Sanctioned Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman says he is 'practically under house arrest' and has to eat at home as his credit cards have been blocked

• The Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman told El País he can't go anywhere because of sanctions.
• The London-based billionaire said he has to apply to the UK government to spend money.

The Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman told the Spanish newspaper El País this week that he was living "practically under house arrest" because of sanctions levied against him.

Fridman, who lives in London, and many other Russian oligarchs and officials were sanctioned by the UK and the European Union after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He cannot access his fortune, as his bank accounts, credit cards, and ATM cards have been blocked.

"Authorities in Great Britain have to assign me a certain amount so I can take taxis and buy food, but it will be a very limited amount if you look at the cost of living in London," he told El País. Fridman, who founded the largest private bank in Russia, is one of the richest people in Russia, with an estimated net worth of $10.4 billion, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.

Earlier this month, he told Bloomberg that he had to apply to the UK government to spend any money in the country and that he could be receiving about 2,500 British pounds, or about $3,275, a month if the application were approved.

But in the El País interview, he said he wasn't sure an allowance would be "enough to live a normal life without excesses."

"I can't even take anyone out to a restaurant. I have to eat at home and I am practically under house arrest," he said. He bought Athlone House, a five-acre Victorian-era estate, for 65 million pounds in 2016.

Fridman told El País he didn't know whether he'd be able to keep the mansion. "It's unclear whether I'll be able to keep living in London or whether I'll be forced to go, which I cannot do right now and don't want to for many reasons," he said.

The tycoon also expressed dismay at the treatment he'd received since the war in Ukraine began.

"I have been in London for eight years, I have invested billions of dollars in Great Britain and other European countries, and the response to this is that they seize everything from me and throw me out," Fridman told El País.

Fridman has described the sanctions targeting businesspeople as unfair and ineffective. He told El País that "sanctions against private entrepreneurs make no sense, because the majority of them have built their business through talent, effort and personal qualifications."

He told the Spanish newspaper it's "idiotic" to believe that oligarchs could compel Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the Ukraine war — which El País noted he avoided calling a war but described as a "disaster" or "what is happening."

"Things won't go any better for the West if it forces many brilliant and interesting entrepreneurs to go to Russia, instead of integrating them more and trying to get them to take a stand, even if it is obvious that private business has zero influence over Putin," he told El País.