Global Courant 2023-05-26 12:53:56
Russia has announced it has nationalized Volodymyr Zelensky’s vacation home on Crimea’s Black Sea coast and plans to sell the property to finance its invasion of Ukraine.
The leader of Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014, announced in a video the decision of the local legislature to nationalize 57 properties that once belonged to Ukrainian tycoons and public figures.
“Crimea will regain rights to a number of properties, including a building in Simferopol belonging to the banned Crimean Tatar parliament, as well as Olena Zelenska’s apartment,” Sergey Aksyonov said, referring to the president’s apartment that has been registered on behalf of his wife.
“Russia’s enemies will not make money in Russian Crimea,” he added.
Zelensky was the country’s most popular comedian and co-owner of a successful television production company before being elected president in 2019.
The Zelenskys bought a three-room apartment in the prestigious Crimean seaside town of Livadia in 2013 and reportedly never got to live there due to renovations.
Russian state media estimated it was worth around $800,000 (£648,000).
Russia’s 2014 annexation triggered a massive land grab across the peninsula as at least 4,000 businesses and individuals were expropriated from their properties in the first year of the occupation alone.
In many cases, owners were forced to pay bribes simply to restore their property rights.
Vladimir Konstantinov, the speaker of Russia’s proclaimed parliament, said on Thursday that Zelensky’s apartment would be sold and the proceeds would likely be used to finance the war in Ukraine.
“It will go on sale and the money will go primarily to the needs of the special military operation, the families of the soldiers killed in Ukraine and the families of the mobilized people,” he told Russian state television.
Earlier this year, Russian authorities in Crimea ordered the nationalization of around 700 properties, from vineyards to factories, belonging to some of Ukraine’s richest tycoons, suspected of “hostile activity” and ties to the Kiev government.
It was not clear where the proceeds from that sale went.
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