Tyrant Retirement Home in Russia

Luxury residential area Barvikha just outside Moscow is popular with rejected foreign dictators and their families.

Tyrants need a cozy, safe, place to go when they are ousted from their home or resident country. A place where they can settle if they manage to escape justice at home. If they are not apprehended, killed or both, and can chose for themselves where to go.

One of those safe havens for dictators is, and has been for a long time, Russia.

We just recently saw the infamous Syrian dictator Bashar Hafez al-Assad rush to his safe place when a modest but determined rebel force closed up on the capital. Assad was lucky enough that his Russian friends picked him up allegedly without being asked to, which is unlikely though because the Assad family members, including Mrs. Assad, were already in safety in Moscow before that.

Tea with Putin at his official residence-retreat close to Barvikha outside Moscow. Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin at Novo-Ogaryovo on 7 July 2009. Photo: Pete Souza, White House - Public Domain

It is worth mentioning that historically, the west has actually been popular for retirement of dictators from several continents. France did let African dictators settle after some of the many coups in that continent, especially from the Francophone former colonies. London has also been popular among ex-dictators if they are not wanted by the International Courts. USA has housed quite a few ex-dictators from South America. All of these countries have prosecuted a few of these dictators, as well, but not systematically. Having access to funds, owning property in advance, and having relatives and friends in the place usually helps.

Assad

Bashar al-Assad has been granted "humanitarian residency" in Russia. He already owns several apartments in Moscow, but he is most likely to settle in the village of Barvikha, a short drive west of Moscow, where Putin's official residence is, as well as his health resort and clinic, the Barvikha Sanatorium. In this place, some of Russia's richest and most powerful have mansions hidden from prying eyes behind high walls and protective spruce forest.

During Putin's time in power, the village has also developed into a refuge for deposed dictators and their families. The supermarket and specialty shops are well assorted, such as with Ferraris and Bentleys at the local car dealerships. But most importantly, they can live a life of freedom without fear of being prosecuted for war crimes or lynched by angry mobs.

Those who were rejected

Of course, it requires that you are a friend of Putin’s. Before Putin, some fugitive dictators were even rejected or expulsed. Even the former East German leader Erich Honecker was sent back to unified Germany. After the German reunification, Honecker fled to Russia, but when the Soviet Union collapsed, But neither Mikhail Gorbachev nor Boris Yeltsin wanted to save him. The new government in Russia was unable and unwilling to give him protection, and he was extradited to Germany in 1992. There he was tried by German authorities for treason and for crimes committed during the Cold War, including the murder of 172 Germans who were trying to escape to the West. However, he was released in 1993, when he was terminally ill with advanced cancer. He fled to Chile, where his wife Margot Honecker and daughter Sonja lived. He died of the disease in Chile the following year.

Since Putin came to power in Russia, the country has apparently become better at protecting its former allies, even if it has not succeeded in protecting their regimes.

The Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic never made it to safety after he was overthrown in 2000. He ended his days in a cell in the Netherlands, even before he was convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Court. His family - Mira Markovic, managed to flee to Moscow in 2003, when she too was wanted. Somehow, she avoided justice even if she was involved in the crimes against humanity that her husband was later punished for. But in Barvikha she was able to live a “respectable, normal life,” her brother-in-law, Borislav Milosevic, told The New York Times in 2012.

Viktor Yanukovych

Until now, perhaps the best-known foreign resident of Barvikha has been Viktor Yanukovych. He was the president of Ukraine until he was overthrown by the Maidan revolution in February 2014 and fled to Russia. When protesters in Ukraine broke into his abandoned mansion north of Kyiv, they were shocked by the wild luxury the ousted president allowed himself while the rest of the country struggled economically and politically. There was a private zoo, a fleet of luxury cars and gold-plated ornaments.

Yanukovych escaped to Russia and still has a well-developed taste for the extravagant. In Barvikha, he reportedly owns a mansion worth 40-50 million dollars. He most likely have other places to live, including in the Sochi area, where Putin built a palace in a spectacular place overlooking the Black Sea.

The Swiss magazine NZZ reported this fall that apparently Putin’s palace has been demolished. New satellite photos shows the grounds have been cleared and new construction work has started. None of this has been confirmed by the Russian authorities, but it is rumored that the palace was considered too vulnerable, considering that Ukrainian drones and missiles have hit targets a bit further up on the coast.

Other Ukrainians that escaped to Russia are notably Mykola Azarov, who was prime minister under Yanukovych. He fled at the same time as Yanukovych and is said to be living in Petrovo-Dalneje outside Moscow. It is another high-profile area where several of the Soviet Union's top politicians had their palatial summer residences.

Shortly after the Russian invasion of mainland Ukraine, politician and oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk was also offered asylum by Putin. He is accused of treason in Ukraine but was extradited to Russia in a prisoner exchange. His whereabouts today are unclear. According to Ukrainian media, Medvedchuk and his wife own several luxury properties in the occupied parts of Ukraine.

Finally, Russia also has attracted other foreigners that will face difficulties if they return home, such as American whistleblower Edward Snowden, who leaked a huge amount of confidential files, arrived in Russia in 2013 and was eventually granted asylum.