The Conversation (0)
Kate Plummer
Apr 07, 2021
AP
A viral image claiming to depict Vladimir Putin’s house is fake, fact checkers have confirmed.
According to Snopes, the image, which has been circulating on Twitter this month, is not even a real house.
The image is a 3D concept design by Russian architect Roman Vlaslov. He first posted the images on Instagram in January 2021, imagining the sort of building Putin would live in, and did not – in fact – claim it was Putin’s house.
He even included hashtags such as #concept and #design in case anyone had any doubt that this was not a real building.
But this did not stop those on social media from believing that Putin – recently voted as the hottest man in Russia, according to a not-that-reliable survey – goes to bed in a mezzanine on stilts shoved in the middle of a forest.
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But cannier social media users were quick to mock those who were fooled by it.
Putin’s actual gaff, is thought to be the Residence at Cape Idokopas, and is located on the Black Sea coast.
It was designed by Italian architect Lanfranco Cirillio, not Russian architect Roman Vlaslov.
In January, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny released a film accusing Putin of building this billion-dollar mansion via a corruption scheme.
But Putin has since denied the allegations and said the property does not belong to him.
Regardless of where Putin does or does not live, having got vertigo just looking at the fake house, we hope it stays firmly in Vlaslov’s imagination.