Putin's Office a Potemkin Village

A report by investigative journalists at the pro-democracy outlet Systema uncovered a longstanding Kremlin ruse: the room Russian President Vladimir Putin calls his "office" is not just one workspace but three, meticulously designed to appear identical.

Typically, Russian state media pass off footage of Putin in his office – meeting dignitaries, shuffling papers, and holding interviews – as occurring at Novo-Ogaryevo, the presidential residence outside Moscow. The location implies that Putin is hard at work near the center of Russian power with little time for provincial distractions.

However, by comparing evidence of travel by Putin, interviewers, and Kremlin public relations staff, Systema journalists found that the president was often not in Moscow when media said he was. Putin might wear different ties in two shots purportedly from the same day; his chief cameraman might leave a review at a Sochi restaurant, or an interviewer might be on a flight back to Moscow the day after a conversation with the president.

Discrepancies like these led to the conclusion that, rather than burning the midnight oil in Moscow, Putin could be found enjoying Russian forests at his Valdai hideout, halfway between Moscow and St. Petersburg, or savoring salty breezes at Bocharov Ruchei, near Sochi on the Black Sea.

Sure enough, after reviewing 700 video clips purported to all come from the Moscow office, Systema identified discrepancies that implied there were actually three offices being filmed, not just one. In the Sochi office, a seam in the wall behind Putin's chair is a few centimeters lower than at Moscow; at Valdai, it's higher up. At Sochi and Valdai, the legs of a TV stand are rounded, not square, unlike at Moscow. At Valdai, a light switch is squarely in the middle of a wall panel, while at the other locations, it's offset. The main door's handle at Novo-Ogaryevo is slightly lower than at the other offices. The original office has five openings in ventilation grates, while others have four. And wood-grain patterns on a writing set differ slightly depending on the location.

While the desire for the chief executive's security certainly plays a role, it's likely that Putin's cloned offices have a more cynical design: to paper over extravagant trips to luxurious getaways reserved for the man at the top.

All of this carries a whiff of the Potemkin village: the quintessentially Russian curated facade meant to mislead and placate. This is nothing new. Indeed, in the practice of Potemkinism could be a reason for Russia's lackluster performance in its ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Regardless, the high level attention to detail, both in the recreation of offices and in the investigation by journalists, is stunning. It's definitely worth checking it out here. An abridged English-language version can be seen here, but it's missing some of the juiciest details and best infographics. Better instead to translate the Russian-language one in your browser if you don't read Russian (or if you just don't feel like exercising that part of your brain).