Putin Money

Is Putin worth $200 billion? Putin has left almost no paper trail for his assets — mostly property — which are hidden behind complex financial schemes organized by his confidantes, according to a 2016 “Panama Papers” report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Among the luxuries that have been linked to Putin’s friends and family, but never directly to him, are a $100 million mega-yacht and a Black Sea palace allegedly built for Putin’s personal use.

On paper, the Russian leader looks like a humble bureaucrat. In 2018, Putin submitted an official income declaration that shows he owns an 800-square-foot apartment in St. Petersburg, along with two Soviet-era cars and an off-road truck. The Kremlin says his annual income is about $140,000 — not an immodest figure in Russia, though hardly one that could keep Putin sporting his rotation of luxury watches.

“Putin’s visible watch collection is worth multiples of his official salary,” Bill Browder, an investor in Russia who became a fierce critic of Putin, told CNN in 2018. “The wealth came as a result of extortion and massive theft from state funds.”