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Vladimir Putin's ex-wife Lyudmila Ocheretnaya and her husband Artur Ocheretny are selling their Spanish properties, reports El Mundo. According to the publication, two properties are listed for sale: a 229-square-meter apartment and a 405-square-meter villa in the Lomas del Rey elite compound in Marbella, southern Spain.
The journalists write there are signs of tenants in one of the properties. A luxury BMW is parked in spot No. 7 of the parking lot, which also belongs to Ocheretny. The other property, a duplex house outlooking the pools, the palms, and the ponds, is most likely vacant. It has four bedrooms, four bathrooms, and heated floors.
Ocheretny purchased the luxury apartment on the ground floor of the Lomas del Rey urban residence in 2011 and went on to buy the duplex three years later, in July 2014, for €1.1 million. The Marbella real estate register still lists him as the owner of the properties. The total value of his Marbella homes alone borders on €2.2 million.
Just a year before Ocheretny's second deal, Spain enacted a new law to offer residence permits to individuals who invest at least half a billion euros in the real estate sector. Dubbed “a golden visa”, such a permit allows its holder, as well as their immediate family, to move freely across the Schengen zone.
El Confidencial contacted the Spanish Foreign Ministry to find out whether ex-Mrs. Putin and her new spouse had applied for residence permits but was told that data protection regulations prohibited the disclosure of this information.
According to El Mundo, the Ocheretnys’ intentions are motivated by the fear of European sanctions. Neither of them has been placed on the sanctions lists yet. Meanwhile, another woman Putin is rumored to be involved with has fallen prey to international restrictions: in June 2022, the European Council approved a sixth package of anti-Russian sanctions that featured Alina Kabaeva, former Olympic gymnast and Putin's alleged mistress.