Invisible, silent, soft footsteps, golden hands. A real "gray eminence" in the most powerful palace in Moscow. Reserved like few others, he does not like the proscenium, but he, in Soviet times, an attendant of the Mariinsky hospital in St. Petersburg, never ceases to thank St. Nicholas, the Wonderworker of the Russian homeland. What we are about to tell you is an incredibly true story, crossed with Italian and Russian documents and with the help of hidden databases around the world where the most reckless plots of the men closest to the Tsar of Red Square are hidden.

Hunt for the oligarch

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the West has been hunting down the billionaire fortunes of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin's men around the world. Names that have come to the fore for the largest yacht, the most phantasmagoric, the villas of a thousand and one nights, the most famous football teams. Until now we have been used to recognizing their features and names, wealth and bravado, thanks to a new millennium exhibitionism. From the "Sardinian-Russian" Alisher Usmanov and his "Dilbar" placed in the heart of the Porto Cervo hut to Roman Abramovich and his Chelsea, passing through the brothers Boris and Arkady Rotenberg who love shopping from north to south of the island of Sardinia up to the patron of Rusal and Eurallumina of Portovesme Oleg Deripaska, forced to sell the queen of the villas, the Walkirie on the promontory of the Sardinian hermitage of Aga Khan.

Gray "Cardinal"

There are them, those of the covers and front pages, and then there is him, the "Gray Cardinal" of the Kremlin. For everyone he is the personal "masseur" of the Tsar of Russia. Yes, the masseur, intended precisely as a masseur. His name is armored in the secret rooms of the Palace, recognizable to a select few, in a very small circle of "initiates", those who are part of Vladimir Putin's most secret and reserved "club". Goloshchapov Konstantin Veniaminovich is no ordinary masseur. Not only is he the only one who can get his hands on the Tsar, but he is the man who has climbed the heights of internal power, the most intimate one, like few others, since Putin's advent in the Kremlin. Up to now, the "Mr. Nobody" in Sardinia has been hiding behind a sale as controversial as it is anonymous. One of the many Russians who buy something in the most Mediterranean and exclusive of the islands, the exact opposite of the cold and gray coast of the Black Sea, where even these gentlemen have not disdained investments and pomp. In reality, Konstantin Goloshchapov, Putin's masseur, in that deed of sale, we are in July 2013, he does not appear to be the first Russian buyer after the Sardinian history of the hotel in Cagliari, the Mediterranean.

The name disappeared

Before him appears an equally anonymous gentleman, so unknown that he has literally disappeared from the radar. We tracked him down in Lugano, but with a new name, or rather a totally changed surname, as befits the most Russian of spy stories. If at the gates of the summer of 2013 it was Vitaly Khomyakov, born in Sochi, Olympic Russia, who bought the hotel in Viale Diaz, now that name no longer exists anywhere. The first Russian buyer of the hotel overlooking Su Siccu is now called Vitaly Ioghint as evidenced by a prefectural decree of Rome last November 2019 with which his surname was changed.

Konstantin & Dimitri

Who has not changed his name is Konstantin Goloshchapov, he, who, to sign the purchase and sale contract of the hotel that faces the Basilica of Cagliari, that of Bonaria, has sent his still twenty-two year old son, Dimitri, sent to Sardinia to name the tourist glories of the capital Sardinian. A purchase as enigmatic as it is destined to go down in history as the most devastating tourist undertaking in Cagliari, first reaching the glory of a hotel that marked the glories of the city of the Scudetto and, then, irremediably crashing into an all-Russian feud in key Sardinian. Events marked by complaints, trials, sentences, to finally reaffirm Goloshchapov's ownership of the green hotel.

Graced from the freezer

A heritage that still does not bear any sanctions, given that Putin's "masseur" has, for now, escaped the European grip of the freezing proceedings, perhaps out of distraction or, better still, out of caution. After all, it is the United States of America itself that advises not to rage against the most intimate circle of Vladimir Putin in order to avoid even more violent reactions. In the last few hours, for example, the financial position of Putin's "partner", Alina Kabaeva, mother of at least three of his children, has been re-evaluated. The 39-year-old, former Olympic champion in rhythmic gymnastics, is the owner, according to American intelligence, of an immense patrimony, but "freezing it" would mean raising the explosive stakes. And the evaluation has been unambiguous for the moment: it is better to postpone. A similar speech could have been made for Konstantin Goloshchapov, who until now is receiving "privileged" treatment from the European authorities since his partners in other Russian businesses, such as banking, have all been subjected to the financial "jaws" , starting with Boris and Arkady Rotenberg who with him and Putin himself form an indissoluble quartet, from childhood to power, from finance to business.

