Son of Colombian paramilitary chief elected to special seat for victims of conflict

"The son ... is now the representative of the victims left by his father" 


A woman votes at a polling station during parliamentary 

elections in Bogota on March 13, 2022 

(AFP/Raul ARBOLEDA) (Raul ARBOLEDA)


Mon, March 14, 2022, 7:45 PM·2 min read

Colombian officials said Monday that the son of a notorious paramilitary leader has won an election to be a special member of Congress representing victims of the conflict.

On Sunday, Columbia held elections for both the Senate and its lower House of Representatives in which the left finished ahead.

For the first time, victims of the conflict between the government and the ex-guerilla FARC group -- who signed a peace deal in 2016 -- will have their own representatives in Congress.

For the next two legislatures, until 2030, 16 seats will be reserved specifically for victims in the regions most impacted by the conflict.

Those regions in northern Colombia have seen a rise in violence recently, as armed groups battle for control of prized narcotrafficking corridors.

Jorge Tovar, the son of the former paramilitary chief known as "Jorge 40," has been elected to one of those seats.

The lawyer-by-training celebrated his victory on Twitter: "The moment has come to change history."

His father was the leader of a right-wing paramilitary group known as the Northern Block, which wreaked havoc in the 1990s in its battle against left-wing guerillas.

He returned to Bogota in 2020 after serving a prison sentence in the United States for drug trafficking.

While currently living freely, he still faces dozens of lawsuits for massacres and forced displacement.

His son's election drew sharp criticism, especially from victims' organizations such as the Movement of Victims of State-Sponsored Crimes, which alleged "corruption and paramilitarism have taken over" the region, and echoed allegations of vote-buying.

"The son of Jorge 40 is now the representative of the victims left by his father," said leftist Senator Gustavo Bolivar.

Sunday's legislative elections also marked a new setback for the Comunes (Commons) party, which was formed by the former Marxist guerrilla group FARC.

The 2016 peace agreement guarantees the party 10 seats until 2026 regardless of its vote total, but it only received 50,000 votes on Sunday, 35,000 fewer than in 2018.

"The numbers in the legislative elections were not what we expected. As a party, we will make the corresponding analyses," said the far-left party.

das/vel/hba/des/jh

EMOTIONAL PLAGUE
Football violence pandemic spreads in Latin America

Rodrigo ALMONACID
Mon, March 14, 2022


The violence between visiting Atlas supporters and home fans in Queretaro drew global attention (AFP/STR)

A string of outbreaks of violence, several deadly, suggest that fan unrest in Latin American football is spiralling out of control.

Images of a mass brawl at a game in Mexico on March 5 that left 26 seriously injured, and led to 14 arrests went viral and attracted added attention because the country is set to co-host the 2026 World Cup with the USA and Canada.

On the same evening there were savage attacks beside a stadium in Palmira, just outside the Colombian city of Cali between America and Deportivo Cali fans.

The next day, a man was shot dead in a confrontation between fans of Atletico Mineiro and Cruzeiro in Brazil.

While academics who study the issue say that the end of coronavirus restrictions, which have been blamed for increases in violence in French and English football, is a factor, there are underlying problems that are being inadequately addressed by authorities.

"There is no way to end violence in football, that should be very clear," Heloisa Reis, a professor at the Unicamp University of Sao Paulo told AFP.

"But it can be reduced. For that, a very comprehensive public policy is needed," said Reis, the author of a book about the problem.

Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru have enacted laws to quell excesses by punishing hooligans with jail or even cancelling sporting events.

Some of these initiatives replicate steps in Europe to control hooligans, such as biometric identification or video surveillance in and around stadiums.

- 'Toxic masculinity' -

After the riot in Queretaro, Mexico banned travelling fans from games, a measure used in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, and questioned by experts because, they argue, the fans still travel and the violence moves to the streets.

Despite their best efforts the death toll remains huge: 157 in Brazil between 2009 and 2019, 136 in Argentina in the last 20 years and at least 170 in Colombia between 2001 and 2019.

"The great failure of the policies adopted is that they focus exclusively on the security component," says sociologist German Gomez, a researcher at the Colombian Association of Sports Studies.

Specialists agree that measures tend to ignore academic studies or social background frustrations stemming from unemployment, inequality or drug and alcohol consumption.

Reis argues the root of the problem is "toxic masculinity".

Football matches provide an arena for competition between men to gain power over rivals, especially on their own territory, through physical force.

