Secret dicks, yachts, golden toilets: What is known about Vladimir Putin's wealth

The escalating situation between Ukraine and Russia has turned into the spotlight the wealth of President Valdimir Putin, who, according to some accounts, is the richest man in the world and even has a golden toilet.

Putin, who has been in power in Russia for 17 years, has amassed a vast personal wealth and housing, yacht fleets, cars and even presidential secret palaces worth billions of euros, despite a modest official salary of about 120 thousand euros.

Some reports even suggest he may be the richest man in the world, with more money than Tesla's founder, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos of the Amazon, not that he has declared many of them.

Former Russian government adviser Stanislav Belkovsky recently estimated Putin's wealth was around 61 billion euros, while American defense fund manager

A recent investigation by Forbes researched the theory of how the politician amassed such wealth.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was once believed to be the richest man in Russia with a fortune of more than 13 billion euros, was imprisoned by Putin in 2003 on charges of fraud and tax evasion.

Khodorkovsky, who has always denied the charges, won his money through the ownership of the oil field. He was imprisoned just months after criticising Putin at a meeting, claiming Russia was corrupt.

Browder believes Putin may have used this arrest to negotiate agreements with all other wealthy Russian oligarchs.

The agreement was: You give me 50% of your wealth and I'll let you keep 50% more, Broeder told Forbes.

If you don't, he'll take 100% of your wealth and take you to prison”.

Browder described Putin on the US Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017 as “one of the richest people in the world”.

I appreciate that he has accumulated more than 200 billion euros of illegal profits from these types of operations during his 17 years in power, said Browder.

Another theory is that the Russian leader used nepotism to give favor to his close circle, later collecting money from the enterprises he helped create for them.

Kiril Shamalov, who was married to Putin's daughter, Katerina Tikhonokova, became a billionaire at the age of 34 after being allowed to borrow from the private bank company Gazprombank so he could buy a 17 per cent stake in the Sibur company from one of Putin's companies.

Bloomberg columnist Leonid Bershidsky suggested Putin actually doesn't have much personal wealth, because he doesn't need much.

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“It's enough for Putin to beg off his fingers and state-owned companies to release assets to his friends at convenient prices. A whisper from him, and wealthy private businessmen will participate in the luxury renovation of a presidential residence”.

However, some reports suggest it has more than 160 billion euros in assets, including a personal amount of more than 50 million.

He has used part of this wealth to buy, according to political critic Boris Nemtsov, four yachts, 43 planes, 7,000 cars and 15 helicopters, including a plane with a gold toilet worth about 60 thousand euros.

In the middle of cars is an impregnable fleet, estimated to be worth 169m euros, according to a Newsweek report in 2018.

Nemtsov said Putin even has a collection of hours that totals 600 thousand euros.

One of its yachts -- the ship, about 87m euros called Graceful -- was seen leaving a German port earlier this month before Western sanctions on Russia.

Putin also reportedly owns a mega residence of more than 1.2 billion euros in Gelandzhik on the Black Sea. The opposition leader's team imprisoned Alexei Navally claimed he found thousands of photos of the secret complex.

Among the photos was one that appeared to confirm that there was a stripper pole in the complex.

Also reportedly, there is an underground hockey skating square, a private theatre, a vineyard and giant territory.

The palace also has a marble pool decorated with statues of Greek gods and a wine cellar.

In 2017 it was reported that Putin bought Villa Selgren, a large house built on an island in Vyborg Bay, about 12 miles from the Russian border with Finland, writes the DailyStar, transmertron Klancosova.tv.