Protesters occupied a mansion linked to a Russian oligarch on Monday, demanding that the building, located in one of London’s most upscale areas, be used to house Ukrainian refugees.
Protesters occupied a mansion linked to a Russian oligarch on Monday, demanding that the building, located in one of London’s most upscale areas, be used to house Ukrainian refugees. A blue banner with the words “this property has been liberated” and a red one reading “Putin will screw you” hung from two balconies of this imposing cream-colored building located at 5 Belgrave square, while a Ukrainian flag flew in a window. Four protesters, three of them with partially masked faces, were on a balcony and identified themselves as the “London Makhnovists”, an anarchist group.
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According to the Property Registry, the building, located in central London near Hyde Park, is owned by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands. It is managed by Graham Bonham Carter, a British businessman whose bank accounts were frozen in early March by British justice. Graham Bonham Carter manages Oleg Deripaska’s property portfolio, which represents several million pounds in the United Kingdom. Mr. Deripaska is among seven Russian oligarchs sanctioned on Thursday by the British government which imposed an asset freeze and a travel ban on them for their links with the Kremlin. Monday morning, the mansion was surrounded by a police cordon and guarded by half a dozen police vehicles, noted an AFP journalist. “Our intention is to use this building to house refugees,” one member of the group told reporters.
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Another activist explained by telephone to AFP that the group had entered the building overnight from Sunday to Monday. He described the mansion as “sickeningly rich” and “magnificent”, believing that “it’s what a war refugee deserves”. Referring to the British government’s sanctions on Russian oligarchs with property in the UK, he said that by law, “it could take up to six months to seize their properties. Frankly, that’s ridiculous (. ..) we are now seizing their properties,” he said, saying he chose this one for its “size” and “location.” “The police were notified shortly after midnight” of this intrusion, explained a spokesperson. “Officers showed up and found that a number of people had entered and hung banners from upstairs windows. Police officers remain at the scene.”
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