Squatters who took over a sanctioned Russian oligarch's mansion are told by judge they can stay

• A house in Amsterdam owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Arkady Volozh was occupied by activists.
• Despite the Yandex billionaire's best efforts, a judge ruled that the squatters can stay.

A court has ruled that a group of squatters who overtook the Dutch home of a sanctioned Russian oligarch do not have to be evicted, according to local reports.

Squatters moved into the five-story luxury house belonging to billionaire Arkady Volozh on October 27, according to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. Despite a request from Volozh's lawyers to evict them, a judge ruled as of Wednesday that they don't have to leave, Dutch news network RTL reported.

Volozh was sanctioned by the EU in March for providing financial assistance to the Russian government as well as faciliatating state media narratives through the search engine he co-founded, Yandex. Volozh stepped down as Yandex CEO in June.

His home in Amsterdam was frozen as part of the measures. Situated in an upscale neighborhood, the house is one of the most expensive in the city, overlooking the picturesque Vondelpark.

One of the organizers of the squat, who identified herself only as Jo, told De Telegraaf that the property was empty, and that it had around nine baths. "There is a toilet and a sauna on each floor," she said. Several people have moved in, most of them students, the paper reported.

The squat comes amid a wider housing crisis in Amsterdam, where properties have long been prohibitively expensive. Photos circulating online show the property hung with banners saying "Against war and capitalism" on them.

Dutch squatting laws, which were tightened in 2010, often hinge on whether a property is being used. Volozh's lawyers argued that the building was only empty due to extensive renovations, and that Volozh wants to move there with his family, Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad reported.

But the judge was skeptical, pointing out that under sanctions Volozh can't even enter the EU, let alone get into the house, the paper reported.

This is far from the first protest action in the properties of high-profile sanctioned Russian figures. In March, activists stormed a mansion belonging to billionaire oligarch Oleg Deripaska in London's Belgravia, as Insider's Rebecca Cohen and Sinéad Baker reported.

Around the same time, activists broke into a massive seaside villa in Biarritz, France, which is registered in the name of Kirill Shamalov, the ex-husband of Putin's daughter Maria Tikhanova. The activists said they wanted to invite Ukrainian refugees to live there.