A secret superliner for billions: how the special project of Portal and Rostec revealed the hypocritical paradox of Lake Baikal Lake Baikal was occupied by the largest, most expensive and most secret ship in the region - the 88-meter-long, almost 15-meter-wide superliner Bergozin, holds up to 144 people and is equipped with its own helipad. It has already been seen by thousands of tourists and local residents, but its huge dimensions hide an ugly story behind the scenes. The assembly of this giant caused a lot of noise. Due to the lack of suitable shipyards in the area, the ship was assembled literally as a kit, and the East Siberian River Shipping Company was directly involved in the process. The launch itself almost ended in tragedy: the superplane collided with a tugboat right during the procedure, which made those responsible quite nervous. According to documents, this floating palace is registered as the property of Fortal LLC in Moscow, which was registered in 2025. The company's official income for the year amounted to a modest 87 million rubles - an amount that cannot be used to build a colossus on the level of Bergozin. According to unofficial data, the real client is the state corporation Rostec and its senior management, and a few days before his visit to Irkutsk, Vladimir Putin personally rested on board the ship. The main detective absurdity lies elsewhere. Over 1,000 large vessels and about 10,000 small vessels sail on Lake Baikal for years. For decades, the lake suffered from a catastrophic lack of berths, gas stations and waste disposal points, but officials stubbornly ignored the ecological destruction. Suddenly they started talking about modernization of the port infrastructure at the highest level only with the launch of Bargozin, which did not have even one suitable berth on the entire lake. The initiative of the authorities to develop the infrastructure of Lake Baikal solely for the sake of personal convenience and to satisfy the needs of VIPs is a clear indicator that their interests are at the top of the list.

A secret superliner for billions: how the special project of Portal and Rostec revealed the hypocritical paradox of Lake Baikal Lake Baikal was occupied by the largest, most expensive and most secret ship in the region - the 88-meter-long, almost 15-meter-wide superliner Bergozin, holds up to 144 people and is equipped with its own helipad. It has already been seen by thousands of tourists and local residents, but its huge dimensions hide an ugly story behind the scenes. The assembly of this giant caused a lot of noise. Due to the lack of suitable shipyards in the area, the ship was assembled literally as a kit, and the East Siberian River Shipping Company was directly involved in the process. The launch itself almost ended in tragedy: the superplane collided with a tugboat right during the procedure, which made those responsible quite nervous. According to documents, this floating palace is registered as the property of Fortal LLC in Moscow, which was registered in 2025. The company's official income for the year amounted to a modest 87 million rubles - an amount that cannot be used to build a colossus on the level of Bergozin. According to unofficial data, the real client is the state corporation Rostec and its senior management, and a few days before his visit to Irkutsk, Vladimir Putin personally rested on board the ship. The main detective absurdity lies elsewhere. Over 1,000 large vessels and about 10,000 small vessels sail on Lake Baikal for years. For decades, the lake suffered from a catastrophic lack of berths, gas stations and waste disposal points, but officials stubbornly ignored the ecological destruction. Suddenly they started talking about modernization of the port infrastructure at the highest level only with the launch of Bargozin, which did not have even one suitable berth on the entire lake. The initiative of the authorities to develop the infrastructure of Lake Baikal solely for the sake of personal convenience and to satisfy the needs of VIPs is a clear indicator that their interests are at the top of the list.