My private jet, my yacht, my property – in short: the triumvirate of oligarchs. Anyone who made it after the fall of the Soviet Union likes to show it off. But since Russia’s attack on Ukraine, everything has changed: Many countries, including the USA and the EU, have sanctioned numerous Russian billionaires because of their closeness to the government and have frozen their assets – insofar as they were tangible, of course.
And while you can close accounts, fly planes, and put yachts out to sea (barring ongoing maintenance), what remains is the concrete gold — a mansion over three square miles is inherently quite steadfast.
Two villas already occupied
The business magazine Forbes has therefore taken the trouble to collect the known addresses of sanctioned oligarchs, even if some shell companies from tax havens are in the land register for most properties – the longer someone owns a house, the more difficult it is to remain anonymous.
Activists are not sitting idle either. Katerina Vladimirovna Tikhonova, the daughter of Vladimir Putin, and the oligarch Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska felt this. In both London and the French coastal town of Biarritz, villas were occupied at short notice, in both cases in clear protest against the bloody war in Ukraine and the demand to open the gigantic estates to house refugees.
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And while activists in France have yet to grapple with the authorities and have had to leave the property, the British government even sympathizes with the idea. London Mayor Sadiq Khan described the accommodation of people from Ukraine in the Protz palaces as an “act of poetic justice”. A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed that such plans are currently under review.
Perfect as refugee accommodation
Great Britain would have huge hostels available in one fell swoop. In Greater London, for example, there are several (currently yawningly empty) accommodations available in the Greater London area: Sutton Place and Beechwood House by Alisher Usmanow, Roman Abramovich’s Kensington Palace villa, Mikhail Fridman’s Athlone House and Oleg Deripaska’s two estates – guaranteed with a high standard of living.
+++ Read also: He is one of Putin’s closest circle: Oligarch Melnichenko railed against the confiscation of his $ 600 million yacht +++
Forbes lists a total of 62 addresses that can be directly assigned to sanctioned billionaires. The total value of the real estate is more than 2.5 billion US dollars.