European governments are mobilizing against Russian oligarchs to put pressure on the Russian president Vladimir Putin to reverse its war in Ukraine, seizing superyachts and other luxury properties from billionaires included in the sanctions lists.
Italy has seized 143 million euros ($156 million) worth of yachts and luxury villas in some of its most picturesque destinations since Friday, including Sardinia, the Ligurian coast and Lake Como.
“We must be able to stop Putin’s attack, bring him to the negotiating table and he will not go with niceties,” Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told Italian state television on Friday. The minister announced Italy’s plans to begin seizures of property belonging to oligarchs close to Putin.
The Italian financial police acted quickly, seizing the superyacht “Lena” belonging to Gennady Timchenko, an oligarch close to Putin, in the port of San Remo; the 65-meter (215-foot) “Lady M” owned by Alexei Mordashov in nearby Imperia. The superyacht has six suites and an estimated value of 65 million euros, as well as villas in Tuscany and Como, according to government officials.
Also seized was the villa of Russian-Uzbek tycoon Alisher Usmanov on northern Sardinia’s posh Costa Smeralda, which has long been a haunt of the world’s wealthiest.
German officials this week denied reports that they had seized Usmanov’s yacht in the port of Hamburg. According to the British government, the oligarch also owns Beechwood House in Highgate, worth an estimated £48m, and the 16th-century Sutton Place estate in Surrey.
Activists say that going after the oligarchs is equivalent to going after Putin.
Source: Gestion
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