Criminal case against architect of ‘Putin’s palace’ Lanfranco Cirillo opened in Italy

Minister of Justice of the Italian Republic Carlo Nordio has confirmed the decision to initiate a criminal case against Italian national Lanfranco Cirillo, known as “Putin’s architect”, Italy’s state TV channel Rai reports. Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny referred to Cirillo as the architect of the “palace” on the coast of the Black Sea near the town of Gelendzhik, Krasnodar region of Russia.

Cirillo is accused of multiple counts of customs smuggling and forgery of official documents. Furthermore, according to Italy’s Finance Police, Cirillo evaded paying €50 million worth of taxes from 2013 to 2019.

The architect is 64 years old, he currently resides in Moscow. According to Rai, he possesses quite a fortune: assets estimated at €140 million, villas, original paintings of Picasso, Cézanne, Kandinsky, de Chirico, and Fontana, as well as jewellery, carpets, fine wines, a yacht, and a helicopter.

Cirillo previously confirmed that he was the one to design the building near Gelendzhik. “This building is an Italian masterpiece, and I’m proud of it,” he told La Repubblica.

In 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin granted Cirillo Russian citizenship. The architect later said in an interview with media outlet RBC that he wanted to take up winemaking in Russia.

In 2022, Cirillo’s property in Italy estimated at €141 million was arrested. According to the investigation, he failed to declare revenue of “dozens of millions of euros” for the period from 2013 to 2019. Cirillo claims that he received the money abroad.

“I’m surprised that I had to face this issue after living in Russia for over 20 years. <…> I’m proud that I gave work to dozens of Italian companies in Russia and added a touch of Italian craftsmanship to the houses of many most influential and important people,” he said at the time.

The investigation Palace for Putin was posted on 18 January 2021 by Navalny’s associates. The Kremlin said that the president had nothing to do with the palace and it was owned by private citizens. Russian billionaire Arkady Rotenberg claimed to be the beneficiary.