Eight months ago a group of anarchist squatters occupied a west-London mansion owned by billionaire energy tycoon Oleg Deripaska, founder of metals and hydropower company EN+, on the list of Russian oligarchs sanctioned by the British government. The group stood on the balcony of the mansion with a Ukrainian flag, banners stating "This property has been liberated" and "Putin go fuck yourself" in Ukrainian and English. In a message posted on social media, the squatters stated: "You occupy Ukraine, we occupy you," concluding with a final invitation to "Squat oligarchs' properties everywhere".
The dream of these squatters recently turned into a reality and was even validated by a court in The Netherlands.
In late October a group of squatters took over a multi-million euro 1879 five-storey mansion at Vossiusstraat 16, central Amsterdam. The property belongs to Russian billionaire Arkady Volozh, co-founder and former CEO of Russia's biggest search engine, Yandex. Known as "Russia's Google", this is a controversial tool as Yandex's news aggregator censors articles against Putin and the Kremlin and promotes State media in its search results.
Like many other wealthy Russians investing in properties all over Europe, Volozoh bought the house in 2019, paying for it over €3m. EU sanctions were issued against Russia soon after it invaded Ukraine, and Volozh was placed under sanctions in June, with the accuse of "supporting, materially or financially, the Government of the Russian Federation". He immediately resigned from Yandex to protect it from being targeted by sanctions.
The house in Amsterdam was frozen only a few weeks ago, because it is owned through a company on the Virgin Islands. Like the squatters in London, the occupiers in Amsterdam explained in a statement they did so as a protest against Volozh's ties to the Kremlin. Yet the squatters also added that, by occupying the property, they wanted to remind people of the current housing crisis in Amsterdam.
The interesting thing about this story is the twist in the tale: last week a Dutch court ordered that the squatters did not need to vacate the property, a decision that surprised even the lawyer of the squatters, considering that all forms of squatting were made illegal in the Netherlands in 2010.
Volozh's lawyer stated the billionaire intended to carry out rebuilding work on the house, a legitimate reason in Dutch law to keep a property empty. Yet, being under sanctions, Volozh is not allowed to enter or transit EU territory, and, since his accounts were frozen, in accordance with EU law, he is prohibited from making any profit from renting out property. The court highlighted that by carrying out rebuilding work and maybe renting the properties, Volozh's assets would increase and this would not be allowed because of the sanctions.
The court also dismissed Volozh's lawyer's statement that he planned to move to Amsterdam with his family, pointing out he currently lives outside the EU (even though he acquired Maltese citizenship in 2016 through the "golden passport" scheme), he is under sanctions and has no reason to travel to the Netherlands as he is no longer head of Yandex, a company that has its European headquarters in Amsterdam.
Volozoh's lawyer plans to appeal, but, for the time being and from an architectural and legal point of view, the decision of the court is extremely exciting as it creates an interesting precedent (especially in The Netherlands where property rights favour owners) for squatters in other European countries, but also for those properties including yachts that were seized in other countries such as Italy (actually, we could repurpose them for raves after the new far-right government announced at the beginning of November a crackdown on illegal raves and a ban on gatherings of more than 50 people that "arbitrarily invade other people's land or buildings").
It will be intriguing to see if any other courts in Europe will follow the example of the Dutch court. In the meantime, maybe the squatters who occupied buildings belonging to oligarchs should be invited to architectural festivals or even major architecture biennale events, after all, they are helping us rethinking urban spaces (often colonised by wealthy investors who bought properties through companies in tax heavens as it happened in Amsterdam) to accomodate people with low incomes.
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