The Russian president said he had “not had the time” to view the 2 hour long investigation, released online by Mr Navalny’s team shortly after the Putin critic’s jailing last week.
Nonetheless, the extracts he had seen represented an obvious attempt to “brainwash” Russians using “ten year old rumours.”
“They decided it was a good time to put things together and brainwash our citizens,” he said. “This is just a compilation, a cut and paste job.”
In a complicated formula, Mr Putin said neither he nor close relatives had ever owned the property. That formula appeared to sidestep the main claim made by Mr Navalny’s team that oligarchs gifted the palace to the president as way of a bribe.
Mr Navalny’s report has already been watched over 85 million times, one reason why the Russian leader felt obliged to make a comment.
Putin Named Russia’s Hottest Man
The thirst is real for Russians who still want “someone like Putin” after all these years of bare-chested horse riding and rugged hunting excursions.
According to a poll by the Superjob.ru job board published Friday, 18% of men and 17% of women surveyed named President Vladimir Putin as Russia’s most handsome man.
The 68-year-old bachelor is the only individual to receive double digits in the open-ended questionnaire. Nineteen percent of men named themselves as Russia’s most handsome man, while 18% of women said there are no handsome men in Russia.
“Russians still call Vladimir Putin the most attractive famous man in the country,” Superjob.ru declared, despite the 1% dip in his rating from last year.
“Neither actors nor athletes or other politicians can compete with him today,” it said.
Indeed, the commando-in-chief maintained a comfortable lead on his closest competitors actors Dmitry Nagiyev, Danila Kozlovsky and Konstantin Khabensky, whose handsomeness was identified by a mere 2-3% of respondents.
Superjob.ru said it carried out the in-person survey among 1,000 men and 1,000 women in more than 300 Russian cities between March 22-April 1.
The results were published days after lawmakers passed legislation allowing Putin to remain president until 2036, when Russians’ biggest crush turns 83.