Reis advocates public policies focused on the education of men but she is not optimistic.

"We have lived under male domination for centuries. The male values reproduced are domination, strength, courage. Is there a prospect of ending that? There is not," she said.

Specialists and fans perceive an increase in violence since covid restrictions ended and fans returned to the stadiums.

"These are the consequences of such a prolonged confinement, in which people when they return to a public event have a need to break out of that confinement," said Gomez.

In Brazil, at least nine incidents have been reported since February 12, including the shooting dead of a Palmeiras fan and the stoning of team buses, in which players were injured.

SEE

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for EMOTIONAL PLAGUE 

Press rights groups call for release of French journalist in Mali


RSF projected a picture of Olivier Dubois onto the Pantheon in Paris to highlight the plight of the French journalist held hostage in Mali

(AFP/Alain JOCARD) 

Mon, March 14, 2022

Press rights groups have called for the release of French journalist Olivier Dubois, who was taken hostage by a jihadist group in Mali almost a year ago.

A short video circulating on social media since Sunday appears to show Dubois, but has not been authenticated and its origin is unknown, as is the date it was filmed.

The man, who seems to be in good health in the video, addresses his parents and his partner, from whom he says he receives messages.

He also urges the French government to "continue to do its best" to obtain his release.

The group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) appealed for Dubois' release.


"Reporters Without Borders calls on the French and Malian authorities to redouble efforts to obtain his release," RSF said Monday after the apparent video of Dubois surfaced.

"A reassuring proof of life, the video's appearance on social media came just one week after RSF organised the projection of a huge photo of Dubois on to the side of the Pantheon in Paris as part of its campaign to draw attention to his plight," the Paris-based media watchdog said.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists joined the call.

"Those holding Dubois should release him unharmed without delay, and should cease all efforts to harass and kidnap members of the press," Angela Quintal, the CPJ's Africa programme coordinator, said in a statement.

Dubois, 47, began working as a freelance journalist in Mali in 2015.

He announced his abduction himself in a video posted on social networks on May 5, 2021. In it, he said he had been kidnapped in the northern city of Gao by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel, which is linked to Al-Qaeda.

Dubois is the last known French hostage in the world after the release in October 2020 of Sophie Petronin, a Franco-Swiss aid worker who was also kidnapped in Mali.

President Emmanuel Macron stated in January that France had not forgotten Dubois.

"Tireless work is being carried out by our diplomatic teams, our military and the relevant services" to obtain his release, he said.

emp/sba/mtp/leg

SOMEONE IS GETTING FED IN SUDAN
Once-starving lions roar back to life in Sudan sanctuary



An African lion at the Sudan Animal Rescue Centre in al-Bageir, south of the capital Khartoum, on February 28, 2022

Ahmed Alsawi
Mon, March 14, 2022, 
PHOTOS AFP/ASHRAF SHAZLY

Kandaka the lioness was once sick and emaciated in a rundown zoo in Sudan's capital, but thanks to wildlife enthusiasts she now thrives in a reserve watching her cubs grow.

She was among five lions suffering from starvation and disease with visibly protruding ribs and flaccid skin, held in grim cages with rusty bars in Khartoum's Al-Qurashi zoo.

Conditions worsened as Sudan's economic crisis deepened in the wake of months-long protests in 2019 that led to the toppling of former dictator Omar al-Bashir.

Of the five lions in the ramshackle zoo, two died.

The animals' plight shot to public attention two years ago after an online campaign prompted veterinarians, conservationists and animal enthusiasts the world over to rush to their aid.

Along with the two other surviving lions, Kandaka was moved to the Al-Bageir reserve.

"Their health has since improved greatly," said Othman Salih, who founded the reserve in January 2021.

The site, an hour's drive south of Khartoum, spreads over some four hectares (10 acres), or about the size of six football pitches.

As a testament to her recovery, the five-year-old lioness was called Kandaka -- the name of Sudan's ancient Nubian queens.

It is a term that has come to be associated with the women who played a vital role in the protests that unseated Bashir.

She is now thriving in Al-Bageir, one of 17 lions from across Sudan.

- Daily struggle -

But keeping the reserve up and running comes with its own set of steep challenges.

Volunteers, often juggling full-time jobs with their passion for animal welfare, have been struggling with long commutes, soaring prices and limited resources.

The challenges have increased since last year's military coup led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, which triggered regular mass protests and roadblocks.

