Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied claims by a poisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny that he owned an opulent $ 1 billion palace that was built with fraudulently obtained funds.
The dissident alleged last week in a video that saw some 86 million people that Putin’s allies, including oil chiefs and billionaires, had paid for the $ 1.35 billion construction of the Black Sea Palace .
It is said to have a casino, skating rink and vineyard.
“There is nothing to show up there, as my property belongs to me or my close relatives, and I never did,” Putin told students in a video conference on Monday, the BBC reported.
The strongman called the video “compilation and editing” and said he found it “boring.”
Putin, who was questioned by 20-year-old student Danil Chemezov at a student-marked event, admitted that he did not watch the entire video due to a “shortage of time.” “Take a look at the video selections my assistants brought me,” according to East2West News.
His denial came when two Kremlin guards were fired after attending a large protest against him, the media reported.
Mikhail and Maksim Terekhov, 21-year-old twins, served in a Federal Security Service unit, which is under Putin’s orders, according to BAZA’s online media.
The brothers had gone to Pushkin Square in Moscow on Saturday and then quarreled, with Mikhail leaving after saying it was “dangerous” to stay there.
His brother, who was left behind, was arrested and is expected to appear in court, according to the media.
The two men were reported to have been fired, according to the report.
Putin, meanwhile, said no minor should take part in the pro-Navalny protests, adding that police should also act according to the law, Reuters reported.
No one should try to advance “in their ambitious goals and objectives, especially in politics,” through protests, he said in an apparent reference to Navalny.
The dissident was arrested on January 17 after flying home for the first time since he was poisoned last summer.
The Moscow prison service ordered his arrest in connection with alleged violations of the suspended prison sentence in a case of embezzlement insisting he was deceived.
Navalny fell into a coma while traveling on a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow on 20 August. Two days later, he was transferred from a hospital in Siberia to one in Berlin.