‘If my £6.5m Kent mansion is sold now it could help fund Putin’s war’

theguardian.com:

It is one of Britain’s most controversial property sales. A former multimillionaire banker warns that proceeds from the disposal of his £6.5m Kent country estate risk being sent to help fund Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

Ilya Yurov, 50, who is originally from Moscow, is being pursued with two former colleagues for $900m (£720m) from the National Bank Trust in Russia after losing a high court case.

National Bank Trust is tasked with recovering billions of pounds from around the world to send back to Russia, but to date has escaped the UK sanctions list. As revealed by the Observerlast week, it is majority owned by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and was once promoted by the actor Bruce Willis.

Yurov bought Oxney Court in Kent, an 17th-century gothic-style mansion with crenellated walls and towers, in 2012. The property was destroyed by a blaze during the first world war when it was commandeered as an operation headquarters and place of recuperation for soldiers returning from the front. It was meticulously rebuilt in 1998. The 14-hectare (35-acre) estate, with tennis court and pool, has been put on the market for £6.5m to help pay his debt.

Speaking at the Grade II-listed building last week, he accepted that the property needed to be sold and money recovered, but said National Bank Trust should urgently be put on the sanctions list.

He said: “I can’t accept that this money can go back to the Russian state. I feel sick that it could be used to support horrible atrocities. The west can’t turn a blind eye to this. It’s illogical that the bank is not sanctioned.”

Yurov, a father of six, said the funds returned to the Russian state could be used to support the war. He said state-controlled banks were providing loans and