On the shore of Lake Saimaa near the Finnish town of Savonlinna, an abandoned luxury villa is falling into disrepair, and according to an investigation by the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, traces from it lead to one of the best-known Russian oligarchs, Roman Abramovich. According to the reporters themselves, they were led to the property by chance. A contractor cited by the newspaper estimates that the building was prepared for something other than ordinary holiday-cottage use. Helsingin Sanomat ↗
Abramovich, the former owner of the football club Chelsea, has been on the sanctions lists of the European Union and Britain since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 over his ties to the Kremlin. A secretive property linked to his name just a few dozen kilometers from the Russian border therefore does not sound like a real-estate curiosity in Finland, but rather a security issue. OpenSanctions ↗
Since joining NATO, Finland shares a border with Russia more than 1,300 kilometers long, and since spring 2026 it has, for security reasons, been rejecting the sale of real estate to buyers from outside the European Union. Savonlinna itself is among the locations affected. Authorities warn that real-estate purchases can serve a foreign power in gaining footholds within the country. Finnish Government ↗
An abandoned luxury villa is decaying by a Finnish lake. Traces lead to Roman Abramovich
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