Italy confiscates luxury villa from Russia's richest oligarch

Rome, 18 Mar Italy today confiscated a luxury villa in the port of the Sardinian city of Olbia (west) from Russian magnate Alexey Alexandrovits Mordaschov, within the framework of sanctions for the invasion of Ukraine, government sources reported. The villa for residential use has a value of around 105 million euros and has been requisitioned following the investigation by the Finance Guard (police of tax crimes and borders). Italy had already requisitioned the mega yacht “Lady M”, moored in the port of Imperia (northwest) from Mordashov, president of the Severstal metallurgical and energy conglomerate. The businessman, who also holds a third of the shares of the travel agency TUI, the largest in the world, was considered in 2021 by Forbes magazine the richest oligarch in Russia with a net worth 29.1 billion euros. Italy is thus continuing the confiscations of Russian oligarchs in retaliation for the war in Ukraine, which began on 24 February by order of the regime of Vladimir Putin. On March 12, he blocked the largest sailing yacht in the world to Russian magnate Andrey Melnichenko when he was docked in the port of the city of Trieste (northeast). Melnichenko, one of the richest men in Russia, founder of the MDB bank and investing in the petrochemical sector, was on the European Union's list of oligarchs to be sanctioned for aggression. A week earlier, on March 5, Mario Draghi's government seized assets worth 150 million euros, including assets, yachts and villas. Among these was also the yacht “Lena”, by Gennady Timchenko, located in the port of Sanremo, with an estimated value of approximately 50 million euros. As well as a 17th century mansion, Villa Lazzareschi, on the hills of Capannori, near Lucca (Tuscany, center) and which was purchased in 2018 at the price of three million euros by Russian businessman Oleg Savchenko. CHIEF gsm/fp