Billionaire oligarch Oleg Deripaska who called Putin’s war ‘madness’ has his $1billion Sochi hotel complex and marina seized after ‘Kremlin asked him to calm down’
- Metal tycoon Oleg Deripaska has repeatedly condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine
- A Russian court ordered his $1b Imeretinskiy hotel complex in Sochi to be seized
- The legal dispute predates war and Putin’s spokesperson said was not linked
Billionaire oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who called Putin‘s war ‘madness’, had his $1billion hotel complex and marina in Sochi seized after the Kremlin reportedly asked him to ‘calm down’.
Deripaska, 54, is one of a small number of oligarchs to have risked criticising the Russian President’s invasion of Ukraine.
The metals tycoon, who made his fortune as the founder of aluminium giant Rusal, initially spoke out after Russian forces swept into neighbouring Ukraine in February.
But it has since emerged that a Russian court has ordered his $1billion Imeretinskiy hotel complex and marina in Sochi should be seized. The enforcement is said to have come after the Kremlin asked him not to criticise Putin’s so-called Special Military Operation, according to Financial Time sources.
Billionaire oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who called Putin’s war ‘madness’, had his $1billion hotel complex and marina in Sochi seized (pictured in 2016)
A Russian court ordered his $1billion Imeretinskiy hotel complex and marina in Sochi to be seized after the Kremlin asked him not to criticise Russia’s war in Ukraine
He tweeted in March: ‘We need peace as soon as possible, as we have already passed the point of no return.’
The Kremlin reportedly then asked him to tone down his criticisms and to ‘calm down’.
In June Deripaska added that destroying Ukraine would be a ‘colossal mistake’.
Two weeks later the Sirius Federal Territory, a science and education hub established by Putin, filed three land dispute lawsuits against RogSibAl, Deripaska’s company that owns the complex.
The legal dispute between the two predates the war. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the FT that Sirius is the president’s ‘baby’ but that it was ‘absolutely incorrect’ to assume the court cases were linked to Deripaska’s statements about the war.
The science hub and the hotel complex, which stretches 1.5 kilometres along the Black Sea coast and comprises hotels, apartments and swimming pools, are next to each other
Deripaska and his aluminum giant Rusal have been under U.S. sanctions since 2018 for malign activity in both Russian-annexed Crimea and Ukraine, despite Deripaska being one of the most prominent Russian oligarchs to have spoken out against the war.
The science hub and the hotel complex, which stretches 1.5 kilometres along the Black Sea coast and comprises hotels, apartments and swimming pools, are next to each other.
Deripaska is one of a group of businessmen known as oligarchs who control large parts of the economy, especially in energy and commodities, and have been able to preserve their fortunes on condition that they stay out of politics.
Sochi, the largest resort city in Russia, is known for hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics.