Italy seizes property belonging to Russian oligarch Mordashov

ROME (Reuters) -Italy has seized a building complex on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia worth around 105 million euros ($116.2 million) owned by Russian businessman Alexey Mordashov, Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s office said on Friday.

The operation was part of a broad, Western drive to penalise wealthy Russians linked to President Vladimir Putin following the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

It was the second time this month that assets belonging to Mordashov, reputed to be Russia’s richest man, have been seized in Italy. Police on March 4 impounded his 65 metre (215 ft) yacht, the “Lady M”, which had a price tag of 65 million euros.

Mordashov, 56, is the son of a mill worker who became a steel magnate with estimated net worth of $29.1 billion.

In the last two weeks, Italian police have sequestered villas and yachts worth more than 780 million of euros from seven wealthy Russians who were placed on a European Union sanctions lists following the assault on Ukraine.

The most valuable asset seized so far is a superyacht owned by billionaire Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko, which is worth around 530 million euros and was impounded in the northern port of Trieste last Saturday.

The other Russians targeted so far in Italy are Alisher Usmanov, Vladimir Soloviev, Gennady Timchenko, Oleg Savchenko, Petr Aven.

($1 = 0.9086 euros)

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Gavin Jones and Agnieszka Flak)