Normally the intrigue surrounding Russian opposition leaders and their attacks on Putin wouldn’t find it’s way into our reports. But we couldn’t resist taking a much closer look at a video recently uploaded by Putin-critic Alexei Navalny.
In the almost two-hour video uploaded to Youtube on Wednesday, Navalny goes on a lengthy run-down of the corruption and scandal he alleges Putin has committed.
What we are most interested in is the drone footage of the opulent palace that has been under construction for years on the Black Sea coastline.
Members of Navalny’s team took extreme actions in order reach the palace in Krasnodar Krai by boat that they launched from the shore just 3km from their target. They even dressed like summer tourist in Hawaiian shirts to blend in.
In order to evade detection and prevent being followed by Russian secret police the trio frequently changed transportation, intentionally got off at the wrong stops and even switched the SIM cards in their phones along the way.
“We came here in a very strange way. We changed tickets, got off at the wrong stops, exchanged SIM cards and phones.”
Of course Putin will not be happy about what Navalny says about him in the video, but he’ll surely be even more upset by how close Navalny’s people got to his palace. Just 30 minutes into the video, they are within a few hundred yards of Putin’s beach where they launch their drone.
This is where it gets really interested for us. First off, we actually get to see the drone they use as they capture some B-roll of themselves before flying over palace. And we immediately recognized the Autel EVO II drone they used to capture the lengthy video.
The Autel EVO II is the perfect drone for a mission like this because of the quality of it’s 8K video capture and 40 minute battery life. These guys only had one chance to drone this location and they needed the longest flight time available.
At one point in the video you can see a DJI Osmo Pocket or Pocket 2 poking out of a life-jacket worn by Georgy Alburov, who does all of the talking in the boat.
The video was uploaded at 1080p, and it was likely filmed at that resolution to maximize the amount of video that could be recorded in one flight. Filming at 4K or higher would have limited the amount of footage they could obtain.
Surprisingly none of the people on the ground at the sprawling complex seemed to notice the drone, so either ambient noise or the altitude it was flying at maintained it’s stealth.
Navalny’s team had made three previous, and unsuccessful, attempts to film Putin’s sea-side lair.
“Everyone said it was impossible to film it.”
The palace and grounds are beyond belief and includes 2 heli-pads, a full-size underground hockey rink and a massive residence. At 17,691 m2 it is the largest private residential building in Russia. You can view it on Google Maps here.
The 8 minutes of smooth drone video is professionally edited with call-outs and zooms explaining the various features of the enormous compound. Who doesn’t need their own private vineyard and winery with yet another heli-pad and private, modern Chateau?
The scale of the entire Black Sea compound is staggering, and the budget is reported to be in the billions of dollars.
Shorter segments of drone video show up throughout the remainder of the video as Navalny explains the web of corruption he alleges against the Russian leadership. His video has now been viewed over 60 million times and will very likely ensure he never sees the light of day again.
We wonder what the folks at Autel think about this video and the cameo that the EVO II drone makes in it. Who knew that pro-sumer level drones and handheld cameras like the DJI Pocket 2 are the tools of the trade for modern spies.
You can watch the entire video, below, or just fast forward to the 30 minute mark for the drone video.
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