The Sardinian landing

The reason for this landing in Sardinia of a man so close to the Tsar of Russia is unknown, but certainly there is a red thread that emerges day after day on the Russian advance in the real estate and tourist economy of the Nuraghi Island. . A landing plan that saw the Costa Smeralda clearing with the purchase of hundreds of villas, enclosed in real districts of luxury and splendor, all in the name of the Russian motherland. There is a starting point for this operation, however: his name is Vladimir Putin and Sardinian shopping has as protagonists his loyalists, a circle directly linked to his childhood, that in St. Petersburg. The closest friends, the judo companions, have become the extreme tip of the Kremlin's power pyramid in Sardinia.

From "Mr. Nobody"

And to guide it, indeed to have generated it, is the current owner of the Hotel Mediterraneo in Cagliari. It is his story, the one written by the enemies and the confidential reports of the secret services, that tells the story of this "Mr. Nobody" who has become the "masseur" of the body, power and spirit of Vladimir Putin. crossed the rising star of the future Russian Federation at an early age directly on the "tatami", that martial arts carpet where Putin met with the Rotenberg brothers and Konstantin himself. It is said that in his youth, at the age of twenty, Goloshchapov dueled with Vladimir Vladimirovich, Putin for all. During a wrestling training, that strange discipline where you throw yourself, complete with a run-up, on each other, Putin injures his back. They advise him on the care of the "golden hands" of the young Konstantin. Since then the two have become inseparable. He, the patron of the Mediterranean of Cagliari, who perhaps he has never even seen, remains in the shadows, until, as Putin's masseur, he enters the muffled rooms of the Kremlin.

The massage of power

It is there that one passes from the body massage to that of power. Goloshchapov assumes the position of head of one of the key structures of the federal state, the company New Russian Projects Center, the “Rostsentrproekt”, hinged directly under the office of the President himself. We are in the years in which in Russia there is an absolute void in buildings to fill. From the Soviet era to that of Putin. Right people, it was said then, that in reality that wish translated into “very loyal” of the Tsar.

The climb of the "friends"

Putin's masseur, even before disembarking at Su Siccu, in the proscenium at sea of Cagliari, personally points out the top leaders, including the future head of the Federal Tax Police Service. According to accredited sources from the Kremlin, more than 500 appointments have passed through Goloshchapov's hands. All placed in the key and elevated points of the country. A pyramid of power all linked to childhood, games and more personal acquaintances of the boss. A capillary network with many shadows and many suspicions, plenty of money that thanks to the miracles of the Palazzo are transformed from public to private.

The affairs of the Putin's

In the dim light of the Kremlin, the men of the Putin's quartet establish relationships, pursue business, manage oil, public works, from the Olympic ones in Sochi to the oil ones, from sports, Judo and Formula One, to banks. It is here, in the world of finance, that the man of the Hotel Mediterraneo crosses the fate of Arkady Rotenberg with whom he becomes co-founder of a large bank the "Northern Sea Route" (NSR), later sold to his brother Rotenberg, Boris. The man who landed in Su Siccu remains breathless, willingly gives way to his children and his wife, but remains at the forefront of the apparently spiritual care of his religious faith.

The sect of Mount Athos

Not a traditional religious attendance, but a sort of "sect" for a select few, also in this case all closely linked to the Tsar of Russia. A secret organization with rites and places based on the most enigmatic Orthodox doctrine. Putin's men are also those of Athos, a formally religious society, but with an eye entirely on power. The founders, it is no coincidence, are precisely the men of the most strict observance of the Kremlin, from the man of the Mediterranean Hotel, Konstantin Goloshchapov, to the governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko. All the power elite of St. Petersburg are enclosed in this treasure trove of secrets, on Mount Athos, the Greek mountain, the spiritual center of Eastern Orthodox monasticism. Not a small detail: here a monastic state governs with special jurisdiction, where sanctions are not valid. For now, the Hotel Mediterraneo is safe, the only sanction is abandonment.

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