Monaco’s reputation as “one of the safest countries on earth” was shattered on Monday night, just before 9pm local time, when a bomb exploded at the entrance to one of the city’s most luxurious apartment buildings.
The bomb exploded when the building’s resident, Ukrainian-born oligarch Vadim Ermolayev, 58, stepped onto the street. he was seriously injured. A woman and a 13-year-old child were also seriously injured in the first recorded bomb assassination attempt on Monaco’s heavily guarded streets.
Prince Albert II, Monaco’s head of state since 2005 and son of Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace (Kelly), has mobilized Monaco’s police and security services to search for the perpetrators, describing the bombing as an “abhorrent act” and ordering increased police street patrols, which are already very regular, to reassure wealthy residents.
Police have opened an investigation on suspicion of “premeditated attempted murder and placing explosives in a public area.”
“This is the first time in history that such an act has taken place in the Principality,” Monaco’s Minister of State Christophe Millmann said, noting that surveillance cameras showed the suspect “walking around the area several times while waiting for his victim.”
Surrounded by France on three sides and the Mediterranean Sea on the other, this small tax-free city-state boasts a high level of safety and security.
According to the principality’s police department, there were no murders or attempted murders last year. By comparison, there are more than 20,000 murders in the United States, an average of 55 a day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
There were no armed robberies. However, the overall number of crimes recorded was 1,055. Still, the average was less than three per day, and 38% of them were classified as petty crimes such as accidental bodily injury, defamation, property damage, petty theft, and fraud.
Monaco is one of the most heavily policed places on earth, so crime is low. At just 485 acres, the Principality has a police force of 556, making it the second smallest independent state in the world after the Vatican, and just over half the size of New York’s Central Park (843 acres).
According to the Monaco Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, the population is 38,857, meaning there is one police officer for every 70 residents.
There is approximately one police officer for every 400 people in the United States, but that number varies widely by state and city. The most heavily policed city, Washington, DC, has one police officer for every 185 people. In the UK it is 1 in 425 people.
In addition to the police, 125 elite military personnel from the Compagnie des Carabiniers du Prince are dedicated to protecting the prince and his family.
Monaco also has a network of 1,387 CCTV and facial recognition cameras, which are monitored 24 hours a day at an “operational command and supervision centre.” Random on-site identification checks are carried out regularly, with more than 134,000 carried out last year.
The government is spending millions of dollars to beef up security along the northern border with France. There is no physical barrier between Monaco and the neighboring French town of Beausoleil, and you can walk back and forth between the two without noticing.
The suspect in the bombing of the cream-colored 1920s Sun Palace apartment building on Rue Leverin-Père-Louis-Florat was captured on surveillance cameras walking down the street into France. Despite an investigation involving both Monaco and French police, the suspect remains at large.
Monaco’s government cites its “unique level of security” as the main reason why so many wealthy and famous people choose to move to Monaco. Celebrities who have based here include Formula 1 drivers Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Max Verstappen. Tennis players Novak Djokovic and Bjorn Borg, as well as Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and singer Shirley Bassey.
Nick Edmiston, founder and chairman of superyacht building company Edmiston & Company and who has lived in Monaco since 1989, said feeling safe and secure is what makes the country special.
“I feel safe walking around wearing expensive jewelry,” he said. “Many wealthy people are used to being surrounded by bodyguards at all times, but in Monaco there is no need for that.”
According to research by real estate agency Knight Frank, around 35 out of 100 Monaco residents are millionaires.
They are attracted not only to security, but also to the country’s tax system. There is no tax on income, assets, real estate, or capital gains. Companies established in Monaco are also exempt from tax if most of their business is based in the principality. The only tax applicable in the principality is VAT (sales tax), which is levied at 20% on most goods.
To apply for residency, applicants must open a Monaco bank account and deposit at least €500,000 (£440,000).
The government is fielding so many applications from people wanting to move to Monaco that it has spent 2 billion euros ($2.28 billion) reclaiming 15 acres of land from the sea and putting 120 apartments on the market for more than $100,000 per square meter. That’s more expensive than luxury apartment complexes like Manhattan’s 15 Central Park West or London’s One Hyde Park.
In Monaco, just $1 million can buy just 16 square meters (172 square feet) of prime residential property, less than a third of what you can buy in Paris, according to a Knight Frank report.
