ロシア富豪の英邸宅、活動家が占拠　「難民施設に」

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】英ロンドン中心部の高級住宅街で１４日、英政府により制裁を科されたロシア人富豪オレグ・デリパスカ氏に関連する邸宅が、活動家集団により占拠された。（写真は英ロンドン中心部で、ロシア人富豪オレグ・デリパスカ氏に関連する邸宅から横断幕を掲げる活動家）
　活動家グループは、ウクライナに侵攻したロシアのウラジーミル・プーチン大統領に近い人々に科された制裁の施行が遅すぎると批判。占拠した邸宅から「この物件は解放された」と書かれた横断幕とウクライナ国旗を掲げた。
　警察は現場に非常線を設置。その後、ドリルで玄関の扉を破り、クレーンを使ってバルコニーに入った。ロンドン警視庁は、警察官が中にいる人々と接触し、適切な次の行動を検討していると発表した。
　邸宅内に立てこもった活動家の一人はＡＦＰの電話取材に対し、自分たちの行為は建物の不法占拠ではなく「解放」だと主張。別の活動家は、邸宅をウクライナ難民の宿泊施設として利用することが目的だと説明した。英首相官邸の報道官は、ロシア人富豪から押収した建物にウクライナ難民を宿泊させる案について検討中であることを明らかにした。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/03/15-14:07）

Protesters on Monday briefly seized a mansion linked to the sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in one of central London's most exclusive addresses.
Banners were unfurled from the property at 5 Belgrave Square, including one stating This property has been liberated, alongside the Ukrainian flag.
Police, who were called out in the early hours, arrived and set up a cordon before later using a drill to break open the front door and used a crane to access the balcony.
Police said later four protesters who gained entry to the building's balcony have come down and been arrested.
Police said the protest was over but they would maintain a presence.
One of those inside the mansion told AFP earlier by telephone: We are a property liberation front. That's what we do. It's not really squatting, it's liberating.
Another said: Our intention is to use it to house (Ukrainian) refugees.
The activists criticised the length of time it may take to implement British sanctions against those identified by the government as being part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle.
They say it might take up to six months to seize their property. Come on, it's ridiculous, one said.
- Offshore -
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said on Monday that we are working to identify the appropriate use for seized property while owners are subject to sanctions.
In 2007, a High Court judgement said Deripaska beneficially owns the house in the upmarket Belgravia area, near Hyde Park and Queen Elizabeth II's Buckingham Palace.
But he is not listed on UK Land Registry records.
Instead, the owners are listed as Ravellot Limited, based in the British Virgin Islands, managed by Graham Bonham Carter at the same address and a nearby property.
On March 4, the UK's National Crime Agency said it had secured two account-freezing orders in respect of five bank accounts held by Bonham Carter, a British businessman.
The orders were obtained on the basis that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the money in the accounts was derived from the laundering of funds of an individual subject to sanctions in the United States, namely Oleg Deripaska, it added in a statement.
The accounts contain funds of a value totalling approximately £110,000 ($144,000, 131,000 euros).
Deripaska was last week hit with an assets freeze and travel ban alongside six other Russian billionaires, including his former business associate Roman Abramovich.
The US Treasury designated him in 2018 as part of moves against a number of Russian oligarchs and the companies they own or control, Russian officials and businesses.
In France, three men were questioned by police on Monday after they broke into a villa owned by Putin's former son-in-law and unfurled a Ukrainian flag in the southern French city of Biarritz.
A YouTube video showed one of those arrested waving a Ukrainian flag from one of the villa's balconies.
A subtitle read, The house of the people is ready to host refugees from the Putin regime.
The three were questioned then released with a warning.