Luxury villas and yachts
France plans to confiscate Russians loyal to the Kremlin
3/2/2022 7:23 am
Rich Russians have been drawn to the French Côte d’Azur since the 19th century. But EU sanctions as a result of the attack on Ukraine are now making them tremble for their multimillion-dollar possessions – including pompous villas, expensive yachts and luxury cars.
A few hours after Russia attacked Ukraine, a Boeing Dreamliner took off from Nice. The wide-bodied aircraft belongs to the Russian oligarch and owner of the London football club FC Chelsea, Roman Abramovich. He must have guessed what the French government announced a few days later: it wants to confiscate the property of Russians close to the government in France.
Meanwhile, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire announced that lists are being drawn up of villas, yachts and luxury cars owned by Russians that are already or could soon be affected by EU sanctions. These lists are likely to be long, because the Côte d’Azur is traditionally a playground for rich Russians. It all began in the middle of the 19th century when, after the English, they discovered the French Mediterranean coast as a winter residence.
The royal family regularly spent several months a year on the Côte d’Azur. At the beginning of the 20th century there was a railway connection between St. Petersburg and Nice, which was frequently used by Russian grand dukes. Russian writers such as Nikolai Gogol and Anton Chekhov also wintered on the Côte d’Azur. In 1912, Tsar Nicholas II had a magnificent Russian Orthodox church built in Nice, at the time the largest outside of Russia.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, as a result of which some businessmen became fabulously wealthy, many of them were drawn to the Côte d’Azur, where they bought pompous villas or had them built – preferably on the promontories surrounded by beaches such as Saint-Jean- Cap Ferrat, Cap Martin or Antibes. On the one hand the sea, on the other mountains and nature reserves – there is not much space left for new buildings. Monaco, popular with the wealthy, is trying to expand its territory again and wrest a few hectares of land from the sea through embankments.
“Quay of the Billionaires”
In Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Arkady Rotenberg, one of the most influential entrepreneurs in Russia, owned the Villa Shoshana. Last summer, according to local media reports, he had his ex-wife thrown out of the villa with the help of private security forces. His brother Boris is called “the billionaire of Eze”, after the village on a hill on the coast. Gennady Timchenko, a confidant of President Vladimir Putin, owns a villa in Lavandou, where he often spends his weekends. According to the magazine “L’Obs”, he gave his wife Elena the five-star Hotel Club de Cavaliere on Cap Nègre.
Britain had already imposed sanctions on Boris Rotenberg, his nephews Igor and Timchenko on Tuesday last week. However, they are not on the most recent EU list. Abramovich, who has since given up the management of Chelsea FC, has not yet been affected by the individual sanctions.
In addition to the villas, France also wants to confiscate the yachts of rich Russians. These can be found in ports such as Cannes (especially during the film festival), Saint-Tropez and especially in Antibes, on the so-called billionaires’ wharf. There are 18 spaces for extra large yachts. The marina has not been open to the public for several years.
Abramovich’s 162-meter-long luxury yacht “Eclipse” often anchored in Antibes. Until 2013, she was the largest yacht in the world and had, among other things, a cinema, two heliports and its own missile defense system. According to media reports, the “Eclipse” was in Barcelona for maintenance at the end of last year and is currently in the Caribbean. France will therefore probably not be able to confiscate the Boeing and Abramovich’s yacht.