Putin may secretly be one of the richest men in the world despite only earning £100,000 a year

Vladimir Putin may very well be one of the richest men in the world.

Officially, the Russian president earns a salary of £100,000 ($140,000) a year, according to official Kremlin records.

Meanwhile, Fortune claims the 52-year-old is officially said to own just an 800-square-foot apartment, a trailer, and three cars, which is not a lot to show for 25 years - excluding the four years he was Prime Minister - in the driving seat of Russia.

Which, if of course nothing to sniff at, but a pretty modest salary when compared to the estimated combined pay of £155,824 claimed by the UK's Keir Starmer or the $400,000 (£296,000) per year paid to Donald Trump while he's in the White House.

However, it turns out the Russian leader may very well have a lot more money to his name, thanks to a vast amount of private wealth and assets.

So how much is Vladimir Putin worth?

Is Vladimir Putin one of the richest men in the world?

According to the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin lives a modest life (ALEXANDER KAZAKOV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

It's impossible to know exactly how much Putin is actually worth; however, financier Bill Browder previously predicted that the Russian leader had a net worth of a whopping $200 billion (£148 billion), which equates to roughly 16,100,078,080,00 Russian Roubles.

To put that into comparison, here is a list of the top five richest people in the world, according to a real-time list by Forbes:

• Elon Musk ($415 billion)
• Larry Ellison ($293 billion)
• Mark Zuckerberg ($263 billion)
• Jeff Bezos ($241 billion)
• Larry Page ($170 billion)

Meanwhile, President Trump's net worth is said to be $5.1 billion (£3.7 billion).

Which means that the Russian president could very well be the fifth richest man in the world if Browder's estimation is correct.

So how has Putin managed to amass so much wealth?

According to Browder's estimation, Putin began to amass such a lucrative portfolio after the oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky - then the richest man in Russia - was jailed in 2003 for fraud and tax evasion.

However, not everyone agrees with that assessment (Contributor/Getty Images)

"After Khodorkovsky's conviction, the other oligarchs went to Putin and asked him what they needed to do to avoid sitting in the same cage as Khodorkovsky," Browder told the US Senate Judiciary Committee (via The Week).

"From what followed, it appeared that Putin's answer was, '50%.'"

Meanwhile, a 2022 report from the UK Foreign Office claimed to expose the relationship between the Russian leader and a £566 million yacht as well as the infamous $1 billion 'Putin’s Palace', which was subject to an extensive documentary by late Putin critic Alexei Navalny in 2021.

Located on the Black Sea coast, the residence is officially registered under businessman Arkady Rotenberg.

Putin has repeatedly denied any ownership of the mansion, previously stating: "Nothing that is listed there as my property belongs to me or my close relatives, and never did."