War and wine: While Russia bleeds money and battles drones, Putin's wine business is booming
theins.ru
The Krinitsa winery, just down the road from Putin's Gelendzhik palace, is estimated to be worth over 27 billion rubles ($330 million), making it Russia's most valuable winemaking operation. Plans are underway to build a wine tourism center there, with three more in the works for other properties near Gelendzhik and in Russian-occupied Crimea. Bank Rossiya — widely known as the «bank of Putin's friends» — is funding the projects. Italian and French experts are helping Putin grow the business, even though his wines never make it to Europe. Instead, they're poured at diplomatic receptions and during rare visits from foreign leaders like Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping. The whole operation loses money — more than 10 billion rubles ($120 million) over its lifetime — but even with Russia facing a budget deficit and recession, the commander-in-chief isn't cutting back on what matters most to him personally. Much of the winemaking empire is registered under the name of Bank Rossiya Chairman Yuri Kovalchuk, who snapped up the assets for a fraction of their actual price.

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Construction of Putin’s infamous Black Sea palace and the surrounding vineyards began in 2005, but the inspiration came two years earlier, when Putin visited the Sardinian Villa Certosa of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. The Russian leader was so taken with it that he hired Berlusconi’s architect, Lanfranco Cirillo, to build him his own — only bigger. Some features, like the amphitheater in classical style, the artificial lake, and the vineyards, were simply copied, while others were adapted to Putin’s taste — the football pitch, for instance, was swapped out in favor of an ice rink. Berlusconi’s estate, with its 48 hectares of vineyards and olive groves, was already considered extravagant for a politician in Italy. Putin, unsurprisingly, decided he needed more: the vineyards on his palace grounds cover 300 hectares.

Even after Alexei Navalny drew widespread public attention to Putin’s palace, the winery business carried on almost unchanged. However, one of the palace estates, Stary Provence, was renamed Krinitsa. In 2023, the Krinitsa winery began welcoming tour groups and remains open to visitors today. Meanwhile, the Usadba Divnomorskoye winery, located west of the palace in the village of Divnomorskoye, remains reserved for a select circle of privileged guests.

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  • verity_kindle@sh.itjust.works
    2·
    5 months ago

    How could the property be worth roughly $330 million USD if it loses $120 million USD each year? I just read Pomerantsev’s “Nothing Is True And Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia”. It was revealing, but I don’t think even that guy could explain the math. Those presses are probably using imported grapes and the vineyards are just for show. It takes many decades to develop a viable vineyard crop and Putin doesn’t have decades. Those presses are producing something dark, but it isn’t juice.