Inside Vladimir Putin's luxe apartment at the Kremlin
Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered a glimpse inside his luxurious living quarters for the first time in an interview recorded for state media.
Taking some time away from overseeing his ongoing war with Ukraine, Mr Putin has recently shown a reporter and TV camera inside his private residence.
In footage shared to Telegram by VGTRK host Pavel Zarubin, the Russian dictator is seen smiling as he invites the news crew into the immaculate suite.
'This is, in fact, an apartment?' the reporter asks outside the door.
'Yes this is an apartment. As you can see it's not far,' Mr Putin, his comments translated into English, says.
The footage shared to Telegram, understood to be a snippet of a longer broadcast to be released this month, featured a clip from a 2023 propaganda program with Mr Putin.
In that he spoke about negotiating with Chinese counterpart and 'friend' Xi Jinping inside the private wing.
'I have an apartment here (at the Kremlin), where I have been spending a lot of time lately, I work here and spend the night very often, so we moved there and, sitting by the fireplace and drinking tea, talked about everything slowly,' he said at the time.
During his sit-down with Mr Putin, said to have been recorded this year, Zarubin asked 'if it is possible to see, for our program, this apartment where you went through these changes, please'.
The men were then seen outside the white and gold doors before the Russian leader opened them up and walked inside.
There was only a few seconds' worth of insight into the room but it featured plush couches, a rug, lavish curtains and a white piano in one corner.
A portrait of Russian Emperor Alexander III sat on a marble benchtop framed by a large mirror along the left-hand wall.
Another clip appears to show Mr Putin and the news crew spoke in the room for a period before moving to a gilt private church in a room off the apartment.
The digs pale in comparison to the billion-dollar mansion Mr Putin owns on the Black Sea near the resort town of Gelendzhik.
Dubbed 'Putin's Palace', it sits on about 50 acres and floorplans suggest it contained a wine cave, theatre, gym, pool, and hockey rink.
The palace's existence was brought to widespread publicity in a documentary released by former Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2021.
Mr Navalny, who was committed to exposing corruption in the Kremlin, had survived an assassination attempt in 2020 and fled the country.
After returning to Russia in 2021 he was soon arrested and jailed for embezzlement and contempt of court – after what was labelled a sham trial.
He died in an Arctic Circle prison last year, with the official cause of death recorded as 'combined disease' by Russian authorities.
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