Start of construction (2005) On 10 June 2005, an investment agreement was concluded between the Presidential Property Management Department of Russia, FSUE "Tuapse Holiday House", OAO "Lirus", and FSUE "Enterprise for the Supply of Products" of the Presidential Property Management Department of Russia for the construction of a "boarding house in the area of the village of Praskoveevka, Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai". The subject of this agreement was the construction of a facility on a 740,000 m² plot of land. The project's investor, the Lirus company, was to invest at least 400 million rubles in the construction. The project was scheduled for completion in 2008, after which 30% of the total area was to be transferred to the Presidential Property Management Department, and 70% to the investor. Under an addendum dated 10 November 2008, to the previously concluded agreement, the client-developer became the FGU "Military Unit 1473" of the Federal Protective Service (FSO). As early as November of the same year, the first reports of construction starting on Cape Idokopas appeared in the press. The fence and the construction site that appeared there for a "year-round children's camp," a facility of the FSUE "Dagomys" of the Presidential Property Management Department of the Russian Federation, also attracted the attention of eco-activists.
Kolesnikov's letter (2010) and Reuters investigation (2014) In December 2010, a letter about corruption addressed to Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev appeared online in Russian and English, authored by St. Petersburg businessman
Sergey Kolesnikov. The letter alleged that a "recreation complex" was being built on the Black Sea coast since 2005 for the personal use of
Vladimir Putin, with a cost that, according to the author, had reached 1 billion US dollars. Kolesnikov stated that he wrote the letter so that "the Russian people and the president would know the truth," and awaited a reaction from Dmitry Medvedev, which never came. In the letter to Medvedev and later in an interview with the
RTVI television channel and other media, Kolesnikov revealed the financing scheme for the residence's construction. According to Kolesnikov, in 1992, with Putin's involvement, the company "Petromed" was created, which dealt with healthcare projects and of which the letter's author himself was a shareholder. After Putin became president, his friend, businessman
Nikolai Shamalov (who, along with Putin, was a co-founder of the
Ozero cooperative) came to the company. Shamalov "offered a number of prospects" on the condition that 35% of the income be transferred to foreign accounts. One of Rosinvest's projects, personally supervised by Shamalov, was the construction of "Putin's palace". In the documents, Shamalov was listed as the owner of the palace under construction, and of the high-ranking officials, only the name of
Vladimir Kozhin, who at the time held the post of head of the
Presidential Property Management Department, appeared in the documents. In 2009, all facilities and land under "Project South" were transferred to the ownership of the private company "Indokopas", which was owned by Shamalov. Nevertheless, despite the allegedly private nature of the project, the palace construction was carried out by
Spetsstroy, and the project was supervised, guarded, and all design requirements were issued by the
Federal Protective Service (FSO). According to Sergey Kolesnikov, Vladimir Putin remained the real owner of this offshore company. Ponomarenko paid the formal owners of the palace only about 10 million rubles, and after the sale, their controlled companies continued to manage the residence. In the autumn of 2011, Alexander Ponomarenko began leasing several facilities within the complex: a service house, an administrative building, and rooms in the main house. The total area of the leased premises was about 7,700 m², and the rental price reached a record 35 million rubles per month. The lessee was the
Federal Agency for Special Construction. According to Ponomarenko, he exited the project in March 2016.
Mold infestation (2017–2018) In February 2021,
BBC News Russian published an anonymous interview with several employees who had worked at the residence at different times. According to them, in 2017–2018,
mold appeared in the palace, affecting the entire building—both rooms and basement areas, mainly on the walls and ceilings. According to the workers, the palace's finishing was done using false walls: metal guides were attached to the concrete wall, which was covered with plaster, and these were then sheathed with drywall sheets, onto which the expensive finishing was applied. Mold filled the space between the false wall and the main wall and was discovered when a piece of plaster fell off near the pool (according to another version, part of the false wall was opened for cosmetic repairs). According to the workers' assumption, the mold appeared due to high humidity and the lack of a proper ventilation system. This version was also considered plausible by the building's architect, Lanfranco Cirillo, in a conversation with the BBC. According to other versions, the cause could have been poor basement waterproofing and water ingress from the outside. Economist and sociologist
Vladislav Inozemtsev called Rotenberg's statement "ridiculous and unconvincing". Inozemtsev believes that the presence of state security and a no-fly zone indicates that the facility actually belongs to the highest officials of Russia. It does not matter who owns the palace on paper. Inozemtsev is confident that the facility does not belong to Arkady Rotenberg even formally, since no documents were presented. Journalists from the online publication "Meduza" found that it is very difficult to confirm Rotenberg's ownership through documents. The residence is owned by the St. Petersburg firm "Binom". According to SPARK, the firm was formally established by Alexander Ponomarenko, and its owners are unnamed Russian citizens. Ponomarenko, however, stated that he had no relation to the residence since 2016. At the same time, "Binom" is connected to a group of companies which, in turn, are linked to Y. Kovalchuk. The journalists note that Kovalchuk may also be connected with the purchase for 1.2 billion rubles of another residence, presumably for Putin, — Brezhnev's dacha "Glitsiniya" in Crimea. Workers who had been in the palace told the BBC that the aparthotel was a new concept they only learned about from the news of Rotenberg's statements, whose name they had not heard in connection with the palace before. According to them, the palace served a different function: it was no secret to any of them that they were working at "Putin's palace". At the same time, one of the workers who visited the site in 2020 reported that partitions for bathrooms, like in hotel rooms, were being installed in almost all rooms. ==Ownership==