Putin denies Navalni's accusations about his alleged billionaire palace on the Black Sea

It is already impossible for the Kremlin to hide its head under the sand.

The weight of the massive protests last Saturday to demand the freedom of the opposition Alexei Navalni has made him shake after trying to ignore him for years.

Russian authorities have tried to downplay the demonstrations, fueled by the activist's latest investigation, which targeted Russian President Vladimir Putin and his alleged billionaire palace on the Black Sea.

This Thursday, the Russian leader has criticized the "illegal" and "dangerous" mobilizations and has branded the information about his alleged mansion as a "montage" to "brainwash the citizens."

One more step that shows that the situation has overflowed.

"Nothing that is indicated [in the investigation] as my property belongs to me, nor to my close relatives," Putin said in response to a question from a young man from the city of Ufa in a digital conference for Student's Day .

The Russian leader's words, however, cleverly do not contradict the investigation.

The reports published last Tuesday by the Navalni team, with the opponent already behind bars serving a month in preventive detention, indicate that the building is located in the southern city of Gelendzhik, which would have cost more than 1,200 million euros and that supposedly it was financed fraudulently and through trusted frontmen and oligarchs.

Who, according to reports, actually own the estate, covering about 7,800 hectares, about 39 times Monaco and featuring vineyards, private hockey and tennis courts.

The student's question is very symbolic.

He comes from one of the groups in which support for the opposition is growing the fastest - precisely thanks to social networks - and also asks for the video about the case, published on the opposition leader's YouTube channel and which has already accumulated almost 80 million views.

Putin assured that he had not seen "the movie" because he has "too much work" although he has analyzed the "boring" material that his collaborators have given him.

"Of everything I saw, I was only interested in one thing, not as a business but as a type of activity: winemaking," commented the Russian leader, who assured that he wants to be an entrepreneur and that "when he finishes" it looks more like adviser;

also in the world of vineyards.

Although he was informal, in a blue jacket and shirt and no tie, the fact that the Russian president spoke about the protests and commented on the investigation and Navalni's video - about a case, moreover, that has been on the air for more than a decade - is striking.

"It is a direct recognition of the anger of the people," believes analyst Tatiana Stanovaya.

The political landscape of Russia (145 million inhabitants) has changed after seeing the tens of thousands of people who took to the streets in more than a hundred cities - and very varied - to support the opposition, arrested just after returning to Moscow from Germany, where he recovered from the poisoning last summer in Siberia after which he sees the hand of the Kremlin.

Navalni, a populist and openly nationalist politician but also a man whom many Russians now look up to with admiration after his daring return to Moscow despite threats of arrest, could embody the leadership figure that the diverse and disunited Russian opposition does not. it has if it manages to unite them around common themes: citizen discontent and satiety towards political and economic elites and corruption.

That was the common tone at demonstrations across Russia on Saturday.

The authorities are "totally disoriented" after the demonstrations on Saturday, analyzes the political scientist Konstantin Kalachyov, who believes that they have reacted "hysterically".

There were more than 3,700 detainees, according to the specialized organization OVD-Info.

The Navalni team has called new marches for the weekend.

The prominent opponent, who is accused of violating the terms of an old sentence that imposed a suspended jail sentence and provisional release, faces a court hearing in this case on February 2.

To this case adds another recent one: the accusation of large-scale fraud.

With both, he could be sentenced to more than a decade in prison.

When the confrontation between the Kremlin and its critics appears to be on the verge of escalating, the Russian authorities have raised the tone against the West.

In addition, the Russian Foreign Ministry charged against Internet giants and social networks such as Facebook whom it accused of not blocking false information about the marches in favor of Navalni and alleged calls to participate directed at minors.

The penalties for “luring minors to illegal events” are even harsher.

And the message about the "incitement" to the youngest arrives coordinated.

On Sunday night, on a prime-time show on state television, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov accused the United States of interfering in Russian politics and sailed to downplay the protests.

“Many will say that many people attended this illegal demonstration.

No, few people came out, but a lot of people vote for Putin, ”he said.

"If you compare the numbers you will see how few people there were," he remarked.

The Kremlin is now faced with the dilemma of how to deal with the mobilizations and the

Navalni case

.

A harsh repression and a severe sentence can unleash a wave of more intense public indignation.

But getting the opponent out of prison may also make the cracks in the system more visible in a key political year, with legislative elections scheduled for September.

Meanwhile, the European Union has parked for now the debate on new sanctions against Russia for the

Navalni case

and the high representative for EU Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, is preparing a next trip to Moscow at the beginning of next month.