The Russian billionaires, who were hit with financial sanctions by the US and UK following the invasion of Ukraine, however, still seem to be sailing their opulent yachts and flying in their private jets.

Tens of billions of dollars were wiped out of the fortunes of Russia’s billionaire elite this week as the country’s stock market and the ruble plunged amid the attack on Ukraine. But some of these billionaires’ high-end assets, which include yachts, jets and real estate from penthouses in Chelsea to mansions in Highgate, were untouched, the media pointed out.

British opposition lawmakers have called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to seize the assets of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who lost more than $1 billion this week. The billionaire owner of Premier League football team Chelsea FC, who made his fortune in the Russian oil industry after the fall of the Soviet Union, has been caught up in escalating tensions between London and Moscow.

Chelsea FC are one of the most successful teams in Europe, having won the Champions League last year and valued at around $2.1 billion. On Saturday, Abramovich said he was handing the ‘stewardship and care’ of Chelsea over to the trustees of his charitable foundation

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On Thursday, Labor MP Chris Bryant asked the House of Commons that Abramovich, who is not currently on the UK’s sanctions list, should not own a football club there. “Surely we should consider seizing some of his assets, including his £152m home…,” he said.

Sports investors and private equity firms, some of them American, have rushed to list potential takeover offers for the football club in the event that sanctions force the Russian billionaire to sell. Many members of Putin’s circle live lavish lifestyles outside of Russia, spending millions on luxury homes, yachts and celebrity parties. It is a situation that, however, makes them vulnerable to economic pressure as their assets are increasingly tied to the west, the media said.

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A Bloomberg report citing flight data website ADS-B Exchange said Abramovich’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner took off from an airport near Monaco on Thursday (February 24) for Moscow, while a another billionaire, Alexey Mordashov’s Bombardier Global 6000, traveled from the Seychelles region. in the western Indian Ocean. They were part of Russia’s wealthiest elite, who had been summoned by Vladimir Putin for a meeting in the Kremlin after Russia invaded Ukraine.

After the meeting, Mordashov, the second richest person in Russia with a net worth of $23 billion, according to flight data, returned to the Seychelles region. His yacht Nord, which cost him $500 million, has been sailing the island nation for 10 days. One of Abramovich’s yachts, the Solaris, is in Barcelona, ​​while the other, the Eclipse, is in Saint Martin in the Caribbean.

International political observers have estimated that assets such as planes or yachts could be targeted by a series of sanctions. While Natalie Jaresko, Ukraine’s former finance minister, told Bloomberg it was important to impose sanctions on Russia’s ultra-rich, but she acknowledged it was a complex issue and would take time. But their comfort needs to be removed, Jaresko said.

“We have more individuals on our list, whom we are ready to sanction,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told media on Wednesday when asked if Abramovich was the target of sanctions. “Nobody’s off the table,” Truss said.

Alisher Usmanov, 68, is part of a group of billionaires with assets in the west and close ties to Putin. Usmanov, whose net worth exceeds $16 billion, which includes his 512ft superyacht “Ona” (formerly called “Dilbar”, the name of his late mother) which has a large garden, two helipads and an 82ft swimming pool .

Usmanov, who has financial interests in Everton FC, a Premier League soccer club in the UK, also has extensive holdings in London, where he owns two sprawling mansions with a combined price tag of $300 million. He also owns properties in Sardinia, Munich and Monaco, according to reports.

Reigning in the Russian billionaire class will not be so easy for most countries. But as an American professor of international history told the media, while sanctioning the oligarchs is a good thing to do, it’s not like they’re about to phone in and sway Putin. In terms of sanctions, the important thing is to target the whole economy, the banks and the energy sector, the professor said.

According to Forbes, Russia’s 116 billionaires have lost more than $126 billion since February 16. But they are still traveling and enjoying their superyachts which are parked in Barcelona, ​​two others are parked along the Florida coast, in Miami and Palm Beach.