Kimberley Mannion
A RUSSIAN oligarch and his artist wife with ties to Putin own an idyllic villa close to Pollença on the Spanish island of Mallorca that has not yet been seized by Spain despite its owner being named on a blacklist.
Andrey Igorevich Akimov, president of Gazprombank, the third largest bank in Russia owns a haven in Mallorca, according to a report in Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
Gazprombank is arguably the closest bank to the Kremlin, given that it is most important in financing public projects in key sectors like mining and gas pipelines.
Blacklisted from the UK and US, the oligarch is believed to have been a member of KGB, the committee for state security under the former Soviet Union, and was born in Saint Petersburg, the same city as Putin himself.
Putin awarded the banker the Order of Merit for the Fatherland medal for his contribution to the development of Russia in 2021.
Named Can Guillot, the Pollença estate encompasses 800,000 square metres of land valued at approximately €17 million.
The land has a spa, artificial lakes, beautiful gardens and fountains, and would also have had a ten-hole golf course had plans not been abandoned due to environmental pressure.
Akimov’s wife, the artist Marianna Chaykina has depicted Mallorca and the land the couple own on the island in her paintings.
The oligarch is said to have owned the Mallorca estate for at least five years, through a group of intermediary companies in Cyprus.
In the town of Pollença rumour has it that Putin himself has been a guest at the residence, but there is no official proof of this.
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