According to the Associated Press reported on March 7, as the sanctions imposed on Russia by western governments led by the United States have escalated step by step, Russia's billionaires are racking their brains to find ways to keep their funds and assets in Europe and the United States from being forced to tax or direct confiscation.
U.S. President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union address earlier this month that a task force would be set up to investigate Russian oligarchs to sever their ties to the U.S. financial system, freeze their assets in the United States, and join forces with European allies to confiscate the assets of the rich, including yachts, mansions, and private jets. Biden claimed, "This is for your ill-gotten gains." ”
Alisher Usmanov, one of the Russian oligarchs named by the United States for sanctions, and his giant yacht Dilbar, have been seized at a German shipyard. The superyacht is the size of a football field and is comparable to a Dreadnought-class battleship in World War I, and the pool on board is even large enough to accommodate another superyacht.
Launched in 2016 at a cost of more than $648 million, the Yacht Debar was sent to Germany last fall for refurbishment and cost another hundred million dollars.
The Associated Press, in partnership with a Uk-based yachting company, has compiled a detailed list of 56 superyachts that show dozens of Russian oligarchs owning ships worth more than $5.4 billion at sea.
The list allows the last position of the yacht to be mapped based on the tracking beacon on the yacht.
While many yachts are still moored in sunny harbors in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, more than a dozen yachts are on their way to or have arrived at remote ports in smaller countries such as the Maldives and Montenegro to avoid being affected by Western sanctions, the list shows. Three of them are moored in Dubai, where many russian billionaires own holiday homes.
On February 7, two weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, a German-built superyacht, the Elegance, which is believed to belong to Putin, left the port of Hamburg flying the Russian flag. It is now anchored in the Russian Baltic port of Kaliningrad, beyond the sanctions imposed on him by the West.
Although these Russian oligarchs had long anticipated the Russo-Ukrainian war, they did not seem to realize that the European and American governments would prey on superyachts.
On Thursday, French authorities seized the superyacht Amore Vero in the Mediterranean resort town of Lasiota, a $120 million yacht belonging to Igor Sechin, the head of Putin's ally and head of Rosneft.
On Saturday, Italian police seized the superyacht Lena at the port of Sanremo, flying the flag of the British Virgin Islands, belonging to Gennady Timchenko, an oligarch close to Mr. Putin, who is also one of those subject to EU sanctions. Timchenko is the founder of the Volga Group, with an estimated net worth of $16.2 billion, which invests exclusively in energy, transportation and infrastructure assets.
A spokesman for Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced on Friday that the superyacht Lady M, in the name of Russian steel tycoon Alexei Mordashov, had also been seized. Mordasov is Russia's richest man with a fortune of about $30 billion.
But Mordasov's other $500 million superyacht, the Nord, remains moored in the tropical island of Seychelles in the Indian Ocean and is not subject to U.S. or European Union sanctions.
Since Friday, Italy has seized $156 million worth of luxury yachts and villas in a number of other tourist destinations, including Sardinia, the Ligurian coast and Lake Como.
Russia's rich are so keen on superyachts because oligarchs see it as a status symbol.
For example, Russian metal and oil tycoon Roman Abramovich bought or built at least seven of the world's largest yachts, some of which were later sold to other oligarchs.
In 2010, Abramovich's Eclipse superyacht, the longest yacht in the world at the time, also had its own helicopter hangar and an undersea bay that was said to house mini-submarines, even including missile launchers and airborne self-defense systems.
Superyacht analyst Dennis Cauiser said Russian oligarchs' yachts are often equipped with the secret security measures required by the villains in the "007" film, including underwater escape hatches, bulletproof windows and armored chambers.
But escalating U.S. and European Union sanctions on pro-Putin oligarchs and Russian banks have brought a cold winter to the yachting industry as a whole, with shipbuilders and employees worried they won't get paid. The crew, fuel and maintenance costs of a superyacht are as high as $50 million per year.