A blue banner with the words "this property has been liberated" and a red one reading "Putin will screw you" hung from two balconies of this imposing cream-colored building located at 5 Belgrave square, while a Ukrainian flag flew in a window.

According to the Property Registry, the building, located in central London not far from Hyde Park, is owned by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, Ravellot Limited.

It is managed by Graham Bonham Carter, a British businessman whose five bank accounts were frozen in early March due to "suspects that the money in these accounts came from the laundering of funds from a sanctioned individual in the United States, namely Oleg Deripaska", had indicated the National Crime agency.

Graham Bonham Carter manages the real estate portfolio of this Russian oligarch, which represents several million pounds in the United Kingdom.

According to a 2007 High Court judgment, Mr Deripaska "effectively owns" a house at 5 Belgrave Square, London.

"Sickening Wealth"

Monday morning, this mansion was surrounded by a police cordon and guarded by half a dozen police vehicles, noted an AFP journalist.

"Our intention is to use this building to house refugees," one of the group's members told reporters.

Another activist explained by telephone to AFP that the group had entered the building overnight from Sunday to Monday.

He described the mansion as "sickeningly rich" and "magnificent", believing that "it's what a war refugee deserves".

A squatter on the balcony of the mansion belonging to a Russian oligarch which he occupies with others in an upscale district of central London, March 14, 2022 Tolga Akmen AFP

Referring to the UK government's sanctions on Russian oligarchs with property in the UK, he said that by law, "it could take up to six months to seize their properties. Frankly, that's ridiculous."

“We are now seizing their properties,” he said, saying he chose this one for its “size” and “location.”

A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday the government was "working to identify the appropriate use of seized property where owners face penalties".

Mr Deripaska, who founded aluminum giant Rusal, was among seven Russian oligarchs sanctioned on Thursday by the British government which imposed an asset freeze and travel ban on them for their links to the Kremlin.

Police said in a statement that they have "contacted a small number of people inside (the mansion). Specialist officers are at the scene and are considering appropriate next steps."

In France, two men were arrested in Biarritz (south-west) after breaking into a villa belonging to the former son-in-law of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which they unfurled the Ukrainian flag.

© 2022 AFP