"The prices are very high," said Salih, who travels to the reserve all the way from Khartoum every day.

The reserve's running costs remain high, including providing more than 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of meat for the big cats daily.

It has so far been kept afloat by donations and tours for schoolchildren and families.

But Sudan, one of the world's poorest countries, has been reeling from a plunging economy due to decades of international isolation and mismanagement under Bashir.

Almost one third of Sudan's 45 million people are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2022, according to the United Nations.

"Lots of Sudanese people are hungry," said Salih. "So all aid is funnelled to the people. It's only natural."

But Salih says the government and private businesses have done little to support the reserve.

"We try to get by through charging for entry tickets," he added, with entrance costing between $2-4.

"But it is still not enough, and we often pay from our own money to cover the cost."

- Source of hope -

But the reserve remains a source of hope for many.

"I still go there every day," said volunteer Moataz Kamal, who lives in the capital's twin city of Omdurman. "It's like the world outside doesn't exist when I am here."

He pointed in particular to the survival of a male lion from the eastern city of Port Sudan, after battling years of starvation and severely poor health.

The lion was named Mansour, which translates to the "victor", for overcoming such conditions.

It is not known how many lions survive in the wild in Sudan.

A population lives in Dinder National Park, a UNESCO biosphere reserve, on the border with Ethiopia.

African lions are classified as a "vulnerable" species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Their population dropped 43 percent between 1993 and 2014, with an estimated 20,000 left in the wild.

But Salih still hopes that his reserve will push through hardship and rescue more animals, and remind Sudanese of the wildlife that has been lost from the country.

"Perhaps one day, we will be able to have elephants, giraffes and zebras that have disappeared from Sudan," said Salih.


Lioness Kandaka, on the right, was once sick and emaciated in a rundown zoo in Sudan's capital, but thanks to wildlife enthusiasts she now thrives in a reserve watching her cubs grow 

THE LAW OF PRIVATE PROPERTY IS ALL

Australian court strikes down landmark climate ruling


The court said Australia's environment miniser did not have to weigh the harm climate change would inflict on children when assessing the approval of new fossil fuel projects (AFP/Saeed KHAN) (Saeed KHAN)

Mon, March 14, 2022

An Australian court on Tuesday threw out a landmark legal ruling that the country's environment minister had a duty to protect children from climate change.

Last year's legal win by a group of high school children had been hailed by environmental groups as a potential legal weapon to fight fossil fuel projects.

But the federal court found in favour of an appeal by Environment Minister Sussan Ley, deciding she did not have to weigh the harm climate change would inflict on children when assessing the approval of new fossil fuel projects.

The judgement overturned a July 2021 ruling by a lower court that found the minister had a duty to "avoid causing personal injury or death" to under 18s due to "emissions of carbon dioxide into the Earth's atmosphere".

Anjali Sharma, 17, who launched the legal action in 2020, said the minister's successful appeal had left the students "devastated".

"Two years ago, Australia was on fire; today, it's underwater. Burning coal makes bushfires and floods more catastrophic and more deadly. Something needs to change," she said.

Izzy Raj-Seppings, 15, said the court had accepted that young people would "bear the brunt of the impacts of the climate crisis", which she described as an important step in climate litigation.

However, the federal court found emissions from the mine at the centre of the case -- Whitehaven's Vickery coal mine -- posed only a "tiny increase in risk" to the students.

Minister Ley welcomed the verdict.

"The minister always takes her role as the environment minister seriously," a spokesperson said in a statement.

- 'Disappointed but not surprised' -

Lawyer George Newhouse of Macquarie University said the Sharma decision reflected Australia's lack of a bill of rights.

"We don't have the scope for the successful climate change litigation that we see in Europe because Australia has a constitution that, quite intentionally, contains no human rights," he told AFP.

Newhouse said landmark cases, such as the Urgenda precedent -- in which Dutch citizens successful sued their government to take climate action -- would fail in Australia because of this.

"I am disappointed by the Sharma decision, but not surprised," he said.

Sharma and her fellow students will consider whether to appeal to Australia's highest court.

Climate and environmental law expert Laura Schuijers from the University of Sydney said the High Court may well elect to hear their appeal, given the importance of the questions raised.

Schuijers said Australia's lack of a constitutional protection of human rights made it "a very interesting place for climate litigation".

