Russian investigators have established that Vladimir Putin uses several identical offices and pre-recorded videos for his appearances. According to their data, this allows the Kremlin to conceal the president's real location for years. On 24 Kanal, political analyst and commentator Stanislav Belkovsky gave his assessment of these practices.
How many offices does Putin have
Investigators noticed three identical Putin offices—in Novo-Ogaryovo near Moscow, Sochi, and Valdai. According to Belkovsky, this may be only part of a far broader network: the number of offices, he says, could run into dozens across the country. Such offices, the analyst noted, create the impression of constant presence, though in fact they show only pre-prepared sets. The system of identical offices, according to Belkovsky, has become part of a long-standing strategy of avoiding publicity and emphasizing personal security.
Former KGB and Foreign Intelligence Service officer Sergei Zhirnov explained that minor differences in details, such as the level of handles and the placement of objects, allow Putin occasionally to slip up, but on the whole they ensure the effect of a single office. Journalists from the investigative project Sistema (System) found that Putin uses these offices to record addresses and hold meetings from different locations, passing them off as one.
Childhood and fear
Belkovsky linked Putin's attention to personal security to his Leningrad childhood. According to the analyst, the future president grew up in an environment that seemed dangerous and unpredictable, so he sought ways of protection first in boxing and then in judo. "Security issues appeared in his life back in childhood, not when he became president, and certainly not with the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine; it is one of the basic ideas of his existence, the question of security and protection," Belkovsky said on air. Later, in his view, this attitude grew into a political practice where the priority is not openness but maximum secrecy and distance from society.
Pre-recorded videos
According to investigators, pre-prepared videos presented as new public appearances by Putin have become a separate Kremlin practice. In 2025 alone, they counted at least ten such cases. According to Belkovsky, this scheme allows the president to be shown as active even when he effectively disappears from the public space. "From time to time he is psychologically forced to vanish from sight, but the authorities must show him as an active leader," the analyst noted. He also pointed to the existence of a legend that Putin works twenty hours a day and sleeps only four, calling it a "dubious construct."
With the start of Ukrainian drone strikes and setbacks at the front in 2025, Putin, according to investigators, has become significantly more cautious: he visits Novo-Ogaryovo and Sochi less often, preferring remote locations where he records addresses. This, it is claimed, helps create a sense of control and stability among the population while hiding fear and growing paranoia.
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