Vladimir Putin has demolished his favourite Black Sea holiday villa, where regular Ukrainian drone attacks have made the area dangerous to visit.
Satellite images published by the Russian opposition website Proekt showed a gaping hole in the ground where Putin’s dacha near Sochi had once stood.
“He has stopped flying to Sochi out of fear for his own life. The president fears drone attacks,” Proekt said in commentary underneath the photos. “The site of the dacha is now a pit.”
Proekt, which is run by Russian journalists living in exile, specialises in investigations into the Kremlin. It published a “before and after” pair of satellite images showing the dacha in May 2023 and May 2024.
In the May 2023 photo, the large red-roofed dacha – typically a summer house for Russians – is clearly visible. It is set slightly back from the Black Sea in sprawling grounds that include several outbuildings.
In the May 2024 photo, the red-roofed dacha has disappeared and has instead been replaced by a sandy-coloured scar that resembles a demolition site. An access track, also a sandy-coloured scar, runs south from the site.
No other buildings have been touched. Foliage around the grounds of the dacha is heavier and denser, suggesting 12 months of growth.
The Telegraph has not independently verified the photos and the Kremlin has not commented.
The dacha, called Bocharov Ruchey, had been considered perhaps Putin’s favourite villa.
Data from the Kremlin showed that he used to spend as many as 37 days a year in the dacha, hosting foreign guests and celebrating birthdays with his secret lover, the Russian gymnast Alina Kabaeva, and their two young sons.
But Ukrainian drones have been striking Sochi with increasing frequency over the past 12 months. This has appears to have spooked Putin, who has only visited Bocharov Ruchey once this year, in March to host Rafael Gossi, head of the UN’s atomic agency.
“Putin last flew to Sochi seven months ago,” a source, described as “being familiar with Putin”, told Proekt. “He even broke a long-standing tradition of coming to Sochi to celebrate Alina’s birthday in May.”
Bocharov Ruchey was built by the Soviet Union as a summer residence for Kremlin leaders. Putin renovated it to suit his opulent “working-from-home” tastes. He likes to blend luxury accommodation where he can relax with family and friends, with heavy-set meeting rooms to host guests and offices with banks of telephones where he can remotely conduct his affairs.
Proekt said that during the Covid pandemic, Putin isolated himself at Bocharov Ruchey, enjoying the temperate Black Sea climate. He even had a copy of his office at his residence in Moscow built in the dacha to give the impression that he was in the Russian capital.
Putin is paranoid about being assassinated and has reduced his travel commitments since he invaded Ukraine in 2022. He prefers to travel by armoured train if possible and has cut air travel.
Another source, described as a” friend of Putin”, told Proekt that Kremlin officials had not been ordered to Bocharov Ruchey this year.
“They discuss it among themselves and are surprised that they have stopped being invited to meetings in Sochi,” he said.
Putin, who turned 72 years old on Monday, has several residences. These include his official residence on the outskirts of Moscow, a secret dacha in occupied Crimea and a holiday home in the Karelia region, near Finland.
One of Putin’s most opulent dachas lies further up the Black Sea coast from Sochi. Dubbed “Putin’s Palace”, this dacha was built in an ornate Italian fashion and includes a hookah bar and cinema.
In May, reports said that a dacha owned by Putin in the remote Altai region had burnt down.
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