Vladimir Soleviev: Fire breaks out at pro-Putin oligarch and state TV presenter’s Lake Como villa

A fireplace has damaged out at an Italian villa belonging to Russian state TV host Vladimir Soleviev.

The property is certainly one of a number of Lake Como properties owned by the 58-year-old oligarch which Italian police mentioned they’d seized after he was positioned on an EU sanctions record in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

After arriving on the villa close to Menaggio at 6am, it took firefighters round two hours to extinguish the blaze, which was began utilizing tyres and prompted restricted injury, a hearth brigade spokesperson mentioned.

The Carabinieri police mentioned they have been investigating the fireplace, which is suspected arson.

“The investigations of the Carabinieri are underway, however we are able to already say that the vandals didn’t trigger vital injury,” native mayor Michele Spaggiari was quoted as saying by the Day by day Beast.

“The villa is empty for the time being, with rustic partitions and concrete flooring. It might be it was principally handled as a demonstrative act, which fortuitously didn’t have severe penalties.”

The 2-storey constructing was beneath renovation and uninhabited, the fireplace service spokesperson mentioned. CCTV footage from the villa is reportedly being analysed within the seek for potential culprits.

In the meantime, the partitions of a second Lake Como residence belonging to Mr Soleviev, in Pianello del Lario, have been additionally vandalised on Tuesday night time, reviews in a number of Italian media retailers counsel.

Mr Soleviev is fiercely pro-Kremlin and anti-Ukraine, and in response to Russian reviews was amongst 300 journalists secretly awarded medals of the “Order of Service to the Fatherland” by Mr Putin for his or her “goal protection” of occasions previous to the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

In current weeks, he has used his TV programme to induce no negotiations with Kyiv till Moscow’s “boots are on their neck”, in response to one translation.

Within the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mr Soloviev additionally drew Western headlines after he used his The Night With Vladimir Soloviev present to rage in opposition to strikes to grab his Italian belongings.

“I used to be informed that Europe is a citadel of rights, that all the things is permitted,” Mr Soloviev was reported as saying. “I do know from private expertise concerning the so-called ‘sacred property rights’.

“With each transaction I used to be bringing paperwork demonstrating my official wage, earnings, I did all of it. I purchased it, paid loopy quantity of taxes, I did all the things.

“And instantly somebody decides that this journalist is now on the record of sanctions. And straight away it impacts your actual property. Wait a minute. However you informed us that Europe has sacred property rights …is that this the Iron Curtain?”

The existence of Mr Soloviev’s Italian properties was publicised by Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Basis (FBK) over the course of a number of investigations in 2017 and 2019.

The properties in Como confiscated from Mr Soloviev are reported to be price a complete of €8m (£6.68m).

Further reporting by Reuters