"It means that litigants are seeking creative ways to test the bounds of the law and to ask the ultimate question: in the face of inaction, who is responsible for picking up the slack?" she said.

The ruling had "put the spotlight on Australia's politicians and policymakers to take the proactive action that the science presented in the courtroom suggests is urgently needed".

Australia has been at the sharp end of climate change, with droughts, deadly bushfires, bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef and floods becoming more common and intense as global weather patterns change.

mmc/arb/djw/mtp

#WATER IS LIFE

Sparkling pools, empty taps: Cape Town's stark water divide




Four years after Cape Town nearly ran dry, water now flows liberally -- but not for everyone 

(AFP/RODGER BOSCH)

Jack DUTTON
Tue, March 15, 2022,

On Cape Town's beaches, swimmers shower off sand from their feet. Irrigation pipes water the region's famed vineyards. And Shadrack Mogress fumes as he fills a barrel with water so he can flush his toilet.

It's been four years since South Africa's tourist capital nearly ran dry, during a drought that left the city limping towards a "Day Zero" when all the pipes would empty.

Now water flows liberally -- but not for everyone.

South Africa is the most unequal country in the world, with race playing a determining factor, a World Bank report said last week.

The taps at Mogress's house in the township of Khayelitsha run only intermittently, and rarely with full pressure.

So at 56 years old, he wakes up early to fill up a barrel while the water is running, so that his household of six can drink and wash all day.

“We also need to take from that water to use the toilet, which is an insult at the end of the day," Mogress said.

“We have toilets here. We have showers here. We cannot use those," he said. "Our children go to school in the morning at about 6:00 a.m. Sometimes there's no water at that time.”

Mogress said he contacted city officials several times about the issues but has not heard back.

“We're sitting within the middle of a pandemic here, and we do not even have water to wash our hands,” he said.

City trucks that deliver water to the community are unreliable, Sandile Zatu, a 45-year-old resident said.

"We have no choice but to wake up in the morning and try to fill our bucket as much as possible," he added.

Ironically, Covid brought better water supplies to some areas of Cape Town under the state of disaster that empowered lockdown measures 

(AFP/RODGER BOSCH)

- Worse than ‘Day Zero’ -

During the drought, city-wide efforts to save water created a sense of shared purpose. Everyone avoided flushing toilets, gave up on watering plants, and let their cars sit dirty for months.

"At that time, we knew that we were sitting with a problem," Mogress said. "But it is actually worse, because we do have water and we know that."

Swimming pools in Cape Town's posh suburbs do have water, but the city estimates that about 31 neighbourhoods have no access to clean water.

That includes sprawling districts filled with shacks, but also working-class neighbourhoods.

Ironically, Covid brought better water supplies to some areas.

The state of disaster that empowered lockdown measures also allowed authorities to deliver more water to encourage better washing.

If the state of disaster is called off, the city will lose funding to deliver water, city water official Zahid Badroodien said.

- Future droughts -

Badroodien said the city was investing millions of rand in the aging water infrastructure, adding that a Day Zero was "inevitable".

But it is harder for the city to provide reliable water services in some areas due to "funding being tied up in existing projects to try and establish services in existing communities."

"At the same time, the safety of our officials becomes an issue in these areas, where I know for a fact that our tankers have been hijacked, our officials have been hijacked, they've been held up at gunpoint," he said.

Jo Barnes, a water expert at Stellenbosch University, said the city has shown poor planning for future droughts.

"To not plan for the next drought -- which may be around the corner -- sounds like managerial suicide to me," she said.

"We're getting more and more people, and we have the same volume of water. So, unless we do something magic, we're going to run into the same problem again."

str-vid/gs/kjm

Little oxygen and low pay: Venezuela's risky world of small-scale mining




A miner in Lobatera, a town in the Venezuelan Andes where 50 small-scale mines are run by 22 cooperatives 

(AFP/Jhonny PARRA)


Mon, March 14, 2022, 

Henry Alviarez says he began small-scale coal mining in Venezuela's western Tachira state out of "necessity" due to the country's ongoing economic crisis which has deepened during the coronavirus pandemic.

He leaves home early in the morning on motorbike for the 45-minute journey to the Los Parra mine in Lobatera, near the border with Colombia.

The Andean town has 50 small-scale mines run by 22 cooperatives, each made up of eight to 10 workers who earn no more than $120 a month.

From Lobatera, the mined coal is moved via clandestine routes over the border to Colombia or the neighboring Merida state to be used primarily for generating electricity.


