Vladimir Putin‘s secret £1bn hideout may have been exposed after his bodyguards used a location-tracking exercise app to record their runs.
Several members of the Russian president’s protective guard inadvertantly gave away their presence at multiple secret facilities over several years because of the running app Strava.
One such location is believed to be the site of Putin’s Black Sea palace on the cliffs of the resort town Gelendzhik. According to the French newspaper Le Monde, the bodyguards were using Strava within nine miles of the hideaway dubbed Putin’s Palace.
Four members of the Federal Protective Service were tracked there on numerous occasions between August 19 and September 22 in 2019, 2020, 2023 and 2024.
The report exposed one boydguard in particular for running on three consecutive days outside the main entrace of the estate earlier this year.
One agent clocked a run of just under four miles that started and ended at a hangar on the Gelendzhik complex and another ran along the road leading to it.
The Kremlin has denied that Putin owns the sprawling property that boasts its own vineyard and 16 storeys of underground passageways.
Putin’s close friend and billionaire Arkady Rotenburg responded to the scandal by claiming he was the “beneficiary” of the palace, which he intends to turn into an aparthotel.
Russian independent media outlets and prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who subsequently died in a brutal prison complex, first exposed the existence of the secret residence in 2021.
Strava also linked Putin’s bodyguards to a second secret hideout in the Lake Ladoga National Park, just 18 miles from NATO ally Finland.
Members of the protective details for Emmanuel Macron, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump were also identified through their use of Strava.
In 2018, the app caused concerns over user safety and security after it released a global heat map showing the location of secret military bases.