After the first election in 2000, Putin travels to the island of Valaam on Lake Ladoga (Karelia) almost every year.
As the interlocutor of journalists, who knew Putin at work in St. Petersburg, after the loss of the then mayor of Anatoly Sobchak in the 1996 elections, the Prosecutor General’s Office, headed by Yuri Skuratov, began to investigate the case of violations in the St. Petersburg City Hall. A team of Moscow investigators arrived in St. Petersburg. Fearing problems with the law, Putin for a while left for Valaam, the source said.
On the island, from at least the 15th century there is one of the most famous Orthodox male monasteries in Russia. In the 90s, he was in a deplorable state.
Journalists write that this story “copies legends about the ancient kings, miraculously saved in church abode.”
Putin’s annual trips to Valaam take place at about the same time, when he was supposedly saved in the cell from investigators, the publication says. On the territory of the monastery for Putin, a special monastery was even built – the place where Putin stops during his visits.
Putin's friends bought up huge land in the area of the Karelian city of Lahdenpokhia, opposite the island of Valaam, writes “Agency”. Putin also stopped there during his trips to the monastery.