The lack of oxygen deep inside the mines and little emergency equipment, makes for precarious and "exhausting" work conditions, says Alviarez.

"There are many blacksmiths and mechanics here but we cannot work in those" professions, he adds, citing the unprecedented economic crisis that has plunged Venezuela into an eight-year recession and four years of hyperinflation.

Bare-chested, pickaxe in hand, and helmet with a torch on his head, Alviarez quickly becomes covered in a mixture of sweat and black streaks.

He tries in vain to wipe off the coal marks with a green cloth.

All three of his children have left the country, one each to Chile, Colombia and Ecuador.

"Thank goodness they've left," he said, adding that their only options in Lobatera would have been to join him in the mines.

"Who would want to work here?"

Around 500 families rely on the Lobatera mines, which are located in a mountainous area only accessible by dirt roads.

Temperatures in the area can soar, with the mining pit often the only shelter from the sun.

"It's a pretty risky job because we have to use a lot of wood" to hold up the tunnels "and pray to God," said Jose Alberto Trejo, 38, who used to work in construction before subsequently finding employment in Colombian mines due to the lack of job opportunities.

- Fears of being 'left out' -

On average, each miner in Los Parra can extract one ton a day, although there is no reliable data on the total production from the 50 mines in Lobatera.

"The price of coal is low and has fallen over the years, which makes it tougher to work these days," said Pablo Jose Vivas, 61.

The miners take their hauls to the mine director who sells it on for $50 a ton.

The profits are shared out between the members of the cooperative.

Vivas, who has worked in mining for more than 20 years, picks up a piece of mined rock and holds it between his blackened fingers.

The rock shines in the torchlight that gives it a purple hue, like a precious stone.

The miners work in teams. One smashes the rocks with a pickaxe, another fills the wheelbarrow and a third carts it out of the mine.

Outside, several small piles of coal await the arrival of a truck.

Tachira governor Freddy Bernal, a loyalist of President Nicolas Maduro, is hoping to encourage foreign investment in Lobatera from Venezuela's allies Russia, China or even India.

"That would generate many jobs and a significant economic impact," he said, adding that it would ensure families who have subsisted on mining for more than 40 years would not be left destitute.

But the miners are far from convinced.

"That would end the basic job because they would arrive with new technologies that we don't know how to use," said Vivas.

"Many of us would be left out."

str-jt/mbj/yow/bc/des

Chad hands over former CAR militia leader to ICC

His arrest warrant was issued in 2018.

In Summary

• The ICC said Mr Mokom, 43, is suspected of being responsible for extermination, forcible transfer of population, torture, mutilation and enlistment of child soldiers among other crimes.

• The Hague-based court said Mr Mokom appearance before a pre-trial chamber will take place in due course, according to a statement.

The Seleka rule birthed a rival rebel movement
Image: AFP

The authorities in Chad have handed over former Central African Republic (CAR) militia leader to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Maxime Jeoffroy Eli Mokom was the leader of an anti-Balaka militia and is suspected of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in 2013 and 2014.

His arrest warrant was issued in 2018.

The ICC said Mr Mokom, 43, is suspected of being responsible for extermination, forcible transfer of population, torture, mutilation and enlistment of child soldiers among other crimes.

The Hague-based court said Mr Mokom appearance before a pre-trial chamber will take place in due course, according to a statement.

Violence in CAR started in March 2013 after Muslim rebels, known as Seleka, seized power. Their rule made the Christian rebels to form the opposing anti-Balaka militias.

Thousands were killed and at least a million people displaced in CAR since 2013, according to the UN.

Several leaders from both rebel groups were arrested for crimes committed against civilians.

Chadian soldiers acted as peacekeepers in CAR after the 2013 violence but withdrew after they were accused of siding with the Muslim rebels.

Viral photo changes Brazil trash-pickers' lives


Gabriel Silva finds a Christmas tree in a dump in Pinheiro, Brazil, on November 8, 2021. (AFP/Joao Paulo Guimaraes) 

Mon, March 14, 2022, 

A holiday story that emerged from an unlikely place took a heartwarming turn when Gabriel Silva, a Brazilian boy photographed pulling a Christmas tree from a garbage dump, managed to help buy his family a house.

The story began in the weeks before Christmas last year, when AFP photojournalist Joao Paulo Guimaraes captured a picture of Silva, then 12, pulling a small plastic Christmas tree from a fetid mountain of trash swarmed by vultures and impoverished trash-pickers in the town of Pinheiro, in northeastern Brazil.

