According to Pugachev, Putin had his home in Spain.Putin, says Pugachev, planned to move to Spain / REUTERS

Russian President Vladimir Putin planned to emigrate from Russia in the late 1990s and move to Spain.

This was in an interview with journalist Dmitry Gordon said a former friend of Putin, the Russian businessman and former member of the Federation Council Sergei Pugachev. He now lives in France and is suing Russia in The Hague. The media previously called Pugachev a “Kremlin banker” and a “Putin banker.”

In particular, in his interview, he mentioned one of the conversations with Putin in 1999, when he was director of the FSB.

“He tells me, ‘End this intrigue.’ I’m already tired. I’m neither there nor here. “I even remember being inspired: he’s the director of the FSB, a lieutenant colonel:” Let’s assign you a colonel general! “And he says:” What are you! God forbid. In any case. “I think:” after all the person is modest … “and he tells me:” then I won’t be able to go abroad “. He wanted to go to Spain”, – Pugachev told.

According to Pugachev, Putin had his own house in Spain.

“Well, someone probably bought it once. I wasn’t there. I just remember the stories of how good it is there: houses at sea and so on. Apparently, it’s still in mayor’s time,” the businessman suggested.

At the same time, according to Pugachev, the late Russian President Boris Yeltsin offered Putin the post of prime minister, but at first he refused the offer. He later agreed to the new position, and in December 1999 he became acting President of Russia.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Mikheil Saakashvili mentioned a fact from Putin’s biography that connects him with Stalin.

(C)UNIAN 2021