My understanding is that Putin spends a good deal of time there (especially during the height of the pandemic in Russia). He has a room in that palace that is a mirror of the room in Moscow that he talks to the public from so it can appear he is at work in Moscow when he is really at his palace.
I doubt very much that is true. The place is very far away from Moscow, it would be hard to hide Putin being there and not in/around Moscow, and by all reports the place is not just half-built, but maybe 1/8th built. Hardly a luxurious retreat. It is a really bizarre building, enormous, shoddily built (again, from the reports), with pretensions to luxury, in the middle of nowhere, with an unknown owner and unknown builder, and an official no-fly zone above it. But that's Russia for you.
Exactly. Most Putin voters consider this "western propaganda" or rather won't pay attention at all because they don't or won't understand what this means. Russian mentality is about bowing to the leaders without any criticism. Only a small minority fights back but they don't have the critical mass.
Russia is putting all day propaganda on the TV channels. To tell how bad the West is and how good he is. I have family there and they believe all they see on TV. Internet is isolated and all connections out of Russia go thru St Peterburg. Everything is read and controlled. Putin can close every internet connection that goes out of Russia. In all electronic devices in Rusia there are chips installed by order of the government to help Putin to keep control. It is massive control of all social media. Complete brainwashing.
Putin's Poodle is prolly thinking well that let's me off the hook, no matter how many p tapes they have on him.
Looks like Putin can't leave his position of power voluntarily b/c of all this massive wealth accumulated, so it's in God's hands when it will actually happen
The Pandora papers will not expose US politicians. Even though Putin is corrupt, the leak was likely created by the CIA to destabilize Russia
The only thing that could really destabilise Russia is low oil prices and high vodka prices. They are able to manage this so far.