The photograph went viral, and Silva and his family soon started receiving a flood of donations from people moved by their struggle to survive at the illegal garbage dump, a symbol of the poverty in which millions of Brazilians live.

First came a real Christmas tree, then a bicycle, then money -- eventually enough for Silva, his mother and three siblings to leave their dirt-floor hut and buy a brick house.

"I'm so happy to have this house. We didn't used to have one, we lived in a little mud hut with nothing. Now I have a good house," said Silva, now 13, who helps his mother collect recyclable materials at the dump most days after school.

"I never imagined all this would happen because of that picture."

The house, which the family purchased several weeks ago and is still completing, has three bedrooms, a kitchen and a garage.

"It has electricity, running water and a bathroom with a shower," said Silva's mother, Maria Francisca Silva, 45.

"We used to have to walk a long way to get water."

More than 2,000 people contributed to an online collection to help the Silvas, raising around 80,000 reais ($16,000) as of January.

The house cost 49,000 reais, she said.

"All that's left to do is tile the floors and buy some furniture," she said.

More than 24 percent of Brazil's 213 million people live in poverty, according to the national statistics institute.

mls-msi/jhb/mdl

Activists briefly seize London mansion linked to Oleg Deripaska

Activists in London briefly seized a multimillion-dollar mansion linked to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch subject to sanctions, saying they want to use it to house refugees fleeing Russia’s war on Ukraine.

© Provided by Al Jazeera A group of squatters display banners and a Ukrainian flag on the facade of a mansion supposedly belonging to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in Belgrave Square, central London [Tolga Akmen / AFP]

The group broke into the property at 5 Belgrave Square – one of the most exclusive addresses in the centre of the United Kingdom’s capital – and hung the Ukrainian flag outside alongside banners, one of which read: “This property has been liberated.”

Police, who were called out in the early hours of Monday, arrived and set up a cordon before later using a drill to break open the front door and a crane to access the balcony. Four people who had gained entry to the building’s balcony “have come down and been arrested”, police said, adding that they would maintain a presence after ending the protest.

Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego, reporting from outside the mansion, said the protesters were unhappy with the UK government’s efforts to help those escaping the war in Ukraine.

“The group that took over the seven-bedroom property said they want to give it over to Ukrainian refugees,” Gallego said.

“They also criticised the government for not doing enough to help people fleeing the war and they say the UK government is doing more to protect the interest of those oligarchs,” she added.

One of those inside the mansion told AFP news agency earlier by telephone: “We are a property liberation front. That’s what we do. It’s not really squatting, it’s liberating.”

Another said: “Our intention is to use it to house [Ukrainian] refugees.”

The activists criticised the length of time it could take to implement British sanctions against those identified by the government as being part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

“They say it might take up to six months to seize their property. Come on, it’s ridiculous,” one said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said on Monday that “we are working to identify the appropriate use for seized property while owners are subject to sanctions.”

In 2007, a High Court judgement said Deripaska “beneficially owns” the house in the upmarket Belgravia area, near Hyde Park and Queen Elizabeth II’s Buckingham Palace.

But he is not listed on UK Land Registry records.

Instead, the owners are listed as Ravellot Limited, based in the British Virgin Islands, managed by Graham Bonham Carter.

On March 4, the UK’s National Crime Agency said it had secured two account-freezing orders for five bank accounts held by Bonham Carter, a British businessman.

“The orders were obtained on the basis that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the money in the accounts was derived from the laundering of funds of an individual subject to sanctions in the United States, namely Oleg Deripaska,” it added in a statement.

“The accounts contain funds of a value totalling approximately £110,000 ($144,000).”

Deripaska was last week hit with an assets freeze and travel ban alongside six other Russian billionaires, including his former business associate and owner of the Chelsea football club, Roman Abramovich.

The US Treasury designated him in 2018 as part of moves against a number of Russian oligarchs and the companies they own or control, Russian officials, and businesses.

In France, three men were questioned by police on Monday after they broke into a villa owned by Putin’s former son-in-law and unfurled a Ukrainian flag in the southern French city of Biarritz.

A YouTube video showed one of those arrested waving a Ukrainian flag from one of the villa’s balconies.

A message read, “The house of the people is ready to host refugees from the Putin regime.”

The three were questioned then released with a warning.