How much does Vladimir Putin earn? Not as much as last year...

Vladimir Putin’s salary decreased by more than half in 2018 compared to the year before. His latest financial disclosure indicated that the Russian leader earned 8.6 million rubles (€119,048.40) in 2018 from his official salary, a military pension, interest on savings, and investment gains — a significant cut from 2017 when he earned 18.7 million rubles (€257,307.02).

The Russian financial newspaper rbc.ru said that Putin's 2017 salary could be explained by the earnings he made out of a plot of land he sold that year. The disclosure, which is posted on the Kremlin's website every year, also only listed two properties under Putin's name: a 77-square metre apartment with an 18-square metre garage, which he owns and a 153.7 square metre apartment reserved for presidential functions in Moscow.

Putin also reported owning three cars and a trailer: two vintage Volgas GAZ M21 sedans, a lady NIVA SUV, and a Skif tent trailer, which is valued at €800.

When official documents are contested

However, some Kremlin critics like Hermitage Capital Management CEO Bill Browder — who was one of Russia's biggest foreign portfolio investors but was kicked out in 2005 — contests the "official" figures. In 2017, Browder told a Senate Judiciary Committee that Putin was "one of the richest men in the world". “I estimate that he has accumulated $200 billion (€177 billion) of ill-gotten gains from these types of operations over his 17 years in power,” said the CEO. A report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalist revealed that most of Putin's wealth might actually be legally held by his close associates and family members.