Lanfranco Cirillo

For many years, Italian architect Lanfranco Cirillo had a brilliant career in Russia — most notably, he designed the luxurious residence featured in Alexey Navalny’s “Putin’s Palace” investigation. But despite the president granting him Russian citizenship and the fact that he had many lucrative business projects in Russia, the 62-year-old left the country several years ago. For Meduza, journalists from the media project “Sector Four’’ spoke to Lanfranco Cirillo to find out more about how “Putin’s palace” was built and why he decided to leave his Russian career behind and return to his native Italy. Please note. This article was originally published on February 3, 2021, and has been abridged for length and clarity. You can read the original text in Russian here . Recently, the 62-year-old architect’s name has been making headlines once again following the release of an investigation by Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation into a massive, secretive residence supposedly built for Vladimir Putin outside of a resort town on the Black Sea. That said, most articles about Cirillo contain nothing new — the Italian’s role in the construction of the “palace” became known 10 years ago. Cirillo readily agreed to an interview with Meduza, though he was concerned that his Russian might not be good enough. “I haven’t spoken [Russian] for a long time, I haven’t had any practice,” he worries. In his words, since he now has no “personal interest” or business in Russia, he can speak “absolutely calmly.” “But what can I tell you? I’m worried that it’s not very interesting,” Cirillo adds. Referred to as “Putin’s architect” in both the Russian and the Western press , Cirillo’s relationship with Russia lasted for more than 20 years and only ended four years ago. That said, his most famous creation — the palace allegedly built for Putin on Cape Idokopas — has yet to be completed . Little is known about Cirillo’s life before he arrived in Russia and he’s reluctant to talk about this period. He was born in Venice in 1959 and studied at the city’s Ca’Foscari University. Though journalists have expressed doubts about him being a real architect (according to the Russian outlet The New Times , Cirillo isn’t registered with any Italian architects’ guilds), Cirillo rejects these claims. “All Italian and international publications call me an architect, no one even doubts it. I showed [them] my Italian diploma, everything is in order,” he assures Meduza. Nevertheless, he declined to show Meduza his degree. “You seriously think that I would have been able to design and do what I did without an education?! That ridiculous,” he says, indignantly. Apparently, his Russian projects were done under the name of his studio, Lanfranco Cirillo Masterskaya, because his Italian diploma isn’t recognized in Russia. “I undersigned as a design studio. I think it’s absolutely legal,” he explains. After finishing university, Cirillo “gained experience as a furniture and interior designer” in Italy. He then went on to work on “several projects” in Saudi Arabia, Hungary, and Uzbekistan. But he refrains from delving into his memories from this time period, since his “real career” began only in Russia. Lanfranco Cirillo came to Russia in 1993. In a 2016 interview with the independent television network Dozhd, he said that he was simply “walking around Milan” when he got a phone call from Moscow: “My colleague called and said ‘There are Russians here who speak great German. Do you speak German?’ I said, ‘Listen, I know four words in German.’ ‘Well, that’s better than me, come over.’ And so I came over. There was a man who wanted to build a dacha outside of Moscow. As a traditional Italian adventurer, I said, ‘Okay, I’ll come and see.’ And so it began.” Cirillo tells Meduza that his Russian first client “wasn’t a famous person.” He describes him as an “ordinary businessman, an Armenian,” who wanted to build a cottage in the prestigious Rublyovka suburb (he can’t remem