The pictures went around the world. Whether in Sardinia, in Tuscany, on the Ligurian coast – in the posh ports of Italy, officials from the Guardia di Finanza seal superyachts by the dozen. Super villas and super limousines are stormed. In front of running TV cameras. The treasures belong to super-rich Russians who are on the European sanctions lists. The EU authorities are targeting 680 of Putin’s friends, including 26 billionaires. Many of them lived a dolce vita before the Kremlin launched its war of aggression against Ukraine.
Italy didn’t hesitate. The first yachts were seized as early as March. In the Ligurian town of Imperia, the financial police collected the “Lady M” (value 65 million euros) from oligarch and Tui major shareholder Alexei Mordashov (56). Shortly thereafter, the confiscation of the “Lena” (value 50 million euros) followed in Sanremo. Owner: Gennady Timchenko (69), founder of the Volga Group. The officials also struck in Trieste. It was about the “Sy A”, the largest sailing yacht in the world. The ship, which weighs more than 500 million euros, belongs to the Russian businessman Andrei Igorevich Melnichenko (50). Finally, the catch of the “Sheherazade” in the Carrara marina made headlines, a suspected treasure before Vladimir Putin (69) himself worth almost 700 million euros.
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Sailing yacht costs up to 30,000 euros a day
But sealing is not enough. You superyachts need maintenance. They have expensive insurance and have staff on board who can no longer be paid by the owners. Port fees also apply. The costs remain with the Italian state.
The three-master “Sy A” alone costs 20,000 to 30,000 euros a day with the 30-strong workforce, writes “La Repubblica”. The goods of the sanctioned are “frozen” but not “confiscated”. This means that at some point they would have to be returned to their owners – spotless and in the same condition as they were when they were confiscated. At least that’s what the Italian lawyers for the sidelined oligarchs are demanding. The responsible national real estate agency “Agenzia del Demanio” passes the hot potato on to the Ministry of Finance and Economics in Rome, which is now supposed to take over the bill.
Villas and luxury cars belonging to the oligarchs were also confiscated
Italian authorities have also confiscated villas and luxury cars. There are, for example, the properties in Sardinia owned by Metalloinvest founder Alisher Usmanow (68), by banker and Putin friend Petr Olegowitsch Aven (66) and the “Villa Lazzareschi” in the province of Lucca by Russian MP Oleg Savtschenko (74). Their properties are worth several hundred million euros. They all employed servants, gardeners, security personnel – now at the expense of the state.
On Lake Como, the confiscated villas of the Russian TV presenter Vladimir Soloviev (58) became the target of vandalism. Putin opponents tried to set fire to one of the houses with rubber tires. The other was smeared with diatribes, the pool filled with blood-red paint. According to a national decree from 2007, “frozen” goods must be protected and cared for. So the Italian state pays for any damage incurred.
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