Anti-Kremlin protesters staged a rally in Paris on Sunday, urging the EU to slap sanctions on the socialite wife of the Russian deputy defence minister, who they accuse of bypassing sanctions.
Timur Ivanov, the deputy defence minister, divorced his wife Svetlana Maniovich in the summer of 2022 in order to shield her from sanctions, according to associates of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
Before the divorce Maniovich changed her surname to Ivanova, and the deputy defence minister remains her only source of financial support, the activists said.
At a rally organised by Navalny's team on Sunday, several dozen activists gathered outside the presumed home of Maniovich in the French capital's chic seventh district, chanting "sanctions" and holding placards.
Anti-Kremlin activists say that Ivanov's wife must be banned from living in Europe and her assets frozen.
One placard at the rally said: "Robs in Russia. Kills in Ukraine. Wife in France".
"This is a family of a war criminal," Maria Pevchikh, a top Navalny associate, told AFP at the rally.
"They should face some sort of punishment and justice for what they are doing."
Last December, Navalny's team released an investigation, saying that for years Ivanov's family enjoyed a life of luxury in Europe with vacations in Saint-Tropez, Rolls-Royces and exclusive jewellery.
The probe is based on a trove of thousands of Maniovich's emails obtained by the activists.
After President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, Ivanov began overseeing -- and profiting from -- construction projects in Ukraine's Mariupol which fell under Moscow's control after a months-long siege, the activists said.
After the start of the war, Ivanov's wife went to France where she continues to enjoy a luxury lifestyle, they said.
- 'New reality' -
In June, 2022, the couple divorced, said Navalny's associates, calling the move a sham. Ivanov and Maniovich, who are raising a young daughter together, did not publicly announce they had called it quits.
Last October, the EU introduced sanctions against Ivanov, 47, describing him as the defence ministry's top official in charge of construction of military facilities.
"He is responsible for the Russian war effort at large," said the EU.
The fact that Maniovich could bypass EU sanctions was "outrageous and unfair", said Pevchikh, pointing to "a crazy level of corruption which is now combined with war crimes."
For weeks, Navalny's team has lobbied the French authorities but received no answer.
"Now is not the time to ignore this," Pevchikh said. "We are in the middle of the war."
As soon as Maniovich arrived in Paris last March, she went to the appointment-only boutique of world-famous jeweller Joel Arthur Rosenthal to buy a new piece of jewellery, Navalny's team said.
She sent an email to Rosenthal's firm JAR, saying her plane was arriving later then scheduled after the EU banned flights to and from Russia.
"(A) new reality", she wrote, according to the investigation. "What's the latest I can come today?"
