any assets linked on paper to Medvedev. Navalny alleges that the organizations cited in the report are managed by people close to Medvedev who oversee "personal" property for the prime minister.

Navalny drew attention to properties that include a vineyard in the Black Sea town of Anapa and one in Italy's Tuscany region; a residence in the western Kursk region; a dacha in the central Ivanovo region investigated by Navalny in September; an estate in Rublyokva; a house in Krasnaya Polyana near Sochi; a house in St. Petersburg; and two plots of land on the Black Sea.

The investigation comes as Navalny tries to raise his profile in order to take part in the 2018 presidential election despite his conviction last month on embezzlement charges that he and his followers say were trumped up to eliminate him from the race.

Medvedev's spokeswoman, Natalya Timakova, said on March 2 that the investigation looked "distinctly like election campaigning" and that commenting on "propaganda attacks" by a convicted man was "pointless," the Interfax news agency reported.

The allegations were reported in several influential newspapers and online news portals, but were ignored by most pro-Kremlin media. As the investigation circulated widely on social media, state news agencies on March 2 reported Medvedev's message of support to farmers that the trade embargo on European Union produce is here to stay.

Navalny rose to prominence during antigovernment protests over allegations of parliamentary election fraud in 2011, and he has emerged as the de facto opposition leader. He carved out an online following as a slick social-media operator and by harrying President Vladimir Putin's allies, whom he has accused of corruption in a series of hard-hitting investigations.

In December, Navalny announced his bid to run for president next year, although the authorities consider him to be barred from the race after he received a suspended sentence last month. He has said he intends to run anyway and has been drawing attention by opening regional election-campaign offices.

A recent poll by the independent Levada Center found that the percentage of Russians prepared to vote for Navalny had fallen from 33 percent in 2011 to around 10 percent this year.

In liberal opposition circles, reactions to the investigation ranged from praise to downbeat skepticism

Roman Dobrokhotov, a journalist and former opposition activist, suggested the investigation might indeed land a blow to Medvedev, but that it could lead to him getting replaced by someone with a tougher reputation, such as Putin's longtime close associate, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin.

"Now Putin is like: Medvedev has lost my trust, I'll replace him with Sechin. Enjoy," Dobrokhotov wrote on Twitter.

 

[vostok]

Every American billionaire pays Putin personal tribute - 100 mln dollars per year. And if he has more then 10 billions - he pays 1 billion dollars per year.
They say Putin owns Jupiter and Saturn and is going to buy the Moon and Venus before retirement.