Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s team said it had appealed to authorities in France and Switzerland with a request to seize the assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ex-wife, Lyudmila Ocheretnaya, and her current husband, Artur Ocheretny. “We have proved that foreign real estate in Ocheretnykh was bought with corrupt money and we expect the EU to seize these assets,” the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) said on Wednesday, August 17. According to the opposition, the relevant proposals have already been sent to the chancelleries of the two countries.

“We are confident that sanctions against people close to Putin will force political and business elites to withdraw their support. And this is the most important step towards destroying his regime and stopping the war he unleashed in Ukraine,” Navalny’s associates emphasized. , pointing to an earlier investigation into Putin’s ex-wife.

FBK investigation into Lyudmila Ocheretnaya (ex-Putina)

In early August, FBK released a film about the Ocheretnys, claiming that they own a historic mansion on Vozdvizhenka Street in central Moscow, given to them by city authorities. According to the researchers, in the 2000s, Lyudmila Putina supervised the Center for the Development of the Russian Language, created especially for her. The Moscow mayor’s office and the administration of the president’s affairs gave the center ownership of an old building next to the Kremlin. After the repair and addition of two floors, it was renamed the “Center for the Development of Interpersonal Communications”, and is now headed by Putin’s new husband, whose name she adopted in 2015 is indicated later.

According to the authors of the 44-minute film, Artur Ocheretny leases a building worth 10 billion rubles to Meridian, owned by his wife, who subleases it to Sberbank, VTB and other commercial projects, earning more than 250 million rubles per year. . According to investigators, the “Center for the Development of Interpersonal Communications” also receives funding from Moscow City Hall, Gazprombank and Severstal, which brings in another 415 million rubles a year, which Artur Ocheretny’s company lends to Meridian. With that money, he buys apartments and houses in the south of France, Switzerland and Spain. In particular, the couple own a villa in Biarritz, an apartment in Davos and two apartments in Malaga, and the total value of real estate abroad is estimated at almost 600 million rubles. At the same time, Ocheretnye is not included in the EU sanctions lists.

A few years ago, Reuters also wrote about Putina’s income from renting a mansion in Moscow.