The lavish interior of the home of Russia's despotic president Vladimir Putin's ally has been revealed.
Viktor Medvedchuk, who fled house arrest in Ukraine when the invasion of the country kicked off in February, was thought to be one of the the closest allies to Putin.
Putin is the godfather of Medvedchuk's daughter Darya.
Medvedchuck was the leader of Ukraine's most prominent Kremlin-loving political party – called Platform-For-Life – and was estimated to be worth around £600million by Forbes last year.
He had previously tried to mediate between the two warring countries, but when current Ukraine President Volodymr Zelenskyy came to power in 2019, that role was stopped, and in February last year, a decree was signed accusing Medvedchuck of “financing terrorism”.
He was placed under house arrest after prosecutors accused him of high treason, a move which Russia called “an absolutely obvious purge of the political field” and “anti-Russian”.
But having fled at the start of the invasion, the team from investigation.info managed get inside the lavish home where he was being kept “prisoner” for nearly three years.
Located in the village of Transcarpathia in Zhdenievo, the area the house – or mansion – is located is a scenic woodland with rivers and lantern-lit pathways all around.
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Looking very similar to a châteaux in the Swiss Alps, the huge building, which is monitored by security, has a glass exterior frontage which opens up to a lavish wooden inside with winding staircases going around wooden beams.
One of the rooms has several pieces of Soviet infrastructure, including a strange-looking drinks machine serving "citro syrup" or "buratino syrup” with “carbonated water”.
The huge living room has gold-painted trims along the wooden walls, and an extravagant fireplace also adorned with gold as far as the eye can see.
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There is also, for some odd reason, a disco ball hanging over a table and reindeer skulls with antlers complete with Christmas lights wrapped around them.
Most of the furniture is protected with white dust sheets and bin bags.
A lift leads up to a jacuzzi and swimming pool room with soviet-inspired curtains, ceiling and floor tiles.
There are also treadmills and a massage parlour in a spa area.
Every room in the house has fox fur rugs, according to the team who visited, and the living room also has a huge toy railway complete with snowy landscape to play with.
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The property has a “guest house” which comes complete with a bearskin rug on the wall, and 120 hectares of private land to roam around.
There is also a private lake to swim in, if you fancy some cold weather swimming.
Some of the land was seized by police in 2021, but it appears that the property is being maintained somehow.
It is not clear where the man fled to, as he was recalled to court on March 18, but one can only presume it was back to Russia.
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