Billionaire businessman Arkady Rotenberg on Saturday said he is the owner of the Black Sea coast property that Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny alleges belongs to Russian president Vladimir Putin and costs over $1.5 billion.

According to Navalny, the 17,691 square metre mansion sits on a property 39 times the size of Monaco and features a casino along with a theatre, an underground hockey arena, an aquatic disco and a hookah lounge complete with a pole-dancing stage, AFP reported.

Underscoring the grand price tag, Navalny noted in a two-hour video report that it features Italian-made toilet brushes estimated at 700 euros ($851) apiece.

ALSO READ | Vladimir Putin signs law extending nuclear arms control treaty between US and Russia

Navalny’s video has garnered over 100 million views on YouTube, helped spur the largest street protests in Russia in years and forced Putin to deny that he or his relatives own the property.

On Saturday, Putin’s aide and former judo partner Rotenberg said the property belonged to him.

“I have successfully concluded a deal with some creditors and I became the beneficiary of this site,” Russian news agencies quoted Rotenberg as saying, AFP reported.

His media service said the billionaire wanted to turn it into an apartment hotel.

“Everything has been done with great care, efficiently and professionally,” he said.

“I am hoping that we will finish work on the hotel in a few years,” he said.

Russian state television on Friday rubbished claims that the property was owned by Putin and dismissed reports that it had an aquatic disco, showing an empty fountain at the purported site.

ALSO READ | Navalny’s brother, supporters placed under house arrest till March

But Navalny’s allies say work is ongoing to rectify flaws due to “negligence” during initial construction.

Rotenberg is a significant figure in Russia as the co-owner of huge construction firms which build infrastructures like bridges and gas pipelines. 

The businessman has been under US sanctions since 2014, when officials described him as a member of the “Russian leadership’s inner circle” who they claimed provided “support for Putin’s pet projects,” BBC reported.