Two Russian oligarchs worth more than £11bn have come out against Putin’s war on Ukraine.
They are Oleg Deripaska, once Russia ’s richest man but now under US sanctions, and Mikhail Fridman, worth £9.6bn and named by the US treasury in 2018 as linked to Putin.
The Ukraine-born Fridman and his partners own Alfa-Bank, Russia’s largest privately held bank, as well as supermarket chain X5, the country’s largest, and mobile carrier Veon.
The US and EU put Alfa-Bank under sanctions that restrict its ability to raise debt financing on international markets but do not go as far as the measures used to block major state lenders such as VTB from the global financial system.
Both Deripaska and Fridman own properties worth tens of millions of pounds in London.
Deripaska tweeted on Sunday, “Peace is the priority. Negotiations must start ASAP”, while Ukrainian-born Fridman called for an end to the “bloodshed”.
Pressure is growing on other Russian billionaires to follow suit, including six worth £40bn who have valuable assets in the UK.
They include Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich, worth more than £10bn, and Alisher Usmanov, worth more than £12bn.
Neither Abramovich nor Usmanov have currently faced any UK or US sanctions, while Deripaska is not currently under any UK sanctions.
Click here to follow our live blog with the latest updates
Abramovich's spokesperson said on Monday that he had been asked by "the Ukrainian side for support in achieving a peaceful resolution and that he has been trying to help ever since".
They added: “Considering what is at stake, we would ask for your understanding as to why we have not commented on neither the situation as such nor his involvement.”
Abramovich famously owns Chelsea and a London property portfolio reportedly worth £200m alone.
Most of his wealth comes from £2.4bn steel giant Evraz, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
He owns two superyachts, according to the website SuperYachtFan, the 162m Eclipse, worth an estimated £800m and last spotted in Sint Maarten in the Caribbean, and 139m-long Solaris, worth £600m, which was yesterday docked in Barcelona.
Formerly a major Arsenal shareholder but now linked to Everton, Usmanov splits his time between two UK mansions worth more than £100m, in London and Surrey.
His 157m superyacht Dilbar, worth £600m, was last spotted in Hamburg nearly two months ago.
He is yet to publicly comment on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The wealth of Russia’s oligarchs are under threat with the country’s economy in crisis and sanctions affecting their businesses.
Several, including Suleiman Kerimov and Andrei Guriev, were among business leaders summoned to a meeting with Putin at Kremlin last week.
Neither has publicly commented on the war.
Kerimov, worth £10.6bn, has been sanctioned by the US since 2018 - but is not under any UK sanctions.
In 2016, companies linked to his family transferred $8m to Vladimir Chernukhin, husband of a major Tory party donor.
Lawyers for the Chernukhins insisted that “none of the money donated to the Conservative party by Mrs Chernukhin came, or was in any way derived from, Mr Kerimov”.
Kerimov’s son Said owns a string of Polyus companies based in the UK.
Kerimov owns 90m superyacht Ice, currently in Genoa, Italy.
Guriev, worth £4.8bn, a fertiliser tycoon, reportedly owns Witanhurst, London’s largest private home, second in size only to Buckingham Palace and worth a reported £300m.
Since he was named on a 2018 US list of Russian oligarchs close to Putin, his fertiliser business Phosagro, which is listed on the London stock exchange, has paid out more than £850m in dividends.
Guriev is not under any UK sanctions currently.
The Guriev family owns nearly 50% of the shares in the company.
Guriev’s £120m superyacht called Alfa Nero was last spotted in the Bahamas.
Ex-KGB officer Vladimir Yakunin is the former head of the Russian railways who was sanctioned by the US in 2014 over the annexation of Crimea.
His family have strong ties to London. One son Andrei owns a villa in Highgate, north London, bought for £4.5m in 2007 through a Panamanian company. He successfully applied for British citizenship. Yakunin is not known to be faced with any sanctions in the UK.
Andrey Yakunin told the Mirror: “There are many Russians strongly opposing the current military action and I am one of them.
"There is no equal sign between Russians and the Government. Any further loss of life in Ukraine must be stopped now.”
A second son Victor runs an investment firm based in London.
Igor Shuvalov, chairman of the state development corporation VEB.RF is a powerful figure in Russia and a hardline Putin loyalist who has been named as owning two luxury London apartments bought through a Russian company for £11.4m.
It was claimed he used his secret private jet to fly his wife’s Corgi dogs around Europe - including to Britain - for competitions because first class is ‘too uncomfortable’ for them.
Shuvalov said last year: “If a Russian feels any foreign pressure, he will never give up his leader. Never.”
On February 23, the EU added three people not sanctioned in the UK to its sanctioned list, including Igor Shuvalov.
The other two individuals were Vladimir Soloviev, a Russian television presenter, and Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the Russia Today television news network.
Oleg Deripaska, once Russia’s richest man, is now worth just £1.6bn and was sanctioned by the US in 2018. Deripaska launched a failed legal bid to overturn the sanctions.
He allegedly tried to donate to the Conservative Party in the early 2000s and hired former Tory minister Lord Barker to chair his En+ Group in 2017.
Deripaska reportedly owns 20 luxury properties around the world including three in the UK.
Hamstone House, in Surrey, formerly the favourite home of the Duchess of Windsor, is currently on the market for £18m.
Deripaska owns it through one of his offshore companies, along with a £50m Belgravia townhouse and a third property the Mirror has identified close to St James’ Palace.
Deripaska’s 73m superyacht Clio, worth £65m according to SuperYachtFan, was last seen in Sri Lanka, while a smaller vessel, the £3m Elden, is in the Black Sea.
Mikhail Fridman, worth £9.6bn, was named by the US treasury in 2018 as linked to Putin.
But he has strong ties to Britain after buying Athlone House in North London for £65million in 2016.
In a letter to his employees, Fridman wrote: “I am a businessman with responsibilities to my many thousands of employees in Russia and Ukraine.
“I am convinced however that war can never be the answer.
"This crisis will cost lives and damage two nations who have been brothers for hundreds of years.
"While a solution seems frighteningly far off, I can only join those whose fervent desire is for the bloodshed to end.”
It was reported on Monday that the EU is proposing new sanctions on a string of oligarchs.
Bill Browder, hedge fund manager and former investor in Russia, now a political activist, told the Mirror: “I believe that the main missing piece of the sanctions program is going after the oligarchs.
"If we really want to give Putin a black eye, these people need to be sanctioned.”
The UK Government's website only names six companies and five individuals with new sanctions against them.
The Mirror approached all companies and organisations linked to individuals mentioned in the above article for comment.
