DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Dima Tutkov feels safe on an artificial island on the edge of the Persian Gulf.
There is none of the anti-Russian attitudes he hears about in Europe. He hasn’t noticed any potholes or homelessness, unlike what he saw in Los Angeles. And even when his advertising agency returns big profits in Russia, he doesn’t have to worry about being drafted into Ukraine.
“Dubai is a lot freer – in every way,” he said, wearing an intricately torn designer T-shirt at a cafe he’d just opened in the city, where his children now attend a British school. “We are independent from Russia,” he said. “This is very important.”
A year after a historic onslaught of economic sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s rich are still wealthy. And in Dubai, the largest city in the United Arab Emirates, they have found their naval port.
Between the city’s waterfront promenades, the glamorous shopping centers and the cul-de-sacs of the suburbs, Russian is becoming the lingua franca. Oligarchs mingle in exclusive resorts. Restaurateurs from Moscow and St. Petersburg are racing to open there. Entrepreneurs like Mr. Tutkov run their Russian businesses from Dubai and open new ones.
Dubai’s new Russian diaspora spans a spectrum that includes multi-billionaires hit by sanctions and middle-class tech workers who fled President Vladimir V Putin’s convocation. But to some extent they share the same reasons for being in the Emirates: they have maintained direct flights to Russia, staked out neutral territory in the war in Ukraine and, they say, have shown none of the animosities towards Russians that they describe therein perceive Europe.
“Why do business where they aren’t friendly to you?” says Tamara Bigaeva, who recently opened a two-story outpost of a Russian beauty clinic that’s already welcoming longtime clients. “They clearly don’t want to see us in Europe.”
According to interviews with Russians who have settled there, a major advantage of Dubai is that it is apolitical. Unlike in Western Europe, there are no publicly hoisted Ukrainian flags and no solidarity rallies. The war itself feels far away. Anyone harboring anti-Russian sentiments in Dubai would most likely keep them to themselves anyway; Protests in the authoritarian monarchy of the Emirates are effectively illegal, and freedom of assembly is severely restricted.
The presence of wealthy Russians in Dubai at a time when they were largely cut off from the West shows how Mr Putin was able to uphold the social contract crucial to his domestic support: in exchange for loyalty, those close to him can have enormous power accumulate wealth.
In fact, a political scientist, Ekaterina Schulman, said Mr Putin signaled to businessmen that he was ready to remove even more obstacles to enrichment. A recent law, for example, exempts legislators from making their income and assets public.
“Yes, we cut you off from the First World, but it doesn’t get any worse for you,” Ms Schulmann said of how she views Mr Putin’s revised deal with the elite. “First of all, there are many other countries that are friendly to us. Second, you have many opportunities to get richer and we will no longer prosecute you for corruption.”
Publicly, Mr. Putin has called on Russia’s jet set elite to reorient their lives and investments in Russia. But the rich who have moved to Dubai have different ideas.
“For all of us, this is a safe haven for a while,” said Anatoly Kamenskikh, a Russian real estate salesman who boasts his team sold $300 million worth of properties in Dubai last year — the vast majority to Russian citizens. “Everyone tries to park their wealth somewhere.”
Mr. Kamenskikh’s real estate developer, Sobha Realty, celebrated the Russian-driven real estate boom in Dubai by installing a miniature St. Basil’s Cathedral and artificial snow in front of the sales office. Part of the man-made island called Palm Jumeirah is lined with Russian restaurants and nightclubs, one of which was packed recently on Wednesday night when diners ordered $1,200 bottles of Dom Pérignon champagne, which was delivered by dancing waiters with lit sparklers.
When a drunk guest shouted, “Glory to Ukraine!” The bouncers quickly ushered him out.
“You get the feeling that they have their heads in the sand,” said Dmytro Kotelenets, a Ukrainian entertainment producer who moved to Dubai with his family, of the Russians around him. “They either don’t want to know what’s happening between Russia and Ukraine, or they think nothing has changed.”
In his State of the Union address last month, Mr Putin urged Russia’s rich to “be with your motherland” and bring their financial assets home, rather than viewing Russia “simply as a source of income” from abroad.
Indeed, many of Russia’s rich are simply relocating to the United Arab Emirates, which – like the rest of the Middle East – have refused to join Western sanctions against Moscow.
