Putin revealed his wealth after registering to run for office again

On January 29th, Vladimir Putin officially registered as a candidate in the upcoming Russian election, a move that allowed onlookers to get a peak at Putin's assets. However, what was claimed might not be as exciting as you think. Here's what the financial disclosure revealed.

Putin's financial disclosure revealed that he earned 67.7 million rubles or $753,000 over the past six years, and most of that was from his salary as the president of Russia according to a report from the Moscow Times on the financial disclosure.

The 71-year-old Putin's military and civilian pension rounded out the cash he earned, as well as funds gained from the sale of some property. Almost no assets were listed in the disclosure aside from two small apartments in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

The financial disclosure also showed that Putin still owned his infamous Volga GAZ M-21 cars, one of which was produced in 1960 and the other in 1965, as well as a 1987 camper trailer and 2009 Lada Niva.

Putin declared that he had 54.5 million rubles or $606,000 in savings that were spread across 10 different Russian banks. No other important assets or money was listed, which may having you scratching you head as to who owns all those luxury yachts and luxury palaces around Russia.

The financial disclosure was pretty much in line with previous disclosures from Putin. His personal claimed net worth actually increased by quite a in between 2021 and 2024. Here's what we know about Putin's 2021 financial disclosure as well as his possible wealth.

On paper, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to have a modest income in 2021. According to The Russian News Agency (TASS) and Interfax, Putin had a net worth of around 10.2 million rubles (approximately US$136,603 at the time).

The two Russian news agencies pointed out that Putin's income in 2021 had increased compared to 2020, but it was still much lower than the recorded amount in 2017, which was 18.7 million rubles, equivalent to about 250 thousand dollars. Putin's most recent financials show that he has been saving more in his old age.

According to the 2021 Kremlin report, some properties (not many), all of which were located on Russian territory, contributed to the Russian leader's total net worth at that time.

Pictured: President Vladimir Putin works out at a gym at the Bocharov Ruchei state residence in Sochi.

Included in the official account of his assets from 2021 was an apartment measuring around 900 square feet, another which was 1600 square feet, a 190 square feet garage, those two GAZ M21 cars, and a Niva SUV. Putin also owned a tow truck back then.

Interfax also claimed that Putin was not the richest person in the Russian government in 2021. That title went to the then-Prime Minister of Russia Mikhail Mishustin in 2021.

In 2021, Mikhail Mishustin's net worth was 18.3 million rubles (about 243,913.93 thousand dollars). Together with his wife and son, he owned several properties: a plot of land measuring 59201.51 square feet, a house measuring just over 9000 square feet, and an apartment measuring 1500 square feet.

Putin's 2021 financial data was released by the Russian media and the Kremlin. But publications like The Washington Post, Fortune, Business Insider, and others looked into Putin's possible wealth and assets at the time. Most of what has been claimed didn't make sense.

Fortune previously defined Putin's real estate as an "unsolvable mystery" and wrote that he had a fortune of some 200 billion dollars. Included in this fortune was a watch collection, a $1.4 billion Black Sea villa, and 19 other properties (not in his name), plus helicopters, planes, and miscellaneous cars.

Among Putin's many aircraft is the appropriately named "Flying Kremlin," which is a luxury plane worth 716 million dollars. It has a gold bathroom that has been reported on by several news outlets.

Not even the multibillionaire Elon Musk was convinced by the wealth figures disclosed by the Kremlin in 2021. In an interview with Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer, Musk reportedly said: "I think Putin is significantly richer than I am."

Among other skeptics of Putin's claims in 2021 was Bill Browder (pictured), chairman and co-founder of the investment fund Hermitage Capital Management and a well-known critic of Vladimir Putin. He was one of the creators of the "Magnitsky Act", a law designed by President Barack Obama to fight corruption and violation of rights in Russia.

In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Browder spoke about Putin's alleged wealth: "He has 200 billion dollars distributed among the oligarchs." This is a claim he also made in an April 2022 Time Magazine article.

Browder, who, according to Corriere della Sera, faced an arrest warrant issued by the Kremlin through Interpol, struggled for years to unravel the mystery of Putin's finances.

It all started after the death of his colleague Sergei Magnitsky, which occurred in a Russian prison, shortly after uncovering a complex plot of fraud and tax evasion in Russia.

Fortune reported that, according to Browder, the 200 billion dollars that would constitute Putin's fortune came from a pact made with other oligarchs, after the 2003 arrest and imprisonment of Mikhail Khodorkovsky (pictured).

He was found guilty by the Moscow Court of fraud and tax evasion. Putin reportedly made this deal with some members of the Russian financial elite, to avoid "having to sit in the same dock as Khodorkovsky."

The team of Alexei Anatolievich Navalny, a political activist and one of the Russian president's best-known opponents, has also focused some of its investigations on the aim of shedding light on Vladimir Putin's alleged hidden wealth. These investigations were also echoed by CNN in a video linking an incredible Black Sea estate to Putin and the oligarchs.

In addition to the investigations by Navalny's team, the CNN video offered the opinions of several experts. Everyone agreed that it was difficult to establish Putin's wealth. Journalist Tom Burgis, interviewed by CNN, spoke of Putin as a kind of "godfather", on whom the Russian oligarchs depend.

In John C. Corbally's book entitled 'The Twentieth-Century World, 1914 to the Present: State of Modernity, Corbally included this 2013 quote from Putin himself about his wealth: "I am the wealthiest man, not just in Europe but in the whole world: I collect emotions. I am wealthy in that the people of Russia have twice entrusted me with the leadership of a great nation such as Russia. I believe that is my greatest wealth."