The U.S, the European Union and the United Kingdom sanctions on Russia have caused panic among Russian oligarchs.
Startled by the international community’s week-old rush into sanctions on Russians with close ties to Vladimir Putin amid his invasion of Ukraine, some of the country’s top oligarch’s are scurrying to offload assets and hunkering down for the long run.
Exactly a week since Russia began its war with neighboring Ukraine, there has been a flurry of assets including yachts, soccer clubs, jewelry and real estate being put up for sale by some of Russians wealthiest people.
Wondering who made the list of Russians hit with sanctions? TheStreet has you covered.
Authorities Get Serious
A variety of international squads have been created to track and confiscate sanctioned assets, but the one getting the most press right now is the posse convened by the United States.
Dubbed Task Force KleptoCapture, the U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday announced it had loosed its agents into the global community to find and stop “those whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue this unjust war.”
Both Britain and Japan said they were stepping up efforts to either enact new lists of sanctions or sanction-adjacent people, or in aiding their allies who have formal sanctions in place.
In addition, the 17 other countries including Canada and the U.K. have agreed to ban Russian planes from their airspace, saying they will not allow the “planes of the aggressor state in democratic skies.”
Wondering what exactly an oligarch is? We can help you with that, too.
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So What’s For Sale So Far?
Perhaps the best-known seller is Roman Abramovich, the long-time owner of everything from the world’s second-largest yacht to a beloved British soccer team, and one of the most visibly glamorous oligarchs being watched.
Abramovich has not yet been hit by sanctions despite heavy pressure in Parliament to place him on the U.K.’s roster.
In the last week he has reportedly put his two London mansions in posh Kensington Palace Gardens and on the Chelsea Waterfront for sale; slapped a FOR SALE sign on the Chelsea Football Club; and is rumored to be quietly shopping the Eclipse, his ultra tricked out mega yacht that comes with a three-person submarine.
Celebrity buyers for the boat alone are said to include Leonardo di Caprio and Paul McCartney, while Bloomberg reports that private equity firm HIG Capital and asset manager Optimus Capital have come calling on the Chelsea FC sale, which Ambramovich reportedly wants to offload for at least $4 billion.
Russian oligarchs alone have been officially linked to at least $266 million in real estate in the U.K., but the amount is likely much higher due to the use of shell companies and other ways to anonymize buyers of luxury properties.
Transparency International to estimates that $1.48 billion “worth of London property is owned by Russians accused of corruption or links to the Kremlin.”
Sell It While You’ve Got It
Still, at least Abramovich has the option to sell.
With hundreds of people listed on the U.S. sanctions list alone, the move to offload anything valuable could shift the market in significant ways across the globe — particularly in areas with no extradition treaties or ones that do not have or recognize sanctions.
For now, a number of Russians currently on sanctions list from the U.S., the EU and the U.K. have had their property either frozen immediately or unceremoniously yanked away by regulators.
Both Germany and France said this week that they had seized the yachts of two sanctioned Russians, Igor Sechin and Alisher Usmanov.
Sechin’s yacht, dubbed the Amore Vero (True Love), had been about to flee, French authorities said, but was nabbed in the French Riviera port of La Ciotat.
Sechin is under sanctions for a variety of ties to the Putin regime, but is best know for his connection oil giant Rosneft, of which he is the biggest shareholder.
A Real Flight to Safety
Now comes the real test of who will emerge from the Russian/Ukrainian conflict as relatively unscathed financially as possible.
At least five yachts owned by a variety of well-known oligarchs are anchored off of the Maldives, a nation with no extradition treaty with the U.S. Their owners include powerbrokers Vladimir Potanin, Oleg Deripaska and Alexander Abramov, Reuters reports.
Other wealthy Russians are being pressured to sell real estate or high-end jewelry and in some cases even masterpieces of art. Long considered the main buyers of extremely expensive goods and services, the selling of many of these items could reset their individual markets substantially.
In New York City alone, Russian oligarchs own billions in property — laid out thoughtfully here in a map by the New York Post — and oversee billions more via their businesses, foundations and regular frequenting of upscale eateries, galleries and the charity circuit.
Others have taken a more practical page from an earlier re-routing of Russian wealth at the birth of the Soviet Union and are investing in luxury jewels, which are smaller and easier to smuggle out of tight situations should the need arise.
Why Now May Be the Time to Sell
Still, with messages like the ones authorities have in place becoming increasingly aggressive, it is likely time for anyone who could even remotely be considered an oligarch or even just Putin-adjacent to consider a lifestyle change of some sort.
“We’re coming for your yacht. We’re coming for your jet. We’re coming for your ledger. That’s the key message,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told “Bloomberg Technology.”
