The Russian multibillionaire of Ukrainian mother, Roman Abramovich, has rented a villa on the Bosphorus in Istanbul for $50,000 a month. The news was reported by the local press, which in recent months had repeatedly reported the Russian tycoon on the shores of the Bosphorus. In the end, the choice fell on the beautiful Feyyaz Tokar villa, a circumstance also confirmed by Ulvi Ozcan, president of the Turkish real estate association.
Abramovich chose Turkey after being hit by the EU and Britain’s asset freezes along with other Russian billionaires, despite repeatedly denying closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government. An accusation rained down on him directly from Great Britain, with a report, which speaks of ‘decades of relationship’ between the two that would have brought ‘financial benefits and advantages’ for the tycoon’s companies. Abramovich’s closeness to Putin prompted Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky to ask the White House to stop sanctions against the oligarch.
Abramovich himself was present last March 29 in Istanbul, when the delegations of Russia and Ukraine met to continue the negotiations previously started in Belarus, without however reaching an agreement for a ceasefire. The war in Ukraine also forced Abramovich to sell the Chelsea team, which was taken to the top of English and European football before being sold to an American group for 5 billion dollars.
Roman Abramovich’s yacht in Turkey
The oligarch could, according to the local press, even buy a Turkish football team, however at the moment there is no confirmation, even if the fans are dreaming. For Abramovich now Turkey represents a new base. A country that has not applied the sanctions against Russia and in which the former Chelsea owner has moored his 4 yachts in recent months, the total value of which is estimated at 1.2 billion dollars.
In recent months, Abramovich has in fact moved his personal fleet of yachts to Turkey, in an attempt to avoid the confiscation that would have resulted from the sanctions with which Western countries have hit Russia. The last two yachts to arrive in Turkish waters are the ‘Garcon’ and ‘Halo’, which escaped sanctions from the port of Falmouth, in Antigua and Barbuda, where they had been moored after the start of the war and where they seriously risked being confiscated after being identified by the British authorities. The other vessels of the Russian oligarch, the ‘Solaris’ and ‘Eclipse’ had arrived in Turkey last March following routes specially designed to avoid international waters and sanctions.
The wealth of the oligarch, number one of the private investment agency Millhouse LLC, was estimated at 14.5 billion dollars before the conflict. Numbers that make him the eleventh richest man in Russia, the richest in Portugal and the second richest in Israel, both countries of which he holds the passports together with the Russian one.
