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Italy seizes more than $150 million from Russian oligarchs

These oligarchs’ high lives are over — at least in Italy.

Italian police have seized more than $150 million worth of yachts and villas from four superrich Russians who had been placed on an EU sanctions list after Moscow attacked Ukraine, sources told Reuters Saturday.

A luxe villa owned by billionaire businessman Alisher Usmanov on the island of Sardinia, as well as a villa on Lake Como owned by state TV host Vladimir Soloviev have been seized, police sources told the outlet.

Yacht
Italian police have seized $150 million in yachts and villas from four Russian oligarchs on an EU sanctions list.
Antonio Calanni

Yachts belonging to Russia’s richest man, Alexey Mordashov — who has a net worth just north of $29 billion, according to Forbes — and Gennady Timchenko, who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, were impounded overnight in the northern Italian port of Imperia.

Russian oligarchs reportedly bought a number of luxury estates in Italy over the past 20 years and sources said more of them are expected to be seized in coming days as the West increases its sanctions against Russia.

Ukraine map
Map of Russian attacks in Ukraine as of Saturday, March 5th, 2022.
Yacht
Yachts belonging to Russian oligarchs Alexey Mordashov and Gennady Timchenko were impounded.
Fabrizio Tenerelli

The Bank of Italy’s financial intelligence division on Friday told Italian banks to notify it of all measures taken to freeze the assets of people and entities placed on the EU list.

Uzbekistan-born Usmanov is well known in Italy for owning multiple properties on Sardinia and Mordashov reportedly owns a $72 million villa on the same island.


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Mordashov and his family had an estimated net worth of $29.1 billion before sanctions hit, Forbes reported.

Mordashov’s 215 ft yacht the “Lady M” was worth about $65 million while Timchenko’s boat Lena carried a price tag of about $60 million, a police source said.

Timchenko made a fortune in oil trading. Putin’s called him a close associate.

Vladimir Putin, Alisher Usmanov
Italy seized Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov’s villa on the island of Sardinia.
Alexei Druzhinin

Soloviev was reportedly unhappy when he found out last month that he risked losing his Italian villa.

“Suddenly someone makes a decision that this journalist is now on the list of sanctions. And right away it affects your real estate. Wait a minute. But you told us that Europe has sacred property rights,” he was quoted saying by The Daily Beast.

About the author

Donna Miller

Donna is one of the oldest contributors of Gruntstuff and she has a unique perspective with regards to Science which makes her write news from the Science field. She aims to empower the readers with the delivery of apt factual analysis of various news pieces from Science. Donna has 3.5 years of experience in news-based content creation, and she is now an expert at it. She loves journalism, and that is the reason, she moved from a web content writer to a News writer, and she is loving it. She is a fun-loving woman who has very good connections with every team member. She makes the working environment cheerful which improves the team’s work productivity.

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