Carbon footprint of billionaires | Oligarch Abramovich takes legal action against the Left Party

Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich is taking legal action against the German Left Party. As Left Party chairman Jan van Aken announced, the action stems from a four-year-old statement by the Left Party's Ecological Platform concerning the _carbon footprint of billionaires. The platform cited a study by US scientists which concluded that Abramovich, among the billionaires examined, caused the largest _carbon emissions through the ownership and use of "private jets, villas, and superyachts." Abramovich, considered a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, derives his immense wealth, in part, from the oil and gas industry.

In the cease-and-desist letter from his lawyer, Abramovich denies that the assets mentioned in the Ecological Platform's statement—such as a superyacht over 160 meters long, helicopters, and a property in London—are his. Van Aken responded that he "doesn't care at all what convoluted structures he uses to conceal his wealth. Even if he's only the majority shareholder of a fund that owns a holding company, which owns a corporation that operates a shell company in the Cayman Islands that maintains the yacht 'Eclipse'—for me, that's his."

The Left Party will not comply with the cease-and-desist letter and will let the matter go to court in Germany. They are happy to take the case "if Mr. Abramovich wants to disclose his true financial situation before German courts to teach us a lesson." They want to know, van Aken said, "what he owns – so that we know what could be confiscated for the benefit of Ukraine's reconstruction."