Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich owns a $ 90 million mansion on the Caribbean island of St. Bartholomew. Known as St. Barthelemy, the island’s economy is based on tourism from extremely wealthy visitors such as Abramovich. Ever since they faced sanctions from the UK and the EU, locals have defended Abramovich, calling him “a handsome man”.
Faced with growing sanctions, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich’s reputation is being defended by unlikely supporters: locals on the Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy. “For more than a decade, locals and staff have become extremely wealthy themselves, thanks to Abramovich and other extremely wealthy customers,” an unnamed St. Barts resident told Forbes. “They do not want it to end.” Known as St. Barts, the island’s economy is based on tourism capital from extremely wealthy visitors such as Abramovich, who has owned a $ 90 million mansion on the island since 2009. As it faces increasing sanctions from the UK and EU, including more $ 7 billion in frozen assets, the island’s locals have described him as “a handsome man” and defend his presence on the island as positive. Abramovich, once called Russia’s most charitable billionaire, has a history of making large donations, including to the Israel Holocaust Museum and a nanotechnology research center at Tel Aviv University. In St. Barts, he paid $ 4 million to rebuild the local football field in 2010, paid for renovations after a hurricane in 2017, and funded repairs to a saltwater lake important to the local ecosystem, Forbes reported. “They put everyone in the same basket,” Patrice Abderraham, a private chef who has worked for the oligarch on several occasions, told Forbes. “I hope everything goes well for him.” Read the original article in Business Insider