“I’m in Dubai, I’m chilling” is the lyrics to the current No. 1 song in Russia, according to Apple Music. “Yes, I’m rich and I don’t hide it.”
The Emirates have one Population of about 10 million, of which only about a million are citizens of the Emirates. The remainder are expatriates, including millions of Indians and Pakistanis, and smaller numbers of Europeans and Americans.
A New York Times Analysis of flight records Last spring, it was noted that the United Arab Emirates became the top destination for private flights from Russia in the weeks following the invasion, which began on February 24, 2022. Since then, the country’s appeal seems to have only grown.
Russian government statistics show that Russians made 1.2 million trips to the Emirates in 2022, compared to 1 million in the year before the 2019 pandemic. Many of those visitors took root: Russians were the leading non-resident buyers of property in 2022 Dubai nationality, according to Betterhomes, a real estate agency in Dubai.
First there are the tycoons. Andrey Melnichenko, a Russian coal and fertilizer billionaire, moved to the United Arab Emirates last year after sanctions forced him to leave his longtime home in Switzerland. Last month, in the subdued lobby of an exclusive resort, another convicted Russian businessman said he was in town for a birthday celebration.
Russian officials and their families also come to visit, although they try not to draw attention to their presence, and with good reason: in the north-western Russian region of Vologda, the pro-Kremlin party United Russia has expelled two local lawmakers after they were caught in the social Media had been placed in Dubai. One of them, Russian journalists studying their posts reportedThere she vacationed with Ksenia Shoigu, the daughter of the Russian Defense Minister.
The paths of the elite cross at Angel Cakes, an Instagram-friendly cafe that Mr. Tutkov, the advertiser, opened on an artificial island called Bluewaters in the shadow of the world’s tallest Ferris wheel. A frequent visitor to the cafe, the former president of a major Russian company, quipped, “Dubai is becoming a part of Russia outside of Russia.”
Mr. Tutkov dismissed as an “illusion” the notion that sanctions had ruined Russia’s economy. His advertising agency, he said, is benefiting as companies try to fill the vacuum left by Western corporations pulling out of Russia. Its clients include Haier, a Chinese home appliance maker trying to break into a market that has been dominated by more established brands.
Even sanctions against the financial system did not prove to be a hindrance. Last summer, the ruble rose against the dollar to historic highs. Mr Tutkov said he exploited the exchange rate by using unsanctioned Russian banks to transfer part of his advertising agency’s profits to Dubai.
“We exchanged for dollars and transferred them here,” he said. “We’ve made colossal excess profits in dollars, you know? And all did.”
Mr. Tutkov and his family had planned to spend the summer in Moscow. But after Mr Putin’s draft last fall, he’s no longer sure he’ll go back.
“Those are colossal risks,” said Mr Tutkov, 39. “What if you can’t go or they take you into the army or something?”
The diaspora also includes low-income earners, including artists, technology workers and employees of Western companies that have relocated their Moscow offices to the city.
Dmitri Balakirev, who worked in engineering in the Urals, left Russia because he was against the war, he said, and went to Dubai, having previously visited it thanks to direct flights from his city.
Mr. Balakirev decided to stay and start a real estate agency. He estimated that there would probably still be direct flights to Russia, which allowed him to keep in touch with his relatives. And he saw it as a place to make a living.
Emirates officials say their banks are following all American sanctions rules. In fact, many Russian expats say opening a bank account is one of the hardest parts of moving to Dubai, attributing months of waits to banks’ strict compliance requirements.
“There are many Russians who are not sanctioned and are interested in safer havens,” said Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the Emirates president. told reporters last year.
Among those who found refuge in Dubai last year is Russian pop star Daria Zoteyeva, the singer of Russia’s current #1 hit. She now lives in an unfinished luxury settlement in the desert. At night, a light show flashes over the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper, in the distance.
In order to make music, Ms Tsoteeva said in an interview on a roadside bench, “you have to be in a good mood.” Dubai, she continues, is a “sunny place” where the war “affects nothing.” She refuses to comment on the war, which she calls “this whole situation”.
“It’s about not letting go of my audience and making money,” she explained of her silence. “Because it’s a lot of money. It is a lot of money.”
Vivian Nereim Contributed reporting from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Alina Lobzina from London.
