LONDON – On Monday, among the embassies dotted in Belgrave Square in London, a Ukrainian flag hung on the window of one of the white plaster mansions. Another banner hanging from the balcony below read, “This property is vacant.”
A group of people in balaclavas sat on the balcony, dangling their legs and waving to a small group of supporters as police surrounded the area.
On Sunday night, the group stormed the house to protest President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The home is one of the addresses of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who is on the US Treasury Department’s sanctions list.
“You are occupying Ukraine, we are occupying you,” a flyer wrote about the initiative of the self-determined anarchists, adding that the mansion, which belonged to a “Russian oligarch involved in Putin’s invasion,” will receive Ukrainian refugees.
Britain has recently pledged to tighten oligarchic laws. On Friday, she added Mr Deripaska, a well-connected industrialist known for being close to Mr Putin, to the sanctions list, along with six other oligarchs.
The British government also said on Sunday that it would examine the possibility of using the homes of sanctioned persons for humanitarian purposes.
Mr Deripaska is one of the few oligarchs to speak out against the war in Ukraine, calling for peace and calling the war “madness”. He also opposed the sanctions, saying on Twitter that there is no “single fact” supporting the Cabinet’s decision to add him to the list.
According to court documents from 2006, Mr Deripaska was the real owner of the occupied house, but Mr Deripaska’s spokeswoman said the house belonged to members of his family and not to him personally.
“We are appalled by the negligence of the British judiciary, shown by Boris Johnson’s cabinet in imposing sanctions and conspiring with people who attack private property,” spokeswoman Larisa Belyaeva said in an email.
She added that “the witch hunt in Russia” will eventually end, but that “it is a disgrace that this is happening in a country that must respect private property and the rule of law.”
Photos of the mansion from a 1938 issue of Country Life magazine show lavish Rococo interiors. In 2002, when the house was on the market, it was reportedly one of the last private houses in a square used mainly by embassies and institutions. There were seven reception rooms, seven bedrooms and a Turkish steam bath.
Protesters told reporters they had been lost many times in the house.
Jochen Lukes, 61, a retired teacher, jumped out of bed in a suburb of East London when he heard on the radio that the mansion was occupied. He hoisted a Ukrainian flag and rushed to Belgrave Square.
“So this is where the gangsters live,” he said as he marveled at the mansions before joining a small crowd of supporters and shouting “Glory to Ukraine” or “Glory to Ukraine.”
London police said officers were called to the property early Monday and found only a few protesters on the balcony. On Monday afternoon, they detained two people who tried to break through the police cordon around the building.
Tatiana Golovina, 59, a Russian entrepreneur who had to make a detour to get to her home near Belgrave Square because of the protest, disagreed. She condemned the war in Ukraine, but said taking private property was not the answer.
“This is barbaric,” she said as she took a picture of the occupation, “it reminds me of the Russian Revolution of 1917.”