Report details 'galley slave' Putin's life of luxury

Russian President Vladimir Putin can take any one of his four state-assigned luxury yachts or 43 jets to rest in his choice of 20 government mansions as he ponders the best way to tackle state affairs. The findings -- brushed off by the Kremlin as self-evident and dismissed as irrelevant even by some strong Putin critics -- come from a report published this week by former liberal cabinet member Boris Nemtsov. The veteran protest leader's pamphlet is titled "The Life of a Galley Slave", citing a phrase Putin himself once used to describe his own work ethic as a younger man. Nemtsov has previously used open sources to skewer Kremlin-linked officials such as the former mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov. The charismatic Solidarity group member used this occasion to deliver a tongue-and-cheek commentary on Putin's $700,000 watch collection and sister yacht to one owned by billionaire tycoon Roman Abramovich. "We decided not to write data about daily belongings such as Putin's suits, shoes and ties -- items that cost tens of thousands of dollars but are a mere pittance compared to the villas, jets, watches and automobiles," said Nemtsov. But the report also raised more serious questions about why the Russian leader needs 20 official residences when his counterpart in the United States, President Barack Obama, has two. "We would note that nine of the residences appeared during the time of Putin's leadership," Nemtsov wrote in a report co-authored by Solidarity member Leonid Martynyuk. Putin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov quickly noted that this information had long been a matter of public record and stressed that Putin himself had never asked for this property. "In fact, he is forced into using many of these things," Peskov told the Kommersant business daily. Even some of Putin's critics agreed. Nemtsov's pamphlet was first published in a top opposition newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, whose website became flooded by sceptical comments from readers who said they expected more serious reporting from its staff. "This clearly says that the property belongs to the state and not to Mr Putin," said one reader who identified himself as Pavel from the southern city of Rostov-on-Don. "I wonder how Nemtsov thinks a head of state should live?" asked another reader who identified himself simply as "kant."