Putin’s Ex-Wife Urgently Sells Spain Properties In Fear Of EU Sanctions: Report

Lyudmila Ocheretnaya, the former wife of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is reportedly selling her properties in Spain to avoid being slapped with sanctions by the E.U.

Ocheretnaya, now married to her new husband Artur Ocheretny, is urgently selling two apartments in the Lomas del Rey residential complex in the resort town of Marbella in Spain, Pravda reported, citing an article from the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

According to the report, the cost of the properties is more than $2.3 million.

Ocheretnaya’s Spanish estates were purchased by her husband in 2011 and 2014, before they married. The two apartments have an area of 229 and 405 square meters. Ocheretny bought them using a mortgage loan he received from one of the Spanish banks.

Spanish media outlets noted that purchasing real estate in the country worth more than $500,000 would give foreigners the right to obtain a residence permit in Spain.

Ocheretnaya is reportedly racing against time before the estate would be blacklisted by the E.U., after she got included in the sanctions list of the U.K.

In May 2022, the British government froze Ocheretnaya’s U.K. assets as part of its effort to sanction those “aiding and abetting Putin’s aggression” in Ukraine, BBC News reported.

According to the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Ocheretnaya allegedly benefitted from business relationships with Russian state-owned entities and amassed significant unexplained wealth.

The Ukrainian government and the Anti-Corruption Foundation, the organization established by Putin’s rival Alexei Navalny, urged the E.U. to put the former first lady on the sanctions list.

They noted that Ocheretnaya was a close confidant of Putin for a long time before they divorced and that their two daughters already got sanctioned.

In 1983, Ocheretnaya married Putin, who was a KGB officer in Saint Petersburg, Russia, at the time.

Politico reported that the two lived in Dresden, East Germany, and moved back to Russia after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

When Putin got elected as Russia’s Prime Minister, Ocheretnaya, then called Lyudmila Putina, established a center dedicated to promote the Russian language.

Putina attended official events and performed other first lady duties but kept a relatively low profile.

In 2013, when they left a ballet performance at the Kremlin, the couple addressed a television crew saying their marriage was over, calling it a “common decision.”

Their separation came amid reports that Putin secretly met other women, including Olympic gold medalist gymnast Alina Kabaeva.