Instead of a striptease room and a casino, Putin’s palace has a personal church with a throne

After 2023 At the beginning of the renovation of the palace, the church got the room where the cars and steam locomotive were parked according to the previous plan. Now the walls of this room are decorated with crosses, and the altar is equipped with a completely atypical set of icons, said two art historians and an iconographer.

Usually, the triptych consists of icons of the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ and John the Baptist or Nicholas the Wonderworker. But in the palace, the third was the icon of the holy prince Vladimir. This may mean that the owner placed an image of his heavenly patron, Archbishop Andrey Kordochkin told Projekt portal (Projekt only provided the expert with a photo of the triptych, but did not specify where exactly it is).

A. Kordočkinas made the assumption that the owner of the triptych is not married – otherwise the patrons of both spouses would be on the triptych.

Another detail is that there is a throne in the church. It is either intended for a high-ranking church hierarch, or the church owner has a good enough opinion of himself, claims A. Kordočkinas.

Western materials were used for decoration

Western brands were used during the reconstruction of Putin’s palace near Gelendzhik. Among them were Germany’s Knauf and Finland’s Tikkurila, and luxury furniture from exclusive Italian brands. Representatives of at least one Western company were able to communicate with the contractors in Gelendzhik, that is, they knew how and for whom their products were used, according to a new study about V. Putin’s palace.

According to the working documents of the palace examined by the portal Projekt, the German company Knauf was the main supplier of finishing materials such as plasterboard sheets and putty. The interlocutor of “Projekt” claims that representatives of “Knauf” visited V. Putin’s palace many times before the completion of the works.

As can be seen from the documents, interior paint from the Finnish company “Tikkurila”, finishing putty, moisture-insulating primer, wallpaper from the French company “Ananbo” were used for finishing works.

Plumbing equipment was mainly from German manufacturers Jorger, Tesé, Emco and Hansgrohe, but also used Italian brands Gessi and Vismara Vetro, Swiss Geberit and Laufen, Japanese Omoikiri ” the company’s production, the researchers announce.

Accessories, particularly door handles, were supplied by Colombo Design from Italy and Sherle Wagner International from the US.

Osram, Belgium’s Modular, Italy’s Flos, Spain’s Mantra and Aromas del Campo LED lights, ceiling and recessed lights were used to light the palace.

The most expensive lighting elements were chandeliers, lamps and floor lamps. They were supplied by French companies Baguès and Baccarat, British company Vaughan, Italian companies Arizz, Estro&Luminara and Il Paralume Marina. For example, one reading room alone has two Baccarat chandeliers and six lamps for 106 million. rubles (1 million euros). Each chandelier cost 48 million. rubles.

The “Projekt” portal sent requests to the main suppliers of materials for the palace. By the time the investigation was published, only Gebberit had provided a response, which said that since the start of the war it had “severely reduced its activities in Russia” and stopped sales in that country, but had no means of preventing the supply of its products from third countries.

in 2024 In early April, Knauf found itself at the epicenter of a scandal when the German television channel ARD showed a report stating that the company was carrying out the reconstruction of residential buildings in occupied Mariupol on behalf of the Ministry of Defense. At the time, Knauf said it had no contracts to supply its products directly to consumers in Russia and could not be responsible for the many merchants supplying its products to that country, but decided to divest itself of the Russian business anyway.

The Finnish company “Tikkurila” has also been planning to withdraw from Russia for a long time, and in 2024 stated at the beginning that he could not sell his business in Russia.

Read more about the latest investigation into the Russian president’s residence HERE in Russian.