In theory, Vladimir Putin’s wealthiest friends are nowhere to be found in Europe. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU has adopted rules to ban prominent Russians from business circles, freeze their financial assets, seize their villas and confiscate their yachts.
But ask hotel managers, restaurateurs and boat charterers on the palm-lined streets of the French Riviera and they’ll tell you the Russians keep coming. There’s a well-established system here that allows them to maintain their lifestyle and avoid the consequences of war, tourism professionals tell POLITICO. About 30,000 Russian speakers live in Villefranche-sur-Mer, Antibes, Cannes, Saint-Tropez and Monaco.
This is at least partly due to the difficulties of the sanctions regime. The government has frozen about 50 properties, most of them on the French Riviera, owned by Russians targeted by the EU sanctions regime. In April, two oligarchs, Mikhail Fridman and Pyotr Aven, challenged the EU’s decision to put them on the sanctions lists and won their case, taking a step toward regaining the rights to his villa in Saint-Tropez for the former and his mansion in La Turbie for the latter. (If a mansion has been seized by the authorities, that doesn’t prevent its owner from maintaining it or inviting guests there. The only thing he can’t do is sell it.)
While legal associations and landlords have challenged the rules before the EU’s highest court, local judicial authorities are struggling to cope with the ever-changing rules.
“Most of the time it is so complicated to understand who is behind these companies, trusts or foundations that the only way to obtain definitive proof is to search these houses in search of clearer evidence,” explains an investigating judge in the region, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly.
Contacted, the Ministry of Finance, responsible for implementing the sanctions through a task forcedeclined to comment.
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