Sanctions against oligarchs: The empty villas of Nice

Russian oligarchs brought a lot of money to southern France. Some cursed them, others lived off them. Now the sanctions are in place – and most of the Russians are gone.

In Denis Cippolini’s four-star hotel, it’s not the usual wealthy Russian tourists who are staying, but thirty refugees from Ukraine. The southern French city of Nice has asked its hotels to take in those seeking help, and Cippolini agreed. According to Cippolini, he halved the prices for the public sector, just like dozens of other hotels have done. “We have to adapt and show solidarity,” says Cippolini, who is also chairman of the hotel association in Nice. In any case, not much is going on in the area at the moment, also because Russian tourists can no longer come. And there were plenty of them in the city that once did everything it could to attract wealthy Russian tourists and property buyers. Now many are losing an important source of income here.

In real estate agencies, at flower shops, in restaurants and at events, the employees speak Russian, and the offers are written in Cyrillic. For several years there was even a direct train from Moscow to Nice. Although only every tenth guest on the Côte d’Azur came from Russia, they spent an above-average amount of money on it. Many from the tourism industry here have stories of decadent guests at hand, they tell of roof terraces in the princely state of Monaco that are planted with a completely new design every summer, of luxury boutiques that are bought empty after an oligarch’s visit, of hotel bathtubs full of champagne and dogs, fed foie gras, two-story properties with three elevators and two pools.

There have always been two opinions among the locals about these extremely wealthy customers: One accused them of driving up real estate prices so high that no average earner in the area could afford adequately large apartments. The others defended the billionaires because they lived on them.

The regional chamber of commerce has set up an emergency number for them, which all self-employed people who fear a loss of sales under the sanctions can contact. Their number is impressive: the Chamber assumes 24,000 companies that could be affected by the war and the sanctions against Russia. These include florists, the yachting industry, restaurants and hotels, real estate agencies, delicatessens and boutiques. These sectors have already suffered losses in the past two years, because the Russian corona vaccine Sputnik was not recognized in Europe, many Russians were therefore only able to go to the restaurant with daily tests in France, and from January not even that.

Mariana Stavila also makes a living from Russian customers who settle down or vacation in southern France: her concierge company ensures that the second homes between Cannes and Monaco are taken care of on a daily basis. Stavila came to Mandelieu, a small town in the hills outside Cannes, from Moldova ten years ago and now runs her own company. She has both Ukrainian and Russian clients.

“Very, very rich citizens”

“Both countries have very, very rich citizens,” she says. Her employees water flowers, bill for electricity, repaint walls before the summer season, take care of visas and temporary tenants. Even now, in the middle of the war, she is in constant contact with her customers. “The middle and upper classes are suffering, they can no longer travel. But you really don’t have to worry about the oligarchs,” she says with a hearty laugh. The big oligarchs, those who are now on the EU sanctions list, always find a solution with their wealth. They would have bought many houses under different names and could continue to land at the smaller airports in Mandelieu and Monaco with their private jets. “They are still here,” says Stavila. That cannot be checked. In her estimation, the luxury houses, even those that have now been confiscated by the state, do not change hands so quickly. “Nobody wants to sell right now – real estate is the greatest security for Russians right now.”