Putin's Palace: History of World's Largest Bribe

In August 2020, on the order of Vladimir Putin, Navalny was poisoned with “Novichok” chemical warfare agent

He survived, came back to Russia and was arrested right at the airport.

On August 18, 2021, the court unlawfully arrested Alexey Navalny and sent him to “Matrosskaya Tishina” prison

For many years, navalny has been fighting for our rights. Now it’s our time to fight for him.

January 23, 14:00. Central streets of your cities. Take to the streets. Don’t stand aside.

Hi, it’s Navalny.

We came up with this investigation when I was in intensive care, but we immediately agreed

that we would release it when I returned home, to Russia, to Moscow,

because we do not want the main character of this film to think

that we are afraid of him and that I will tell about his worst secret while abroad.

One of these viewers is the most devoted admirer of our work,

on whose orders I was poisoned, is Vladimir Putin.

He is definitely watching this now, and his heart is filling with nostalgia.

This is not only an investigation, but also, in a sense, a psychological portrait.

I really want to understand how an ordinary Soviet officer turned into a madman

who is obsessed with money and luxury and literally ready

to destroy the country and kill for the sake of his chests of gold.

That’s why this is a very symbolic place to start our film.

I am in Dresden, and this inconspicuous panel building is where first corruption schemes

were drawn by those who would later arrange the biggest robbery in the history of Russia.

They will simply steal all the national wealth.

Their leader, 33-year-old Volodya Putin, the future richest man in the world, lived here.

In those days, everything was simple and the level of his atrocities

roughly corresponded to the level of this building.

Vladimir Vladimirovich was occupied with how, using his official position,

to get hold of a good imported radio tape recorder.

But in principle, neither his methods nor his circle of proxies have changed.

It’s just that before, they were interested in radio tape recorders, and now - in huge state enterprises.

They sat at ceremonial events and read speeches.

It’s just that in those days, they praised grandfather Lenin

and swore allegiance to the ideals of communism,

but now they cross themselves in churches and teach us spirituality and conservatism.

Today we will see what is considered impossible to see up close.

We will go where no one is allowed. We will pay Putin a visit and see with our own eyes

that this man, in his craving for luxury and wealth, has gone completely mad.

We will find out how and with whose money this luxury is financed.

And how, over the past 15 years, the biggest bribe in history is being given

and the most expensive palace in the world is being built.

Palace for Putin

Putin, a petty KGB officer who now masquerades as a great spy, came to Dresden in 1985.

He wants us to think of him as a cool infiltrator.

But in fact, he was an ordinary employee not even of a secret residency,

but of the official representative office of the KGB in East Germany, a friend of the Soviet Union.

Today's court propagandists love to romanticize that period of Putin's life,

claiming that he infiltrated the enemy's lair.

In fact, this building was a warm place, where a bunch of idlers like Putin

sat at party meetings and awarded each other with mementos. Just like they do now.

November 21, 1987. Suited-up Putin, believe it or not, at the brothers-in-arms ball.

The event is dedicated to the friendship between the KGB and the Stasi,

the great October revolution, and the inevitable victory of socialism throughout the world.

On this day, Putin was presented with an award, a golden badge,

as a symbol of friendship between Germany and the Soviet Union.

Friendship with the Soviet Union became the need of the heart of every citizen of the GDR

Now this “valuable” can be purchased on the Internet for 3 euros.

Throughout the evening, Putin and his colleagues read long speeches, drank Soviet cognac,

watched slides and trembled with pride and loyalty to the ideas of Marxism-Leninism.

In less than two years, not a trace of all this will remain. The Berlin Wall will be destroyed.

East Germany, along with the Stasi and KGB offices, will cease to exist.

The system built on lies and repression collapsed,

but left behind one very important legacy: its archives.

Alas, despite his dreams and expectations, Putin failed to build a career or get rich in Dresden.

But on the other hand, he met with the people who would later become his main wallets.

I’ve now put on white gloves and am aided by David Schraven, head of Correctiv.

Here is Putin's case file, let’s study it.

We have already seen this photo. Vladimir Putin receives a golden badge.

But not everyone noticed this gentleman.

And this is none other than Sergei Viktorovich Chemezov,

now the head of the Rostec corporation. He served alongside Putin.

So, in this photo, we see two of the richest people in Russia.

Well, Putin is probably the richest man in the world,

and Chemezov is definitely one of the five richest people in our country.

After 30 years, he is still around, but already as a billionaire civil servant.

It's peculiar how carefully the Germans recorded everything. Typical Germans…

Here is the program of the evening, and it is written that at 6 pm

a special toast will be pronounced in honor of the representatives of the host country,

and everyone will be given ein Glas sowjetischen Kognaks, a glass of Soviet cognac.

Further on, they make all sorts of solemn speeches, praise Comrade Lenin, praise socialism,

give each other souvenirs and, according to the program, no later than 19:45,

Vladimir Vladimirovich begins to dance, because at 19:45 the dances start.

We have two booklets with photographs - this one has been shown repeatedly on TV,

you’ve seen it many times - this is a Stasi ID with the name Vladimir Putin on it.

