Italy seizes yachts and villas from Russian oligarchs, say state sources
Italian police have seized villas and yachts worth at least €140m (£126m) from four high-profile Russians who were placed on an EU sanctions list after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, sources said on Saturday.
A police source said a villa owned by the billionaire businessman Alisher Usmanov on Sardinia, and a villa on Lake Como owned by the Russian state TV host Vladimir Soloviev, had both been seized.
In addition, sources confirmed that yachts belonging to Russia’s richest man, Alexei Mordashov, and Gennady Timchenko, who has close ties with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, were impounded overnight in northern Italian ports.
Russian oligarchs are believed to have bought numerous villas in desirable Italian locations over the past 20 years and sources said more assets were expected to be seized in the coming days as western states implement sanctions to try to force Russia to withdraw from Ukraine.
Italian banks were instructed by the Bank of Italy’s financial intelligence division on Friday to urgently let it know of all measures taken to freeze the assets of people and entities placed on the EU list.
Usmanov, an Uzbekistan-born metals and telecoms tycoon, is well known in Italy for owning multiple properties on Sardinia, while Italian media say Mordashov owned a villa worth €66m on the same island.
Taking into account the assets of his whole family, Forbes magazine estimated that Mordashov had an estimated net worth of $29.1bn before sanctions hit.
His 65-metre (215ft) yacht the “Lady M” had a price tag of €65m and was impounded in the north-west port of Imperia, while Timchenko’s ship, Lena, which is worth €50m, was seized in nearby Sanremo, a judicial source said.
Timchenko made a fortune in oil trading and has been
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