A St. Petersburg entertainment venue linked to Svetlana Krivonogikh, who was previously identified as a former mistress of Vladimir Putin, is behind a show being staged this fall at the Bely Mys (lit. “White Cape”) wine center in the southern Russian resort town of Gelendzhik, located on the coast of the Black Sea, The Insider found. The wine center itself is also linked to people close to the Russian leader and has frequently been described as Putin’s “wine Disneyland.”
The show, titled “Wine Cabaret,” is running at Bely Mys. It premiered Sept. 12, with the final performance scheduled for Oct. 10. The event combines cabaret, wine tasting, and a gastronomic dinner:
“Wine reveals itself onstage through music, dance, circus arts, acrobatics, live vocals, lighting, visual imagery, and gastronomy,” according to the description on the show’s website.
Tickets cost between 25,000 and 60,000 rubles ($295 to just over $700).
The wine center itself has previously been linked to Putin’s inner circle. The Bely Mys website domain is owned by a company belonging to a friend of Putin’s from his youth at the Yavara-Neva judo club, The Insider reported this past June. The editorial team also established a link between the new show and other figures close to Putin: the company organizing it is owned by Svetlana Krivonogikh, who was named in a 2020 investigation by the independent outlet Proekt as being the mother of one of Putin’s daughters. In 2016, before the past romantic connection between Putin and Krivonogikh had become known, The Insider identified her as one of the “close acquaintances” who accompanied the then-FSB Director on flights between Moscow and St. Petersburg in 1999.
The current show has been organized by the team behind Leningrad Center, an entertainment venue and performing arts theater housed in the historic former Leningrad cinema building in St. Petersburg’s Tavrichesky Garden. The center’s legal entity is the aptly named LLC Profit (ООО «Профит»). Three-quarters of the company is owned by LLC Relax (ООО «Релакс»), which is wholly owned by Krivonogikh.
Leningrad Center has repeatedly faced criticism over what some viewers described as excessive sexualization in its productions. Its 2021 show LoveSick was billed as the “most provocative and explicit” production staged at the venue, promising audiences “the aftertaste of encounters with a seductive 1930s cabaret dancer, a Victorian courtesan, or a model from Andy Warhol’s studio.” Another production, “Favorites of the Moon,” starred the American actress and former Playboy model Carmen Electra, who had previously performed with the erotic revue Crazy Horse Paris at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Audience reviews complained that the show mixed “theater, circus, musical, and striptease, but all of them half-baked,” as well as featuring “unjustified bare breasts” among the performers. Social media posts from “Wine Cabaret” indirectly suggest that the same style has been retained.
Bely Mys, Russia’s largest wine-themed entertainment complex, is located on the waterfront in Gelendzhik. It includes a wine museum, an enoteca boasting the country’s largest collection of Russian wines, more than 10 restaurants, a movie theater, a Wine Academy, and even a civil registry office where marriage certificates can be signed. The complex also has its own yacht marina.
In 2024, the independent Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo reported that companies linked to Vladimir Putin were involved in building the complex. Developer Veles-Stroy had worked on the reconstruction of “Putin’s palace” at Cape Idokopas, while Alexei Borodin, director contractor Politekhstroy-Svargo, had previously served as an aide to the presidential envoy to the Volga Federal District. The project’s main investor is Bank Rossiya — which is controlled by billionaire Yuri Kovalchuk, another one of Putin’s close personal friends. Bely Mys uses the wine.ru domain, which belongs to Bastion, a company whose beneficiary until the end of 2023 was Taimuraz Bolloyev, a friend of Putin’s from the Yavara-Neva judo club.
