I watched Ukrainian’s President Zelensky’s speech to Congress and the video of the abominable horrors perpetrated by Russian forces on the citizens of the country. It is heart wrenching to see what is happening!

I have been fascinated with the activities of Russian Oligarchs for quite a while. Click on this link for a definition of a Russian oligarch. Putin and his oligarchs talk about their distaste of the West, but they love shopping in Paris and Monte Carlo, and keep their massive yachts in Barcelona and other ports. They hide assets through real estate and launder money through blind trusts in Cyprus, Caymans, Swiss banks, British Virgin Islands, etc. Even my beloved Island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands rates in 15th place on the list of the world’s greatest enablers of global corporate tax abuse. They own huge homes and villas in London, the Cote d’Azur, New York, and Miami. Swiss banks store over $11 billion of oligarch’s money. Some say over a trillion in dark money is hidden outside the country!

These kleptocrats sure love mega yachts like the 460-foot, $700 million dollar, “Scheherazade” pictured above! According to vesselfinder.com it is now somewhere in the West Mediterranean trying to avoid being impounded by Western governments.

I had my first encounter with an oligarch’s super yacht while in Barcelona years ago. Roman Abromovich is one of Russia’s wealthiest oligarchs and worth over 13 billion dollars. One of his huge yachts is at the upper right in the photo above. Today he owns two yachts worth 1 billion dollars!

The “Dilbar” is shown above in the Antibes harbor. Walking around this harbor last July, I thought the yachts on the far right were large. The Dillbar is the world’s 6th longest superyacht at 511 feet, worth nearly an eye-watering one billion dollars. It is owned by Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov – one of Russia’s richest men. The yacht currently is in Germany. They have refused to let it leave the harbor in Hamburg.

France has impounded Russian energy czar and one of Putin’s favorites, Igor Sechin’s yacht, Amore Velo, worth close to $600 million dollars. Another of his yachts was just seized by Spain as well.

I have a memory of an experience with a Russian oligarch’s family while Marla and I were staying at the Brenners Park hotel one January in Baden Baden Germany. We kept seeing the couple’s daughter (about 12 years old) prancing around the hotel totally decked out in very high-end designer fashion, always with a scowl on her face. We sat right next to the couple and their daughter at dinner one evening. The father ordered an extremely expensive bottle of Chateau Mouton Rothschild at close to $2000 on the wine list. He and his wife never smiled nor did they talk during the whole dinner. He drank the wine like it was a glass of lemonade with almost no enjoyment. The child simply wandered around in a new designer outfit. Ok, I admit to eavesdropping, but it was just so weird. We felt very sorry for them. I’ll never forget it!

We were guests of a friend at the La Chevre D’Or in Eze, France. Surrounded by Russians, we noted the favorite hors d’ouevre seemed to be the $125 Lobster with gold leaf and caviar on the side…. a perfect starter for oligarchs.

This is one of Roman Abramovich’s villas on the Cote d’Azur.

Trump Tower in New York City has a number of shady oligarch’s owning apartments. Russian money is invested all over New York City and elsewhere.

I feel for the common Russian, many of whom are totally unsupportive of the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. Today’s Saint Petersburg was called Leningrad on my first visit many years ago. It was eye-opening to say the least and I enjoyed meeting the Russian people. It will be fascinating to see how all of this plays out! It will take a concentrated effort to make the oligarchs close to Putin feel any pain. Click on this link to see how Putin’s Oligarchs are still dodging Western sanctions.