Global Courant 2023-05-22 10:26:46
An aerial photo taken on June 8, 2021 shows Lake Saimaa in Puumala, Finland.ALESSANDRO RAMPAZZO/AFP via Getty Images
A $3.2 million fisherman’s villa built for Vladimir Putin stands abandoned in Finland, That reports the Insider.
The luxurious property has three floors, a wine cellar, sauna and elevator, but was never completed.
A friend built it for Putin, but stopped when he realized the leader wasn’t fond of Finnish fishing, according to The Insider.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has a multimillion-dollar fishing villa in Finland waiting for him, but he will probably never use it.
The abandoned holiday home, located on the coast of Lake Saimaa in southeastern Finland, was built for Putin at a cost of some $3.2 million, according to a close friend. Russian independent outlet The Insider, who has no affiliation with Insider.
The three-story villa features an elevator, wine cellar, underground garage, sauna, personal pool, billiard room, office and eight restrooms, The Insider reported, citing a master plan of the house.
But it was never completed, according to the outlet’s reporter Sergey Kanev.
A video released Thursday showed Kanev entering the empty house through an open door.
Inside, he found scaffolding, piles of building materials, tiles, a ladder, cables, refrigerators, and an uninstalled bathtub.
“Don’t touch these boxes without my permission!” reads a message in Russian on a cardboard box.
The construction industry had many problems, with construction crews having to be changed regularly as they continued to give up wages and working conditions, The Insider reported. Some Finnish workers also refused to work on the house, according to the outlet.
The villa was financed by Victor Khmarin, an old classmate of Putin’s at Leningrad State University who now lobbies for the Russian leader, according to The Insider. They went dancing together in college and were wrestling buddies, the outlet added.
Now Khmarin is the general manager of the largest hydroelectricity company in Russia and is married to Putin’s cousin, according to Forbes.
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Khmarin had built the Finnish cottage in an effort to get Putin to spend more time with him, the outlet said.
The lobbyist paid about $541,000 for the main house, $216,000 for a security house, $432,000 for construction materials and additional costs for wooden bridges, trails, a fisherman’s house and other amenities, according to The Insider.
It’s unclear exactly when construction took place, but according to The Insider, it was before July 2017.
That was when Putin arrived in the nearby city of Savonlinna, where he met the then President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö.
During Putin’s meeting, a Khmarin aide arrived at the villa and told construction workers to stop, according to The Insider, who quoted a source in Russia’s security services. He said Putin was no longer interested in fishing in Finland.
Khmarin later wrote the house off as a loss after he was unable to find a buyer, according to the outlet.
The reported location of Khmarin’s fishing villa puts it close to the Villa Segren, another property in the Gulf of Finland that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny claimed is used by Putin as a vacation retreat.
Lake Saimaa is close to Finland’s border with Russia.Screenshot/Google Maps
According to drone footage posted by Navalny in 2017there is also a pier and helipad on the grounds of the mansion.
The Kremlin’s press office did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment, which was sent outside of regular business hours.
Read the original article Business Insider
