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Russia’s rulers since the time of the czars have enjoyed the warm climate on the Black Sea, the palm trees and the Mediterranean ambience. And Vladimir Putin is no exception. He has frequently traveled to Sochi, the traditional health resort in the very south of the country, during his 25 years in office. He has usually spent up to five weeks a year there, mostly in May and early fall. In previous years, he has always resided in the luxurious presidential residence, called Bocharov Ruchey, situated on a hill above the sea.
Where Soviet leaders Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev once relaxed, he has often received state guests and holds government meetings. Photos of meetings with Western leaders such as George W. Bush, Gerhard Schröder and Silvio Berlusconi on the idyllic pier of the residence have gone down in the annals of diplomatic history. A few years ago, Putin even had an exact copy of his Moscow office built into his palace – so he could keep the public in the dark as to where he was at any given time.
It is even more unexpected that Putin suddenly avoids Sochi this year. The last officially shown stop took place in March, when Putin won the post of director of the International Atomic Energy Agency there. However, the assembly did not take place in the central palace complex, but in a nearby convention building.
The online magazine Proekt, a publication of Russian researchers in exile, highlights such oddities for the first time and also uncovers a fact that was once kept secret by the Russian state: the presidential palace of Bocharov Ruchey no longer exists. the land. This can be verified without problems on the Google Maps platform. Where a year ago you could barely see the construction with its red roofs and well-kept park, now there is a huge gap that extends for approximately one hectare.
The satellite symbol used through Google Maps is from May 2024, so the demolition will have to have been positioned before. Lower resolution European Sentinel satellite images suggest the demolition took place in February or March. The fact that this is only now emerging is unexpected and at the same time shows how smart the Putin regime is at keeping facts secret – and how intimidated the country’s media, as well as citizens, are. The demolition paintings may not be completely hidden from attentive local observers, even though the site is surrounded by overhead fences.
The Putin regime has always been secretive about its palaces. The magnificent complex near Gelendzhik, 150 kilometers from Sochi and also built on the Black Sea, has acquired a certain amount of notoriety. It gained fame in 2021 thanks to a film by opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who has since died while incarcerated in a Russian prison. In recent years, it has also come to light that Putin spends a considerable amount of his time at the lavish presidential residence in Valdai, north of Moscow.
However, Sochi is not just any secret retreat. Rather, it is an official residence where Putin has often and gladly shown himself performing his official duties. Accordingly, it seems bizarre that the regime sees no need to justify the destruction of such a facility.
Proekt magazine presented one conceivable explanation for the secrecy, which, if true, would be embarrassing for Putin. Sochi is no longer supposed to be a safe position for the Russian president, and in fact that has not been the case since last year. In September 2023, long-range Ukrainian drones arrived in this town for the first time, traveling at least six hundred kilometers to do so. A fuel tank caught fire and a few days later there was an attack on the Sochi airport heliport. Since this fall, there have been no reports of Putin visiting his beloved city, with one exception.
Proekt journalists claim that Putin is afraid of Ukrainian airstrikes and no longer sits at his residence. The idea is not far-fetched, especially since Putin’s obsession with his personal security is well known. However, this theory cannot yet be proven.
Weighing against the explanation is the fact that the Russian president had already reduced his visits to Sochi before the fall of 2023. Proekt itself points out that Putin had already given up his traditional long vacation on the Black Sea in May of that year. In the past, according to reporting by Russian media critical of the regime, he is said to have celebrated the birthday of his secret romantic partner Alina Kabaeva there. Russian media have reported that he has had several children with Kabaeva. The declining frequency of visits in 2023 may also have been due to security concerns, but that would mean that the Kremlin would have recognized the danger of Ukrainian drone attacks months in advance.
Regardless of these concerns, the question remains as to why Putin is not only avoiding Sochi, but even razed his Black Sea residence to the ground. The fear of drones is not a sufficient explanation. Was there a problem with the building? It was only 10 years ago that Putin had the state palace extensively renovated and extended. A new port facility was subsequently added, and in 2017, a special train station appeared on satellite images at the edge of the site. That enabled Putin to travel directly from Moscow to his southern residence in his armored train, avoiding the riskier air route close to the war zone. Until recently, therefore, there was nothing to suggest that the Kremlin ruler would tire of this place.
It is therefore quite conceivable that Putin has not in fact given up on Sochi. He may not have had his residence demolished out of fear of drones, but because he has commissioned a new, even more opulent complex. As yet, there is no conclusive evidence to support this theory. But a more recent satellite image from September 2024 shows clear signs of new construction activity on the barren site. Several construction machines are in use, and extensive digging appears to be underway.