Russia has declared the nationalization of Volodymyr Zelensky’s holiday home on Crimea’s Black Sea coast and intends to sell the property to finance its invasion of Ukraine.
The leader appointed by Russia in Crimea, which was unlawfully annexed by Moscow in 2014, made a video announcement on Thursday, stating that the local legislature has decided to nationalize 57 properties formerly owned by Ukrainian tycoons and public figures.
“Crimea will regain rights for a number of properties including a building in Simferopol that belongs to the banned Crimean Tatar parliament as well as Olena Zelenska’s flat,” said Sergey Aksyonov, referring to the president’s flat that is registered in his wife’s name.
“Enemies of Russia won’t be making money in Russian Crimea,” he added.
Prior to his election as president in 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky was widely known as Ukraine’s most popular comedian and co-owner of a successful TV production company.
In 2013, the Zelenskys purchased a three-room penthouse apartment in the prestigious coastal town of Livadia in Crimea. However, they never had the opportunity to reside there due to ongoing renovations and the subsequent annexation of Crimea.
Russian state media estimated the value of the property to be approximately $800,000 (£648,000).
Russia’s annexation of 2014 triggered a massive land grab across the peninsula as at least 4,000 enterprises and individuals had their property expropriated just in the first year of the invasion.
In many cases, owners were forced to pay bribes to simply re-assert their property rights as the Russian government started to register properties anew.
Vladimir Konstantinov, speaker of the Russia-declared parliament, said on Thursday the Zelenskys’ flat will be sold off and the proceeds are likely to be used to fund the war in Ukraine.
“It will be put up for sale, and money will first of all go towards the needs of the special military operation, families of the killed soldiers and families of the mobilised men,” he told state Russian TV.
He suggested the Ukrainian president is not going to miss the property: “Of course, it is not a big loss for him.”
Mr Zelensky reportedly was not renting it out.
Earlier this year, Russian authorities in Crimea ordered the nationalisation of about 700 properties, from vineyards to factories, belonging to some of Ukraine’s richest tycoons suspected of “enemy activity” and links to the Kyiv government.
It was not clear where the proceeds from that sell-off went.