The Putin family, luxury holidays in the resort of Kitzbühel, in a villa worth 10.8 million euros, owned, through intermediaries, by a Russian oligarch sanctioned since 2014
Maria Vorontsova, 38, the eldest daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, her sister and even her father spent several holidays in the Austrian ski resort of Kitzbühel, in a villa owned, through intermediaries, from Arkady Rotenberg, 71, an oligarch sanctioned in the US and the EU since 2014, according to an investigation coordinated by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
Several international media outlets worked on the investigation, including Der Spiegel (Germany), Der Standard (Austria), Delfi (Estonia) and IStories (Russia). The data was obtained from the leak of the archive of more than 50,000 letters and documents of the management company Evocorp, between 2013 and 2020.
Arkady and his brother, Boris Rotenberg, have known Vladimir Putin since childhood and are considered the Kremlin leader’s closest confidants. They are considered “top profiteers” of high-level corruption in Russia.
Their companies erected the Crimean Bridge. Thanks to Putin, they earned billions of dollars from contracts with Gazprom and received the construction of Olympic facilities in Sochi.
Financial data shows that Arkady Rotenberg bought the idyllic property in Kitzbühel for 10.8 million euros. Which he made available to the Kremlin’s elite.
Most often and almost every time in January, on the Old Rite Christmas, Maria Vorontsova, Vladimir Putin’s eldest daughter, and her Dutch husband were seen at the Oberleitenweg estate in Kitzbühel.
During her visits, Maria spoke “perfect German,” neighbors explained. Putin’s eldest daughter spent her early years with her father in the former GDR, where he was employed by the Soviet KGB secret service. When the family returned to Russia, Maria and her younger sister, Katerina, attended German-language schools.
Neighbors say they’ve seen Putin too
Katerina Tikhonova, 36, has also been to Kitzbühel several times. Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova are sanctioned by the US and the European Union. They are the daughters of Putin and Lyudmila, to whom the Russian president was married between 1983 and 2014.
And two neighbors confess to even seeing Vladimir Putin in the flesh at Christmas.
The villa is hidden behind a one-meter-high spruce hedge. From the window you can probably see the most famous ski slope in the world, Streif.
Putin loves the Alps. Since the 80s, when he was a KGB agent, he traveled to Austria to go skiing.
The purchase or ownership of the villa in Kitzbühel has already been the subject of an investigation by the State Security and Information Directorate (DSN) of the Austrian Ministry of the Interior, since April 2022.
The suspicion that the property was in the possession of a sanctioned person has not been proven “to date”.
In total, Austria froze nearly two billion euros by the end of March amid sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Plus properties with a two-digit value.
The “swivel” of proxies: former bodyguards, former KGB agents or a British prince
The villa in Kitzbühel was not among them. It allegedly belongs to an intermediary, Maxim Viktorov, a 50-year-old Moscow businessman, former adviser to Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and KGB officer, decorated with the Alexander Nevsky Order and the Order of Service for Russia.
In his work for the Rotenberg family, Viktorov often turned to foreign friends for help or services to “hide” property.
One of these partners was Prince Michael of Kent, grandson of British King George V, first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. Viktorov and Michael de Kent did not provide statements.
What assets of the Rotenberg family escaped sanctions:
Two-storey villa in the Kitzbühel ski resort in Austria. Bought in January 2013 for €10.8 million.
Two apartments in Riga (Latvia). Bought in 2013 and 2018 for 200,000 euros each.
Bombardier plane. Bought in December 2014 for 42 million euros. The private jet flew to Valencia at least 18 times.
Villa Villefranche-sur-Mer (France). Acquired in February 2013 for €4.25 million.
New build apartment for sale in Sun Tower complex in Monaco. Purchased in 2016 (cost unknown).
Equestrian club and villas in France. Acquired between 2012 and 2015 for €15.8 million.
The family of Russian oligarchs also owns a villa in a luxury Spanish resort near Valencia. It was bought in December 2013 for €9 million. Initially it was owned by Boris Rotenberg’s wife, Karina, later it was transferred to bodyguard Alexander Kozlov. Spanish authorities seized the villa.
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