OLIVE PRESS
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Vol. 15 Issue 390
The Wild West of the Costas A
Your
ll about
Vol. 15 Issue 390
Manilva, Sabin and Duquesa illas
JUST BUZZING www.theolivepres
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expat
March 2022
Once best known itself as one of the for its sweet wine, today Manilva fastest growing tourist is establishing towns on the Costa del Sol
voice in Spain
LOW RISE: The light
See our special Manilva supplement inside
www.theolivepress.es March 23rd - April 5th 2022
UNLIKE any other del Sol, Puerto de port on the Costa with life. out to sea. From la Duquesa faces For most of its history Manilva edges you can each of the three been dependent has gaze out into the Mediterranean. culture, especiallyon fishing and agriits vineyards and Duquesa is, without a doubt, the thriv- celebrated sweet wines. ing coastal jewel But over the last couple of decades benefiting from in the Manilva crown, little township tourism and buzzing has welcomed an this of tourists and development, influx while still
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maintaining a peaceful air. Manilva officially percentage of Brits has the highest Spain and just as on the padron in 4,000 of them in well, as there are the 12,000-strong municipality.
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Chateau Putin EXCLUSIVE: Despite Spain declaring there are no oligarchs owning here - the Olive Press can reveal at least one - ‘a genuine fortress with at least 10 security guards’ with intriguingly close links to the Russian dictator By Jon Clarke & Jorge Hinojosa
PICTURE BY: Olive Press Spain
ious Olive Press sources say they are certain that Putin is the main investor. “He has definitely visited a number of times, when security is incredibly high,” revealed one. “Zagaleta already has among the best security in Europe, but when Putin is visiting, there is a whole extra level and you can’t get near the house.” More alarmingly, a high-ranking Ukranian resident in Spain, knows a number of people currently working in the property and claims it has armed guards.
Guns
“They carry guns and I also know that a number of drones have been shot down from the sky by them,” she explained. She continued: “When you arrive it is like an airport. You are carefully searched and you have a sticker put on your phone so you can’t take pictures. The guards will also know if it has been removed or altered in any way. Everybody is watched all the time. “There is a room somewhere in the basement with loads of screens being watched 24 hours a day.” Insisting she must remain anonymous for fear of attack by the
PALATIAL: And facing Gibraltar with armed guards and underground bunkers, and panic room Russian secret service, she added: “It’s definitely Putin’s house and I know all about its size and luxuries, the place is literally dripping with gold. “I know many people who work or have worked there from different nationalities and they are all far too scared to talk because of the Russian intelligence connections there. “Even if they spoke to you the media cannot give them protection and they are really worried for their safety.” She added that their salaries are ‘around 5,000 to 6,000 euros a month’ but are also worried about their jobs at present, because ‘some haven’t been paid for a month’. And she added: “It is certainly not the only house that Putin has in Spain and
he owns others with partners, with at least one in the Alicante province.” The Ukranian woman, who is now in close touch with the Spanish authorities, added the government should be investigating this and ‘it should be sanctioned at a European level as soon as possible’. The Olive Press has been reporting on the property in question since 2012, when we revealed exclusively that Putin was part of a six-man Russian consortium behind the mansion. The very epitome of extravagance, the
villa cost €19 million and sits on an 18,000 m2 plot, with two swimming pools, a cinema and a gym, as well as a 22-car garage. We were told by one of the constructors and a worker at the estate in 2015 that Putin had twice been to oversee the project and that he was installing much of his own wine collection in a Continues on Page 2
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IT is known as the Rock of the King (or Roca del Rey), a giant 2000m square palace with a private vineyard, helicopter pad and a dozen bedrooms in the hills above Marbella. One of southern Spain’s most expensive mansions, it also boasts a vineyard, bowling alley, mini golf course and, perhaps predictably, a ‘shooting range’. But it is what is under the ground that should be of considerably more concern to the authorities. The Olive Press can reveal that the Russian-owned mega-mansion near Marbella has no less than three basements and numerous tunnels dug into the hills overlooking the strategic Straits of Gibraltar. As well as a giant wine cellar with its own separate champagne room filled with vintage bottles - a classic hallmark of President Putin - it also counts a ‘high-tech panic room’ and a ‘control room, full of screens and buttons’. There are two guard stations ‘with at least 10 guards’, a satellite facility and ‘an underground monitoring device pointing towards the straits’, one source told the Olive Press. While officially it is impossible to know who really owns the property in Spain’s most expensive private enclave, La Zagaleta, in Benahavis, var-
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