Where is Putin? The Russian leader is in hiding. We reveal the behind-the-scenes of the Kremlin's activities

One telling example is a report from October 2020. Although a Russian state television journalist claims to have filmed in Novo-Ogaryovo, details such as the location of the door handle indicate that the photos were actually taken in Sochi.

Other elements revealing discrepancies between the location announced by the Kremlin and the actual meeting place include:

• Putin tie patterns
• shape of a TV stand
• color of the table top
• texture of document tray on desk

Systema confirmed the findings regarding Putin's location in the videos by examining travel documents. For example, an August 2020 television interview that the Kremlin says took place in Novo-Ogaryovo appears to have actually been filmed in Sochi, judging by details such as the door handle.

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The gift of bilocation

Investigators obtained internal Russian state television documents, including VGTRK corporate emails, through the Organized Crime and Corruption Combating Project (OCCRP).

These documents revealed that journalist Pavel Zarubin, co-creator of a weekly news program devoted to Putin, frequently traveled to Sochi and brought back material that the Kremlin then presented as having been filmed in Novo-Ogaryovo.

A leaked travel document and a short clip from one of Zarubin's broadcasts revealed that a member of the presidential security staff involved in communications spent the night in Sochi at the time the footage of Putin was allegedly shot from Novo-Ogaryov but was actually taken in Bocharov Ruchei in October 2021.

Differences between Putin's offices

In addition to the door handle, there are other differences between Novo-Ogaryovo and Bocharov Ruchei offices:

• placing a connector on the wall behind Putin
• TV base legs

Kremlin leaders' use of the Bocharov Ruchei residence dates back at least to Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader from 1953 to 1964, and his successor, Leonid Brezhnev.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, throughout most of 2020 and 2021, approximately one-third of meetings that apparently took place in Novo-Ogaryovo actually took place in Bocharov Ruchei, according to evidence analyzed by Systema.

Putin prefers Valdai

In recent years, Putin has increasingly favored Valdai. Since February 2023, a year after the full invasion of Ukraine began, he has largely stayed away from Bocharov Ruchei.

Moreover, Kremlin videos and other materials examined by Systema suggest that almost all meetings allegedly filmed in Novo-Ogaryovo in 2023 actually took place in Wałdaj.

There is also a state residence in Valdai, and a pavilion for meetings and conferences was built on the site of a former tennis court in a wooded area in 2016 by the same company that was responsible for the renovation of Novo-Ogaryovo and Bocharov Ruchei.

As in the case of Bocharov Ruchei, placing the joint on the wall behind Putin's chair is one of the signs that this is not Novo-Ogaryovo. Another element that distinguishes Wałdaj from the other two offices is thermostat switch located right in the middle of the wall panel. On Putin's desk, the texture of the wooden document tray has a different pattern.

Through visual details, travel times and other evidence, Systema determined that one of the many meetings taking place in Valdai was a government meeting three days after a fire destroyed a shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo in March 2018, killing at least 60 people, mostly children. This happened a week after Putin secured a fourth presidential term. The Kremlin claimed that the meeting took place in Novo-Ogaryovo.

As Russia was massing its forces along Ukraine's borders ahead of a full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, Putin spoke by videoconference with then-US President Joe Biden in Sochi on December 7, 2021. Biden warned against an attack, and Putin criticized Kiev and NATO.

Putin then traveled to the city of Valdai and held several meetings from there, as Systema agreed, while the Kremlin said he worked in Novo-Ogaryovo.

From February 24 to April 12, as Russian forces initially advanced on several fronts but were then pushed back from the outskirts of Kiev, failed to subdue Ukraine and set the stage for a protracted war that has continued indefinitely, Putin held at least 12 meetings in his Valdai office, Systema found.

An examination of tapes and other evidence also shows that all but one of Putin's 30 appearances at the office in question, from January to late September this year, were filmed in Valdai — where at some point in recent years the thermostat switch was moved to the location corresponding to the Novo-Ogaryovo and Sochi offices.

Putin is increasingly afraid of Ukraine

Konstantin Gaaze, a sociologist who studies Russian authoritarianism and bureaucracy, says that with the war with Ukraine increasingly targeting Russian energy and military installations with drones and missiles, there is a simple reason why Putin prefers Valdai.

— This is of course a matter of safety – comments Gaaze.

Bocharov Ruchei is relatively exposed on high ground in Sochi, and clear defensive measures would attract attention in the posh Moscow suburb of Novo-Ogaryovo, the analyst explains. The Valdai residence is more isolated, and RFE/RL's Russian service reported in August that 12 air defense installations were deployed in the area, most of them Pantsir-S1 missile systems.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, read the questions sent by Systema before this article was published but did not respond. The VGTRK press office did not comment on the answers to journalists' questions.

In 2020, after the Russian-language website Proekt first reported that Putin had two very similar offices, in Novo-Ogaryovo and Bokharov Ruchai, Peskov said the report was inaccurate and that there were no “identical offices.”

The Putin administration has not addressed evidence that it misled Russians about the locations where hundreds of meetings were held.ń.