Dutch authorities seize land belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Dutch ex-son-in-law as part of criminal investigation, The Guardian reported Thursday.
The confiscated land southeast of Amsterdam belonged to Yorit Faasen, who married Putin’s eldest daughter Maria Vorontsova in 2008. It is reported that the couple later divorced.
Protesters targeted the empty land shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, holding signs outside calling on Putin to withdraw his forces and free jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
The Dutch prosecutor’s office for financial, economic and environmental crimes seized Faasen’s plot of land on May 12, according to land registry documents cited by The Guardian.
Property records show that the 1,432-square-meter plot in the village of Duyvendrecht was seized as part of a criminal investigation, the publication said.
Dutch lawyers told The Guardian that Faassen is likely to be the subject of an investigation, but public documents do not shed light on the nature of the asset seizure or the alleged criminal case.
Dutch prosecutors declined to comment to The Guardian on either the alleged seizure or the investigation.
The seizure came two months after the United States announced the start of new crackdowns on individuals and states involved in evading anti-Russian sanctions.
Unlike Vorontsova and Putin’s youngest daughter Ekaterina Tikhonova, Faasen, who lives in Moscow, did not fall under US sanctions.
Dutch authorities recently questioned Faasen about sanctions evasion at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, the Russian investigative website Project reported on Thursday, citing an acquaintance of Faasen.
The publication reported that he returned to Moscow after his laptop and mobile phone were confiscated.
Previous reports indicated that Faassen was “afraid” of returning to the Netherlands because of the fallout from Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
April 2022 investigation by Russian independent news site Meduza and US-funded broadcaster Current Time offered Vorantsova had a relationship with Yevhen Nagorny, an employee of the Russian energy company. Apparently, she gave birth to his child in 2017.
