Vladimir Putin has escaped to his secret lakeside ‘palace’ amid brutal suppression of anti-mobilisation demonstrations in Moscow and St Petersburg.

Despite denials from the Kremlin, Putin appears to have vanished on holiday to his ‘most secret official dacha’ in northern Russia.

The residence, nestled in the forests of the Valdai Hills – about halfway between Moscow and St Petersburg – boasts a three-storey spa complex with a ‘personal beauty parlour’ nicknamed the ‘temple to his asceticism’.

His vacation comes as more than 700 people were detained by Russian authorities today at protests against the partial mobilisation ordered this week by the president, according to independent monitoring group OVD-Info.