Never mind the war, the French Riviera still loves oligarchs

CÔTE D’AZUR, France — In years past, if you wanted to spot a Russian oligarch, you headed to the southeast of France. Even now, with war still raging in Ukraine, nothing has really changed (but you might have to look a little harder).  

“It’s been a while since we have seen Roman Abramovich,” said an employee at Le Rocher, a swanky restaurant in Antibes, where the former Chelsea FC owner was often seen with his bodyguards until French authorities seized his mansion in April 2022. 

“But even if he were to be seen here, I wouldn’t tell you,” the restaurant employee, who refused to give his name, added with a laugh.

On paper, Vladimir Putin’s most fortunate friends are nowhere to be found in Europe. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU has passed laws to ban prominent Russians from business circles, freeze financial assets, seize villas, and confiscate yachts. 

But ask hotel managers, restaurateurs, and people who rent out boats on the palm-tree-lined streets of the Côte d’Azur and they’ll say the Russians are still coming. There’s a well-established system here for rich Russians to maintain their lifestyles and avoid the consequences of war, they told POLITICO. And approximately 30,000 Russian-speaking people live in Villefranche, Antibes, Cannes, St. Tropez and Monaco.

This is at least in part because of difficulties around the sanctions regime. France has frozen about 50 properties belonging to Russians placed under the EU’s sanctions regime — and most are located in the French Riviera. In April, two prominent Russians — Mikhail Fridman and Piotr Aven — challenged the EU’s decision to put them on sanctions lists and won, a step toward reclaiming the rights to their St. Tropez villa and La Turbie mansion, respectively. (If a mansion has been seized by the authorities, that doesn’t stop the owner from maintaining it or inviting guests to stay. The only thing they can’t do is sell it.)

While legal associations and property owners have challenged the rules in front of the EU’s top court, local judicial authorities are struggling to cope with the ever-changing rules.

“Most of the time, it’s so complicated to understand who is behind those companies, trusts or foundations that the only way to get a final proof is to raid these houses in search for clearer evidence,” said an investigative judge in the south of France, who was granted anonymity as they were not allowed to speak publicly.

The French finance ministry, tasked with implementing the sanctions through a dedicated taskforce, refused to comment. 

And while there have been numerous sanctions packages, some politicians question their effectiveness.

“We’re entering an era of industrialization of sanctions — and the EU has not been built for that purpose, it’s not in our DNA,” said a senior French finance ministry official who worked on sanctions implementation. He was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the sensitive nature of his work.

“The norms we’re building here are not strong enough,” the official added.

It’s all about the money

The Côte d’Azur has remained a top destination for wealthy Russians because it has welcomed the money while turning a blind eye to the source of income, said Éric de Montgolfier, a former state prosecutor of Nice.

“This region is all about other people’s money, it was peasants’ land before rich tourists settled here,” said de Montgolfier. The area has been poisoned by corruption at all levels, he added.

“Everyone knows that money has no smell, so as long as the Russians have the wisdom to remain discreet, they have nothing to fear from the Riviera.”

The conservative mayor of Antibes, Jean Leonetti, agreed. 

“You know, life in Cap d’Antibes is discreet: People come from all over the world and they don’t make a fuss, most of the time,” he said, adding the town has a handful of properties belonging to sanctioned Russians.

There are so many Russians in the south of France that Moscow Market — a store selling vodka, Russian products and Vladimir Putin fridge magnets in Antibes — has opened another branch in glamorous Cannes.

Importing Russian goods has become complicated since 2022 but some businesses are thriving. While middle-class clients and tourists left after the outbreak of war, the very rich remain, said Xander, a Russian shop owner on the French Riviera who refused to give his full name because he feared the reaction from his competitors. Despite a 70 percent drop in Russian tourists since 2019, tourism and luxury goods industries have not been damaged by sanctions, according to the local authorities.

In addition to the usual goods, Moscow Market provides services that include “qualified assistance in buying property” and “organization of seasonal and annual rentals of flats and villas in France and Monaco,” a description of concierge services in Russian on the LinkedIn profile of its director, Alexander Badin. He refused multiple requests for an interview.

A 2023 probe by French authorities found nearly 60 percent of real estate agencies in the region were not cooperating with the authorities, for example by checking whether their clients’ names appear on the EU’s sanctions list.

Alexandra, who asked to be referred to with a pseudonym, who sells high-end villas in Cap d’Antibes, confirmed little has changed.

“We’re supposed to ask them [clients] for a copy of their identity card, where the money is coming from, I think, but we don’t do it,” she said. The largest sales took place using transfers of shares between entities based in secretive tax havens, she said.

Party like it’s 2021

The neighbors aren’t helping, especially Monaco.

Monaco is one of the final destinations for money-laundering schemes, according to the judge, who added that many Russians have passports from the likes of the U.K., Cyprus and Malta, allowing them easy transit through Europe.

“Monaco makes life easier for Russian billionaires: it offers them legal safety,” the judge said.

“They don’t come here just to walk the streets wearing Chopard necklaces: when people buy flats at €50,000 a square meter, these are amounts that are money-laundering options, and with the idea that once you’ve invested, nobody will take it back from you.”

For Russians looking to have fun or secure their assets, the tiny kingdom is still a place where you can party like it’s 2021. 

“The very rich Russians never had problems” in France, said Hélène Metlov, president of La Maison de la Russie à Nice, a French-Russian cultural NGO in Nice. Soon after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the number of Russians in the French Riviera swelled, with refugees fleeing to neighborhoods in Cannes or Nice which still have Russian-named streets, orthodox churches and buildings. 

However, the middle-class Russians living in the area for decades “faced all the obstacles of usual immigrants when it comes to renewing their residence permit.” 

From his office in Villefranche-sur-Mer, Russia’s Consul General Sergei Galaktionov says this problem has increased his workload in the past two years.

“Russia’s helped poor people there, paid for the region’s railways and invested a lot in the economy,” said Galaktionov, sometimes reading from notes prepared by his boss, Russian ambassador to France Aleksey Meshkov.

Galaktionov holds court with passing police officers as he wanders the streets, pointing out ties his country has with the region, including statues of famous Russian admirals. Police officers greet him with big smiles and a respectful “Monsieur le consul” as he wanders around the nearby Fort du Mont Alban.   

It was in that fort that Galaktionov planned to organize a cocktail party on Russia’s national day in June, he said. (Kevin Thuilliez, head of communications for Villefranche-sur-Mer, said the local authorities were not involved in any such party, as the organizer found a private partner to help host the event.)

“Despite political crises, Russians have remained faithful to France and the region.”