I agree that the claim itself is probably propaganda, but claiming that there "is no entity inside of Russia capable of spitting off that kind of hidden side profit - just for him - in the time frame in question" is also a massive stretch. Russian Ministry of Defense officials estimate that about 25% of the military budget is literally stolen or lost to corruption while anti-corruption gov't auditors estimate the number is at least 40%. Even if Putin only ever gets 1% of that graft, that's $100-200 million a year in revenue from an industry that accounts for less than 5% of the GDP.
That math almost certainly extends to most of the economy because this kind of corruption is damn-near omnipresent in Russian society. I'd need both hands to count the number of times my travel plans were disrupted because someone stole the funds for antifreeze (in Sheremetyevo International no less) or airport/train/border security. Likewise, you could see at Sochi just how vast the chasm was between what was budgeted for and what was actually built. The sheer scale of it is more than enough to generate a few hundred billion dollars for a single person, after paying off all the levels below to maintain power.
Also, what evidence do we have that the stolen funds are even included in the GDP calculation? Are the indicators used to estimate GDP susceptible to the same corruption or can they effectively?
That math almost certainly extends to most of the economy because this kind of corruption is damn-near omnipresent in Russian society. I'd need both hands to count the number of times my travel plans were disrupted because someone stole the funds for antifreeze (in Sheremetyevo International no less) or airport/train/border security. Likewise, you could see at Sochi just how vast the chasm was between what was budgeted for and what was actually built. The sheer scale of it is more than enough to generate a few hundred billion dollars for a single person, after paying off all the levels below to maintain power.
Also, what evidence do we have that the stolen funds are even included in the GDP calculation? Are the indicators used to estimate GDP susceptible to the same corruption or can they effectively?