There is a similar ID with a picture of a very nice person on it.

This is Nikolai Petrovich Tokarev. The man at the head of Transneft.

He, unlike Chemezov, never confirmed his work in the KGB, and in his official biography,

there is a 20-year gap and work in the “mining industry”. Well, we have filled this gap.

The numbers of these IDs differ by one digit.

Here’s another document, a Stasi phone book. It has a section "Comrades/Friends".

Let’s study it. Look, Major Tokarev and Major Chemezov have the same phone numbers.

That is, they literally sat in the same office, and their desks were obviously next to each other.

It was here, in Dresden, that Putin defined his main life principles,

which would later become the basis of the Russian state.

1. Always say one thing and do another.

Lying and hypocrisy are the most effective methods of work.

2. Corruption is the foundation of trust.

Your main friends are those who have been stealing and cheating with you for many years.

3. And the most important thing: There is never too much money.

St. Petersburg

Early 90s, Leningrad.

Think for yourselves how tough a spy Putin was in Dresden,

if, upon returning to Leningrad from the assignment,

he was sent to an unpromising job at Leningrad University.

His old university friend, Nikolai Egorov, also worked there.

This is one of the little-known, but key and most trusted people of Putin.

In the 70s, Egorov and Putin sat at the same desk and were friends.

Along with him, two other Putin’s classmates and closest friends of that time,

Ilgam Ragimov and Viktor Khmarin, were not deprived of his attention either.

Back then, they were united by their passion for martial arts. Let's remember them.

In 1991, the same Yegorov did Putin a favour that changed the life of the future president forever.

He recommended Putin to work in the mayor's office of St. Petersburg

in the committee for external relations.

It is terribly entertaining to recall these pages of Putin's biography now.

After all, he loves to remember how he experienced the collapse of the USSR.

The collapse of the Soviet Union was the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the century

He condemns the 90s, Yeltsinism, democrats and calls everyone around him foreign agents.

I won’t tell you the people that were in charge in the 90s a gang,

but i will note that since then, our social sector and defense industry have completely collapsed.

We’ve lost the defense industry. We’ve practically destroyed the military,

led the country to a civil war, to the bloodbath in Caucasus.

And in those days, Putin took off like greased lightning

to work for one of the main democrats of those times,

the radical critic of the USSR, Anatoly Sobchak.

And so it happened. A man who has dreamed of money all his life has finally got a grasp on this money.

He found himself in a position where there is something to steal. Where bribes are given.

And here, our Vladimir Vladimirovich really showed himself.

The most famous and well researched topic are the export licenses.

Putin was engaged in issuing such licenses to companies that were allowed to sell oil products,

timber, aluminum, copper, cotton (any raw materials) abroad, in exchange for food.

Literally: oil in exchange for sugar and potatoes. Timber in exchange for baby food.

Anatoly Alexandrovich has just told me that 2500 tons of sugar

have just been purchased in Ukraine and prepared for shipment to St. Petersburg.

So, are we coming through now?

Well, let’s not cross the bridge till we come to it

Putin personally distributed licenses. And as it turned out later,

he gave them to shell companies, including those associated with himself and his friends.

The scheme was elementary. The raw materials went abroad,

the bogus companies received money for it, and the products never arrived.

This is our Motherland, the most valuable thing we have.

One of the main places of income for Putin was the seaport.

This place is legendary, it’s one of the symbols of the bandit Petersburg.

In the early 90s, this strategic facility turned into a criminalized territory,

where people got shot, killed, and were constantly dividing something.

The port was controlled by one of the most famous crime bosses of that time -

Ilya Traber, nicknamed Antiquarian.

Bandits be bandits, but all sorts of papers and permits still needed to be signed and executed.

This is what Putin the official was doing. Formally, he represented the interests of the state,

but in fact, he was helping the bandits working in the port.

He served their interests and was a helpful assistant in the mayor's office

who could help real tough guys solve their problems.

Here’s an example. The oil terminal in the port.

Traber was the chairman of the board of directors, another share was controlled

by the head of the Tambov gang, Gennady Petrov.

And Putin, as said by none other than the head of Gazprom Neft, Alexander Dyukov,

who was then the general director of the terminal,

provided the project with "serious help and support."

It is very easy to see who else Putin provided serious support -

oil products were supplied abroad through the terminal by Gennady Timchenko,

the future billionaire, the main trader of Russian oil and one of the most famous “Putin’s friends”.

Their surnames are kind of strange. Timchen-ko. Typical Russkies.

I think I should keep my distance from them

It was then that the story of his super-profitable business, oil trading company Gunvor, began.

When Putin became president, 4 out of 5 of our country's major oil companies

did not sell their oil abroad directly, but through the Swiss intermediary Gunvor.

Thus, Timchenko, without doing anything, earned incredible money.

Throughout the entire existence of Gunvor, it was believed that Putin had a secret share there,

even the US Treasury officially claimed that Putin had access to Gunvor's money.

But it was not clear to whom this share was registered for many years.

And then it was found out. All this time there was a secret shareholder in Gunvor, Pyotr Kolbin.

No one understood where this amazing shareholder came from