Boris Nemtsov's report, The Life of a Galley Slave', makes fascinating reading. Nemtsov, of course, is one of Putin's leading opponents, so you wouldn't expect him to pull his punches. And he doesn't. Take the report's title. This refers to a remark that Putin made when he finished his second term as president of Russia in 2008: "All these eight years I've been toiling like a galley slave, with every ounce of my strength."
If he was a slave, he was a very rich one, and he's even richer now, to the point where his wealth "can be compared with that of the monarchs of the Persian Gulf or the most outrageous oligarchs". During his years in power he has overseen what The Guardian calls a "phenomenal" expansion in the awarding of presidential perks: he now has at his disposal 20 palaces and villas, a fleet of 58 aircraft, a flotilla of yachts worth some three billion roubles (£59.2m), a watch collection worth 22 million roubles and several top-class Mercedes.
One of the aeroplanes, an Ilyushin-96, features an $18m cabin fitted out by jewellers and is said to have a toilet that cost $75,000. As for his palaces and other properties: among them is a large estate on an island in Lake Valdai, serviced by a 1,000-strong staff and including a "presidential church", two restaurants, a cinema and a bowling alley. The leaders of the US and Germany get by with two official residences, and the president of Italy with three, says Nemtsov. How come Putin needs 20, nine of which have been built while in charge of Russia?
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Ed Miliband's secret vice
It's good to know that David Cameron and Ed Miliband have something in common: they both used to be hooked on that saga of American excess, Dallas, according to Joe Moran in The Guardian. "Ed Miliband has said that it was his secret vice' which alarmed his father, the Marxist academic Ralph Miliband, who worried he might be planning a future in Big Oil'." (No such luck.) David Cameron, meanwhile, watched the series while at Eton.
Another keen viewer was George Harrison. Michael Palin's diary for Saturday 9 January 1982 records that he rang the singer, a good friend, at 9pm. After a few monosyllabic responses, Harrison replied pointedly: "You're obviously not a Dallas fan, then."
"Even for Brando, I don't sleep under canvas"
Further to my item last week about celebrities trying to offload their private islands, Michael Winner writes in the Daily Mail that islands are of no use except as tax havens. His friend Marlon Brando once "had one" off Tahiti and invited Winner to spend New Year there. "I said it sounded lovely and asked where the hotel was. He said: We sleep under canvas.' Now, even for Brando, I don't sleep under canvas." Later, Winner heard that Brando had 67 "new toilet basins" sitting on the beach: he intended to build a complex for his guests, but he never "had the stamina" to see it through.
Even die-hard Conservatives now worry about the government's record, says Trevor Kavanagh in The Sun. Tory peer and ex-Tesco boss Lord MacLaurin says "he would not offer a job to a single member of the cabinet". The business world condemns the government for what Boris Johnson calls pussyfooting'. Evidence is growing "that attempts to cut the deficit are sputtering like a clapped-out steam engine. Mr Cameron has a few weeks to stamp his authority on this chalk-and-cheese coalition." Unless he does he'll see Labour back in power.
Poor Gwyneth Paltrow, says Fiona McIntosh in the Sunday Mirror. The actress"is said to be exhausted' from all her jetting about between LA and London (first class is sooo tiring), running several luxury homes around the world, forcing macrobiotic food into her rock star husband and kids, making the occasional Hollywood film and still finding time to large it with her best mate Beyonc. So like my own life, it hurts."
The government wants to cut public spending, says Rod Liddle in The Sun. But a thinktank reveals "that the coalition has made just 6% of the cuts it promised to make and is spending more than the last Labour government"! So where's the money going? "Perhaps some of it is going to the Lincolnshire market town of Boston" where the borough councillors have just approved themselves a "pay increase of a very agreeable 28%". Other Tory councils have also voted themselves generous pay increases, while the Foreign Office has spent £48,000 on "parties" in just six months. So while everyone else "is feeling the pinch", who is spending it on themselves? "Yup, the Conservatives."
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