More than 40 million watch Navalny video which claims Putin has secret Black Sea villa

Feature-length video published after Navalny placed in jail for 30 days upon his return to Moscow

Millions of people have watched a video released by Alexei Navalny in which he claims Russian President Vladimir Putin used illicit funds to build a billion-dollar palace on the Black Sea coast.

The video was released by Mr Navalny’s team on Tuesday, two days after he was jailed for 30 days upon his return to Moscow.

Mr Navalny alleges in the footage that the estate cost £1 billion (US$1.35 billion) and was paid for “with the largest bribe in history”, which he said involves offshore companies and transfers within Mr Putin’s inner circle.

In less than 24 hours, the video gathered nearly 22 million views on YouTube. At the time of writing, it has been viewed more than 41 million times.

According to the video, the estate sprawls across 17,691 square metres and described it as “the new Versailles, or the new Winter Palace - a truly royal palace”.

A spokesperson for The Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, dismissed the allegations and described it as “nonsense”.

According to the Moscow Times, he said: “These are all absolutely unfounded claims. This is pure nonsense.”

Mr Peskov added that the palace “has nothing to do with either the president or the Kremlin so we haven’t the slightest desire to be interested”.

“The Russian president declares his entire property and publishes it in [tax] declarations every year.”

Russia’s leading opposition made the return to his home country from Germany, where he was flown for emergency medical treatment in August after he collapsed on an internal flight to Siberia.

It was later determined that he had been poisoned by a nerve agent of the Novichok class. Mr Navalny blames the attempt on his life on Mr Putin, but the Kremlin denies any involvement.

The video, which runs for more than an hour, calls on Russians to “take to the streets” and protest the arrest of Mr Navalny on Saturday, urging them not to “stand aside”.

“For many years, Navalny has been fighting for our rights. Now it’s our time to fight for him.” it says in the introduction.

Mr Navalny was sentenced to 30 days in prison, pending a trial. According to court documents, he was tried for allegedly missing parole registration after being evacuated for treatment in Germany.

The parole related to a suspended sentence handed down in the 2014 “Yves Rocher” case, which was dismissed as politically motivated by the European Court of Human Rights.