The Kremlin is not pleased that French authorities have taken aim at Vladimir Putin’s ex-wife.
A French court’s decision to seize the $5.7-million villa belonging to Russian citizen Artur Ocheretny, the new husband of Lyudmila Ocheretnaya (formerly Putina), is “a priori illegal,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
The “Souzanna” villa in Anglet, near Biarritz, was seized back in December 2023 but the news only became public this week, according to the local publication Challenges.
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Asked to comment on the move, Peskov stressed that the residence was “private property” and “any encroachment on private property is a violation of the law.”
“French authorities are undermining the foundations of their legal system,” he complained.
The villa, now empty and featuring the phrase “Fuck Poutine” graffitied on the gate, is reportedly at the center of an investigation by a division of the Paris prosecutor’s office tackling organized crime.
It was purchased in December 2013, about half a year after Putin and then-wife Lyudmila Putina announced their divorce. In a sign perhaps of how the Russian elite has spread their tentacles across Europe, another neighboring villa is also linked to the Putins. Registered to Kirill Shamalov—the now ex-husband of Putin’s daughter Katerina Tikhonova—the residence was briefly occupied by activists in March 2022 who demanded it be used to house Ukrainian refugees fleeing from Moscow’s war.
