The Foundation for Combating Corruption has found out how billions of rubles remaining with the company "Investment Solutions" after the completion of the construction of "Putin's Palace" in 2023 near Gelendzhik ended up with Alina Kabayeva's fund. The main points from the new investigation are retold by "Novaya Gazeta Europe". Alina Kabayeva. Photo: Sergey Ilyinitsky / EPA. Palace Purchase According to the FBK, billionaire Arkady Rotenberg purchased the palace near Gelendzhik for only 800,000 rubles - known from the investigation "A Palace for Putin". The total land area is 7,000 hectares, and construction took approximately 20 years. The territory has everything: from a temple to a hockey complex and an aqua disco, which generated a considerable number of memes after the investigation was released. "Putin's Palace," "Navalny's Team" reports, was registered to the company "Complex," owned by the firm "Binom," which, in turn, is owned by the company "Investment Solutions." The company's shareholders were long-time acquaintances and partners of Vladimir Putin. The construction financing, it is claimed, was carried out through loans from offshore companies registered in the British Virgin Islands. After the investigation into "Putin's Palace" was released, Rotenberg suddenly announced that he is the beneficiary of the mansion, and according to his plan, the luxurious "palace" was supposed to become an apart-hotel. Despite the billionaire's assertion in January 2021 that he bought the estate several years ago, he only became the owner of the palace on March 31, 2021, the FBK found based on bank transfers. For 800,000 rubles, he bought 100% of the shares of the firm "Binom" from "Investment Solutions" and, consequently, the palace now truly belongs to him. Putin's Palace in Gelendzhik. Photo: FBK. Unspent Billions The FBK analyzed the banking operations of the firm "Investment Solutions" from 2021–2023 and found that it had 6.5 billion rubles left after the completion of the complex's construction in 2023. "On April 4, 2023, the company "Investment Solutions" donated 500 million rubles to Alina Kabayeva's Fund. On November 1 - another 2.5 billion, investigators found; a total of 3 billion. Even more, namely 3.5 billion rubles, according to the FBK, was received by Kabayeva's second fund - "Celestial Grace" - from "Investment Solutions." Fund Expenses What Kabayeva's first fund does is unknown. The last news on their website is dated January 12, 2022 - Alina Kabayeva congratulates everyone on the New Year and Christmas, the FBK noted. From the reports signed by Kabayeva, it is evident that the fund provides assistance to gymnasts, however, only 3.5 million rubles of the received money were spent on this. Another 31 million was spent by the fund on the reconstruction of a temple in Crimea, and 260 million went to the "Alina" rhythmic gymnastics festival. As noted in the investigation, actual expenses for sports constitute only a small portion of the received amounts. A significant part of the money from the palace is placed on bank deposits. In 2024 alone, interest on deposits brought hundreds of millions of rubles. Kabayeva's second fund, over 2 years, spent almost 500 million rubles on another event named after the athlete - the "Celestial Grace" rhythmic gymnastics tournament. And in December 2023, the fund unexpectedly paid over 30 million for products from the Imperial Peterhof Factory. According to the FBK, another part of the funds from the palace construction was spent on organizing sports training camps in Valdai, 1.5 kilometers from Putin's residence, and young gymnasts who practice not rhythmic gymnastics but artistic gymnastics participated in them. As with Alina Kabayeva's fund, the "Celestial Grace" fund keeps the main part of the money received from the palace in deposits. In 2024, they received 435 million rubles in interest from bank deposits. Alina Kabayeva and Vladimir Putin, 2004. Photo: Kremlin / ITAR-TASS / EPA. Comparison with Charitable Organizations The authors of the investigation compare the amounts received by Kabayeva's funds with the budgets of the largest Russian charitable organizations: "Podari Zhizn," "Rusfond," the Habensky Foundation, "Dom s Mayakom," and others. As the FBK notes, the volume of funds transferred from the structure associated with the palace significantly exceeds the annual collections of these funds, which help sick children and those in need. "All of them combined for 2023 collected much less than the change from the palace that went to Alina Kabayeva," the investigators conclude.
