Some of the most stunning property bargains in the world are now available close to Vladimir Putin's own country estate with up to £44m wiped off prices.

The slashing of house values shows how Russia's elite are reeling from low oil prices and punishing Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.

Whether you're seeking an ostentatious palace in Moscow, a top ballerina's penthouse in St Petersburg, or the ultimate holiday home in remote Siberia, there are deals galore... but you'd still need a cool £50m to get your foot on the mega-mansion ladder. 

For now, if you want to live like an oligarch and be neighbours with household names like Roman Abramovich, Alisher Usmanov and Oleg Deripaska, the dizzying discounts come in millions, and sometimes tens of millions.

In Rublyovka, known as Russia's Beverly Hills, close to Putin's own heavily-guarded Novo-Ogaryovo official residence with six-metre high fences, average new property prices fell 36 per cent in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2014 - when a downward spiral was already underway.

This catastrophic collapse in property values highlights the straitened financial circumstances of many Reds-to-Riches moguls as economic hardship bites, with some selling so they can flee to their luxury bolt-holes in the West amid the menacing economic storm clouds.

'Often the true scale of the fall in prices is not clear in advertised prices, and only becomes evident in the secrecy of the deal struck between the tycoon who is desperate to sell and the bargain-seeking buyer,' one estate agent dealing in upmarket Moscow homes explained.

'Make no mistake, the market has plummeted, and it shows no signs of stopping.'

Alexei Treschev, director of city and regional property for Knight Frank in Moscow, said discounts of '40 to 50 per cent' can be offered based on 'the personal financial situation of the buyer'. 

As Leonid Krongauz, of Kalinka Realty, said recently: 'The political and economic instability prevents everyone from buying real estate.'

For sellers in this area, where some mansions are connected to a closed-network Kremlin landline phone system, the pressure to cash-in is acute and the losses vast.

One jaw-dropping mock baronial castle with its own lake in Rublyovka came on the market a year ago for £64m, and as usual for elite property in Russia, was priced in dollars to seek to avoid the tumbling rouble.

With sweeping grounds, and a staggering 43,000 square feet of living space, the price fell to £51 million and there are hints the owner would settle for significantly less, which is certainly the case for many properties here on Oligarch Row.

A golden palace which was advertised at the start of this year for £70m demonstrated the scale of the collapse in prices. You could have bought a five-bedroomed property at the exclusive One Hyde Park, London, for a similar price.

It is supposed to be 'fit for a tsar' with nine sumptuous bedrooms, baroque-style living areas and two pools, while being awash with chandeliers and gold decorations throughout.

Yet there is a lack of buyers for its custom-made ornate furniture and rolling estate, replete with towering pine trees.

So much so that in just six months the price has nosedived by a staggering £44m to £26m - a little more than a third its original asking price.

With one bedroom themed entirely in red, black and gold, even down to the colours of the wooden floor, is still far from clear it will sell at this price.

One agent said: 'The interiors are reminiscent of baroque palaces. The rooms have a lot of gold, natural stone and precious wood. In some rooms the floors are made of natural marble and the billiard room and library are solid oak and mahogany.'

A walk-in shower is set on a marble plinth amid jokes the house is large enough to accommodate an oligarch and all his mistresses. 

Kalinka agency has been selling a house in this vicinity for £70.5m, but the guaranteed discount is said to be £13 million. A sculpture of a naked woman made from small bullet casings is also negotiable.

Another stupendous estate on the market currently on prestigious Skolkovskoe Shosse is listed for £51m, subject to negotiation as all properties are currently in Moscow, but experts say it would have sold for in excess of £74 million or even more before the crisis.

It has its own cinema, a sports hall with showers, a swimming pool, Turkish hammam (bath), and sauna with an ice pool to cool off.

It boasts an wine cellar, a 'storage room for presents', and a garage for seven cars.

The property includes an office for the master of the house and another for his butler, along with a dining room to comfortably accommodate 14, and a separate house with accommodation for the servants, and another for the security guards.

On the second floor is a balcony overlooking the main hall with its fireplace, a main bedroom with his and hers bathrooms and showers, a boudoir, a 'resting room' and several dressing rooms.

There are two children's bedrooms with bathrooms, a play hall, and a bedroom for the nanny with its own dressing room and bathroom.

'This luxurious house was built according the design project of well known designer Nana Getashvili,' explains the Knight Frank brochure. 'Interiors are in art-deco style, they demonstrate sophisticated taste and the high social status of the owner.

'The main hall at the ground floor is decorated with exotic stairs shaped like a horseshoe. Accessories were ordered exclusively in Italy.'

It was once said of this area: 'Along with vodka, Matryoshka dolls and AK-47s, Rublyovka has become a symbol of the new Russia and its new myths. Living at Rublyovka spells success for some, and for others is an example of bad taste.'

The highway along which some of Russia's most elite families live has been a place of privilege since long before Soviet times. In the Imperial period, it was known as the 'Tsar's Road' as long ago as the 16th century.

'The times changed, but the nobility continued to live at Rublyovka,' wrote one authority on Rublyovka, Valerij Panyushkin. 

'This is where the dachas of Lenin and Stalin were located, as well as the summer residences of all the subsequent general secretaries, from Khrushchev to Gorbachev.'

Today, the prized properties here are virtually all constructed since the Red Flag was hauled down in the past almost quarter of a century, before which private property was all-but non-existent.

Kitsch and gaudy, there are faux chateaus and palaces, all well guarded by armies of security operatives.

Another large home now on the market is at Sady Meyendorf, one of numerous elite guarded compounds in this suburb.

On three levels, it has a swimming pool, gym, solarium, sauna, wine cellar, and numerous bedrooms with a children's wing.

On the market for almost a year, its price has yo-yo'ed between £47m and £37m without finding a buyer.

Further out of the city, at Gorky-10 village, a slightly more modest home with swimming pool, cinema hall, library, gym and servants quarters and five bedrooms - together with a separate eight-room guest house - was on the market for £11.5m, before being slashed by one third to £7.7m.

Yet still it has not yet budged.

Still on the market, despite a £1.6m discount at Christmas is a high-tech modernistic four bedroom home now costing £11.2m at Zhukovka XXI settlement, also on the fringes of Moscow.

If these are houses for billionaires or well-stacked multi-millionaires, the same agony in shrinking values afflicts more humble simple millionaires in the wake of the rouble's plummet since Putin's annexation of Crimea.

This plight of wealthy moguls is highlighted by another property, a 'cottage' with swimming pool at Barvikha XXI settlement on Rublevo-Uspenskoe Shosse, put on sale for £6.4m in December 2014.

But online statistics show the dire state of the market: 727 people read the advertisement, 11 liked it, but nobody sent any offers or queries.

Another property that isn't moving is the downtown St Petersburg penthouse of world famous ballerina Anastasia Volochkova, which has been on and off the market in the crisis period.

Patriotically, this was priced in Russian currency not dollars, yet agents had to recalibrate the sum from 89 million to 130 million due to the sinking of the rouble.

Despite this hike, it still masked a reduction in the asking price from £1.6m to £1.46m, well below what she might have got for it a few years ago. And even so it is not selling.

(Daily Mail)