The socialite ex-wife of a Russian minister whose lavish European shopping sprees provoked outrage has become the latest target of anti-Putin activists.
ussian opposition groups plan to protest outside the home of Svetlana Maniovich, who was once married to Russia’s deputy defence minister and who has enjoyed a lavish lifestyle of holidays, Champagne and luxury clothes, even as Putin wages his bloody war in Ukraine.
The activists want Ms Maniovich to be banned from living in or visiting France because of her ex-husband’s involvement in the conflict in Ukraine.
They also believe her assets should be frozen and she should be “kicked out of Europe”.
Ms Maniovich went on luxury shopping sprees in Geneva, Paris and Belgium, spending more than €100,000 on a diamond ring and €150,000 on a pair of earrings, according to leaked emails obtained by the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), the non-profit organisation established by Alexei Navalny, Russia’s jailed opposition leader, in 2011.
Her family allegedly spent €850,000 on villa rentals in Saint-Tropez and €250,000 on yachts between 2013 and 2018.
A party to celebrate her birthday, held in Istanbul in 2018, reportedly cost €178,000.
Russian democracy activists are furious that Ms Maniovich is allowed to pursue such a hedonistic lifestyle, and claim her supposed divorce from Timur Ivanov last August is a sham.
They claim the divorce was a ruse so she could evade EU sanctions that were imposed on her husband and that the two of them remain a couple.
The rally outside her luxury home in the French capital has been planned for today.
“Anybody in Paris? We’re organising an event for everybody who’s not OK with war criminals living comfortably in Europe,” Maria Pevchikh, head of investigations for FBK, wrote on Twitter.
“We’ll gather outside Maniovich’s apartment demanding sanctions for this and other Putin-loving criminals.”
Activists said Ms Maniovich organised personal appointments at high-end jewellery outlets.
“This is where she gets €150K earrings and €104K rings made for her. As insane as it sounds, she is totally allowed to come to the EU and walk up and down the Champs-Élysées spending the money her husband made by bombing apartment blocks, killing children and beheading soldiers in Ukraine.
“Every euro she spends at Hermes and Cartier in Paris is a blood-soaked euro.”
They said Mr Ivanov is involved in rebuilding Mariupol, “the city Putin has wiped off the face of the earth and occupied”.
FBK said the minister has accrued huge wealth through corruption, taking kickbacks from developers in return for giving them construction contracts, including in Mariupol.
“Ivanov receives kickbacks from whoever he assigns MoD construction contracts to,” Ms Pevchikh said.
Mr Navalny, Russia’s most prominent critic of Putin, is serving more than 11 years in prison for alleged fraud and contempt of court.
Supporters said last week that he had suffered sudden weight loss and acute stomach pain that made them suspect that he was being slowly poisoned.