The luxurious Black Sea palace of Russian President Vladimir Putin has its own ice rink, greenhouse and church. Newly released documents show another convenience Putin had built: a secret bunker under the palace where he can hide for weeks at a time. Even a chemical attack wouldn’t threaten him.
The existence of tunnels under Russian President Putin’s palace was already reported two years ago by the oppositionist Alexei Navalny. He published not only the news that the palace belongs to the president, but also the interior of the secret complex.
The American server Insider now comes with detailed drawings of the tunnels located under the palace. Two separate tunnels, 40 and 60 meters long and six meters wide, began to be created more than ten years ago. It offers 603 square meters of living space and is connected by an elevator that goes up to 50 meters underground.
The tunnels have six ventilation shafts to ensure sufficient fresh air access, pipes with drinking water lead into them, and contain a fire protection system and sewage system.
Here’s a diagram from a report by me and @carrierana22showing an underground tunnel complex beneath Putin’s Black Sea palace.
Waaay too many racks for conduit, which suggests the tunnel was intended to serve as an emergency comms/power network in the event of an attack… pic.twitter.com/ek2Ov8hFZN
— Mattathias Schwartz (@Schwartzesque) May 17, 2023
In one of the tunnels, there is also a substation enabling communication, light control and electricity service. “It’s too many cables for a tunnel. It could be some kind of backup system for the entire palace complex,” thinks engineer Thaddeus Gabryszewski, who was given the plans of the bunker by the server to view.
The walls of the underground structure are made of strong concrete and the exits from them lead towards the beach below the palace. The tunnel also has all possible safety features, Gabryszewski describes. “It is intended for someone who wants to survive or escape,” he explains, adding that the bunker can withstand a chemical attack thanks to a system of ventilation shafts. It is not clear from the drawings whether it would survive a nuclear attack. The Kremlin did not comment on the report.
Plans from the diggers
The bunker drawings for the Russian president himself would be expected to be top secret. At the same time, they have been available to anyone for the past six years. Metro Style, the company that built the tunnels, published them on its website. She just didn’t deliver for whom.
The website stated that it was a “complex underground structure for a guest house in the city of Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Region”. Putin’s palace actually stands near this city.
Yet the proposals escaped media attention. They were noticed only by the Moscow subculture of diggers, who go to forbidden places and document them. “We are tired of Putin’s stupid face and want to point out his paranoid underground tunnels,” the group explained why they were sharing the material. He hopes this will help “bring the end of the regime closer”.
Schemes of “Putin’s Black Sea Bunker” in Gelendzhik were shown by Business Insider.
The plans show two complex tunnels running under the palace complex. The palace and underground structures are connected by an elevator that descends to a depth of approximately 50 m.
The tunnels… pic.twitter.com/43EmvrWgiV
— Feher_Junior (@Feher_Junior) May 17, 2023
A long preparation for the conflict
Having shelters and bunkers is not unusual for political leaders of nuclear powers – for example, the US president has a bunker under the White House and under the Mount Weather complex in Virginia. However, the Black Sea shelter is different in that it was not built for Russian presidents, but only for Putin with his private money.
“Putin is very nervous because he’s not quite the legitimate leader of Russia,” says Michael C. Kimmage, who previously worked for the US State Department, focusing on Russia and Ukraine. “He knows that his legitimacy is not guaranteed by elections, so he tries to strengthen his personal security through a network of highly secured residences,” he believes.
These are often located far from Moscow – the aforementioned palace is 1,600 kilometers from the capital. According to Kimmage, because earlier revolts against Russian leaders took place in Moscow. “That’s why the Black Sea tunnel system makes sense,” he thinks. “Even without an active threat, (Putin) fears this option.”
In addition, the former American official points out that Putin commissioned the construction of the bunker thirteen or fourteen years ago, when Russia was officially trying to improve relations with the West. According to him, this means that the Russian president has been preparing for a possible conflict for a long time. “Putin knows he’s on top of a volcano. He doesn’t seem crazy enough to start a nuclear conflict. He has grandchildren. But he’s been on the edge for a long time. These tunnels and the bunker are part of that.”
Video: View of Putin’s palace published by opposition leader Alexei Navalny (December 6, 2022)
Alleged Putin’s palace on Alexei Navalny’s footage. | Video: Aktuálně.cz/Youtube/ Алексей Навальный
