Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has purchased a 53m superyacht valued at approximately $42 million as a venue to host world leaders in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

The Kremlin bought the boat last year, the Guardian reports. The explorer type superyacht, which is presently called Leo Fun, will be renamed as yacht Sirius.

The yacht was built by Proteksan-Turquoise and Turquoise Yacht Construction for an Italian businessman and launched back in 2009.

Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani’s luxury hotel brand is planning to develop a hotel in Russia’s Caucasus region, a report said Friday.

Armani Hotels and Resorts, which opened its first development in Dubai last year, will launch another one in the Stavropol region’s mineral springs resort area, together with other investors, Kommersant daily reported.

Investment in the project, which is to be unveiled at the upscale MIPIM real estate show in Cannes in March, could surpass 150 million dollars, the report said.

RuLeaks, a Russian WikiLeaks type site has posted photos of a lavish mansion alleged to be Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s estate on the Black Sea.

The existence of the “Putin palace” on the Black Sea was discussed by the Washington Post’s David Ignatius in an article last year.

According to Russian whistleblower Sergey Kolesnikov, the still under-construction digs cost more than $1 billion, include an amphitheater and three helipads

A diamond-studded saucepan is attracting plenty of interest at Moscow’s top annual luxury fair, where a vast array of sparkly bling, fast cars and enormous price tags is on offer.

The saucepan has a handle and lid encrusted with 270 diamonds and is decorated with 18-carat gold, brand manager Natalya Oreshkina said.

Made by German cookware brand Fissler, the utensil is not really suitable for cooking, Oreshkina added, shuddering at the idea of putting it in an oven.

“It is for serving food beautifully,” she explained as crowds packed the Manezh exhibition centre in central Moscow on opening night Friday.

A Russian company plans to launch a comfortable space hotel for tourists who up to now have shared cramped accommodation with astronauts.

The company, Orbital Technologies, plans to launch the first module of the hotel in 2015-16, its chief executive Sergei Kostenko told RIA Novosti news agency.

A cosy fit, the first module will measure just 20 cubic metres (706 cubic feet) and have four cabins, designed for up to seven passengers, who would go into orbit using the Soyuz shuttle, Kostenko said.

Up to now space tourists, who have included the Canadian founder of the Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberte, have squeezed into the International Space Station (ISS) along with cosmonauts and animal life including fruit flies.

A new luxury train began running Thursday between Moscow and Nice in the south of France, in a flashback to the tsarist times when Russian aristocrats flocked to the French Riviera.

The Russian Railways-operated train will depart from Moscow’s Belorussky station every Thursday afternoon, and arrive in Nice 53 hours later after passing through European capitals including Warsaw and Vienna.

“Today is a day of celebration,” said Mikhail Akulov, vice president of Russian Railways, “It’s a new stage in our partnership with the French railways.”