Bitter Russian oligarchs shift assets beyond West’s ‘Kyiv Wall’

Russian oligarchs are increasingly bitter towards the West over asset seizures and are shifting their wealth to Dubai, Vietnam and Thailand, an Italian architect claims.

Italian architect Lanfranco Cirillo. Picture: DPA

Russian oligarchs are increasingly bitter towards the West over asset seizures and are shifting their wealth to Dubai, Vietnam and Thailand, an Italian architect based in Moscow has claimed.

“At first they were worried, but a year after the (Ukraine) war started things have changed – I go to dinners and there’s rancour,” said Lanfranco Cirillo, who has lived in Russia for more than two decades and claims to have worked for 44 oligarchs.

Dubbed “Putin’s architect”, Mr Cirillo, 63, designed a Black Sea mansion that allegedly has an underground ice hockey rink and has been linked to the Russian President.

Mr Cirillo, who said he never discussed the project with President Vladimir Putin and claims it is a resort, not a home, is under scrutiny in Italy.

He is due to stand trial there this month ­accused of dodging Italian taxes, which he denies.

Speaking from his office on the 51st floor overlooking Moscow, Mr Cirillo revealed what his oligarch friends now think of the West.

“They say the West considers itself a chosen people, but the world is big,” he said.

“The Arabic world is close to Russia and they are all here doing business. Dubai, nicknamed Dubai-grad, now has one million Russian speakers, 10 per cent of the population.”

Oligarchs can no longer go shopping in Paris or London, he said, but were investing in the Maldives and Thailand, adding: “There is a big community in Vietnam investing in spas, five-star hotels.”

Mr Cirillo said he had spoken to associates of Alisher Usmanov, the Uzbek-born mining magnate whose villa was seized in Sardinia, where he offered to help build a hospital and school.

“Two years ago he was a king in Sardinia,” Mr Cirillo said. “There is the idea that the Berlin Wall has fallen but the Kyiv Wall is going up.”

He said the Ukraine conflict had hardly changed life in Moscow. “If you don’t turn on the TV or read the papers you wouldn’t notice. I don’t see any difference to before – 93 per cent of Italian companies (in Russia) are still here.”

As his tax trial looms, Mr Cirillo said Italy had yet to send an extradition request.

“If I were a friend of Biden or Zelensky, would they be trying to put me in jail?” he said.

The Times