Jailed Russian critic Alexei Navalny released a video accusing Putin of secretly building a $1 billion coastal palace funded through bribes

• Russian President Vladimir Putin built a private palace with $1 billion raised through corruption, according to a new video from Alexei Navalny's foundation.
• The palace measures 17,691 square meters and is located on the Black Sea, the FBK foundation said, adding that Putin funded it via a bribes-for-access scheme.
• Navalny was arrested upon arrival in Russia on Sunday. He was returning home after an attempted assassination attempt last August.

Alexei Navalny, the arch-critic of Vladimir Putin, has accused the Russian president of building a secret $1 billion coastal palace funded through a bribes-for-access scheme.

Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) on Tuesday released an extensive report and a nearly two-hour-long video starring Navalny about a palace built near Gelendzhik on the Black Sea.

The FBK said its report is based on interviews with contractors, blueprints, and publicly-accessible documents. The Kremlin has dismissed the report as "pure nonsense."

Earlier that week Navalny was remanded in custody for 30 days after being arrested upon arrival in Russia on Sunday. He had been returning for the first time since an August 2020 poisoning attempt on his life.

Navalny has accused Putin of ordering the hit, and a separate investigation by a consortium of journalists found that the hit was carried out by agents of Russia's FSB security agency.

In the Tuesday video, the FBK said that Putin had been building in secret the 17,691-square-meter palace since at least 2014.

Watch the full report here. It is in Russian but available with English subtitles.

Russian presidents have an official residence on the Black Sea called Bocharov Ruchey, which is located 155 miles south near the city of Sochi.

However the Gelendzhik palace is Putin's very own, the FBK said.

"This isn't a country house, it's not a cottage, it's not a residence - it's an entire city, or rather a kingdom," Navalny said in the video report.

Citing blueprints, official documents, and aerial photographs, the FBK said the palace and grounds have impregnable fences, a port, a church, a no-fly zone, its own border checkpoint, a wine cave, theater, gym, pool, an "aquadisco," and an ice hockey rink.

"It's like a separate state inside of Russia. And in this state there is a single and irreplaceable tsar. Putin," Navalny said.

The FBK said that the palace cost 100 billion rubles ($1.35 billion) and was funded via a corruption scheme in which Putin's inner circle paid the president for access and influence.

Work on the palace has been conducted in utmost secrecy, the FBK said.

"Thousands of people working there are forbidden to bring even a simple mobile phone with a camera," the report said.

"Arriving cars are inspected at several checkpoints, with the help of mirrors and video cameras. Trunk racks and glove compartments are searched."

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Navalny's report as "pure nonsense" on Wednesday.

"These are all absolutely unfounded statements. This is pure nonsense and a compilation, and there is nothing else there," Peskov told reporters, according to the state-run Interfax news agency.

He said the palace had "nothing to do with either the president or the Kremlin," adding: "Therefore, we do not have the slightest desire to get interested in this."

Navalny and his anti-corruption foundation have been a thorn in Putin's side for years.

Russian authorities have regularly tried with some success to shutter the foundation, and accused Navalny of fraud in an attempt to silence him.