Villas, jets, yachts: Italy accelerates and hunts for the treasure of the Russian oligarchs

The first kidnappings of Russian oligarchs who, notoriously, have a great many “movable and immovable” interests in our country could also start very soon in Italy. In addition to any financial holdings, the properties are also under the sunlight: villas, jets and yachts. In all, the people affected by the European sanctions are 680 and 26 are the “super rich” Russians. These include Alexey Mordashov, who cruises the Costa Smeralda with a real 146-meter “ship”. Or Igor Sechin, at the helm of the state oil giant Rosneft, which has a smaller “ship”: 88 meters. The committee at the Ministry of Economy and Finance will have to deal with it, which for this very reason has brought together the financial security committee. And in fact, the Bank of Italy requested banks and financial operators to communicate “as soon as possible” the “freezing measures of funds and economic resources” of the Russian subjects hit by the European sanctions. The CSF, founded in 2001 and chaired by the Director General of the Treasury, is made up of representatives of the Mef, the Interior, Justice, Foreign Affairs, the Bank of Italy, Consob, Isvap, the Information Unit financial, the GdF, the Dia, the Carabinieri and the National Anti-Mafia Directorate. “The Committee – explains the Mef – has conducted a survey of the measures to freeze funds, mobile and immovable economic resources, so far adopted against the Russian persons and entities identified in the lists attached to the aforementioned regulations, and of the information exchanges in progress”. So now: “The Committee will continue to guarantee the maximum connection of the administrative and investigative initiatives and actions necessary to ensure the effectiveness of the sanctions”. However, this is not an easy activity, also because many Russian oligarchs have already implemented counter-moves (for example by selling their shareholdings in advance) and in some cases they can count on the double passport granted by Malta or Cyprus in recent years to attract capital. But the Italian ‘counter-moves’ are also other: the Minister of Development Giancarlo Giorgetti has in fact given the go-ahead to the task force that will have to deal with the repercussions for companies that operate directly in Russia and Ukraine. While Sace announces the temporary suspension of the «assessment of the assumption of new risks for the export credit activity in Russia and Belarus». “The West – Joe Biden threatened in his State of the Union address – will seize the yachts, luxury apartments and private jets of the Russian oligarchs.” Even in Italy it is now accelerating.