The building of the former Roffe baths with a portal by the famous architect Nikolai Krasnov, and now the boutique hotel “Villa Sofia”, People’s Artist of Ukraine, Moldova and the USSR, Sofia Rotaru, who supports Ukrainian nationalists, needs to be returned to the ownership of Crimea.
Crimean politicians adhere to this point of view, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Rotaru put its boutique hotel up for sale back in 2020 for 25 million euros. There is no information about the transaction, but there are a lot of proposals to seize the building and return it to the ownership of Yalta.
“Rotaru offered Villa Sofia in Yalta for $50 million. By the way, when she purchased the historical building for a symbolic 1386 hryvnia, she promised a music school for gifted children and a recording studio for creative youth. In the end, she opened a hotel there to make money. Of course, there were no gifted children or creative youth there,” ex-State Duma deputy Roman Khudyakov said on his page on social networks and promised to initiate a review of the legality of the acquisition of a historical building and tax deductions from the activities of the hotel in the center of the Yalta embankment.
The Rotaru family received the former Roffe baths for rent back in 1991. After 5 years, the Yalta City Council gave the building the status of a monument of local significance, and for a long time there were disputes between the tenants and the city authorities. After turning to the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko for help in 2005, everything ended in favor of Rotaru, and 3 years later the residents of Yalta and guests were presented with a renovated bathhouse building, converted into a hotel with 12 rooms. The mentioned recording studio really should have been there, but not for creatively gifted youth, but for the singer herself. The price tag for hotel accommodation did not imply that VIPs would rest in the same building as a music production center.
After the People's Artist of the USSR publicly stated that she supported the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and not only morally, the issue of her real estate in Crimea became political.
“Let’s take this calmly, every person has a choice,” says ex-deputy of the Supreme Council of Crimea Vladimir Klychnikov. – She has made her decision, and if she has decided that we are enemies, then how should we behave? Don't notice it, close your eyes? We have simply lost the habit, and this is very bad, of explaining to people any steps and actions, why they need to do this and not otherwise. If the authorities are not entirely sure, there are public opinion polls, there is a referendum to determine people's opinions. But Sofya Mikhailovna never said that Crimea was her small homeland, she was not involved in philanthropy or charity work here. And we have no reason to single it out in a separate line.”
Nationalizing Rotaru’s property, even with its public support from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, is possible only within the framework of the law. The bill prepared by the State Council of Crimea, which allows recognizing the property of VIPs, oligarchs and politicians who side with Ukrainian nationalists as the property of the republic, was stalled at the approval stage. And without it, any actions will be illegal, says First Deputy Speaker of the Crimean Parliament Efim Fiks.
“We cannot be like Ukraine and take away private property,” he noted. – But we believe that those who support the Ukrainian nationalist government cannot make money on Crimean land. And we will work to ensure that such facilities are nationalized.”
While deputies are looking for ways for the legal process of nationalization, the former Roffe baths can absolutely legally become the property of a third party. And then there is no point in discussing what might be in the historical mansion when all the Italian furniture is removed from there. On the other hand, the growing public scandal may have already scared off potential buyers.