Russia: President Putin's lavish spending on St Petersburg's tercentenary and taste for luxury trappings is causing disquiet, writes Daniel McLaughlin, in Moscow
Russian President Vladimir Putin wished his home town St Petersburg a happy 300th birthday yesterday, amid lavish celebrations that have residents wondering whether the Kremlin leader's tastes are becoming more Tsar-like by the day.
Peter the Great founded a fortress by the Neva river on May 27th, 1703, and Mr Putin has devoted more than $1 billioto marking the event and restoring St Petersburg's palaces before the arrival this weekend of President Bush and European Union leaders.
But in a city where infrastructure and housing are bywords for decrepitude, Mr Putin's extravagant spending on festivities and state trappings is threatening his reputation as a low-key man of the people.
When he hosts this weekend's summits in the Konstantinovsky Palace, it will mark the end of an extraordinary project to restore an 18th century building that was all but destroyed by second World War fighting and a 1986 fire.
Behind a tight security cordon, some 7000 labourers have been working round the clock to finish restoring the palace and its vast landscaped gardens.
The breathtaking results of 18 months' work and about $300 million were unveiled last weekend to Russian television cameras.
Inside the coffee and cream coloured walls of the Baroque building, more than 50 rooms glitter with crystal chandeliers and gilded paintings, above a restored wine cellar stocked with Hungarian Tokai wines - just as it was in the 18th century.
The centrepiece of the palace is the stunning Marble Hall, a chandelier-bedecked, blue and yellow confection where Mr Putin will meet world leaders this weekend.
His guests will stay in 20 luxury guesthouses that stud 200 hectares of parkland, set beside a network of canals and bridges leading down to the Gulf of Finland.
Responding to growing disquiet about the cost of the St Petersburg celebrations - and the lack of any obvious long-term benefits to residents - Mr Putin said yesterday that his home town needed a special location for summits, and insisted that the restoration of the Konstantinovsky Palace had cost the government barely a penny.
"We appealed to our major private companies and they financed about 99.9 per cent of the restoration, in total about $290-300 million," Mr Putin said, while promising to complete a series of long-delayed infrastructure projects in the city, including a ring road, a metro line and flood barriers.
But the Kostantinovsky Palace apart, the government still spent more than $1 billion beautifying St Petersburg, a project seen as especially dear to Mr Putin, whose growing appreciation of expensive presidential toys has not gone unnoticed among Russians.
A new $4 million presidential yacht called The Pallada has just been built, to replace a communist-era vessel that was refitted for more than a million dollars two years ago.
Another presidential yacht, The Rossiya, is no longer considered comfortable enough for a world leader.
Mr Putin ordered a fourth ship for use during the St Petersburg celebrations. He is expected to spend just a few hours on the $3 million Burevestnik, watching riverside festivities from its observation deck.
He also reportedly shelled out millions of dollars refurbishing a presidential plane with silks, a state-of-the-art television and hi-fi, and gold-plated taps in the bathroom.
Mr Putin dismissed accusations of overspending on St Petersburg yesterday, insisting that the Konstantinovsky Palace would not be his personal residence in Russia's northern capital, and saying nothing was too good for his home town on its 300th birthday. "I really love our city, my city," he told television.