MILANO – The French government has announced the seizure of a yacht, owned by a company linked to Igor Sechin, CEO of the Russian oil group Rosneft, in a shipyard in La Ciotat, in the south of France. “French customs have confiscated the yacht Love True in La Ciotat, as part of the implementation of EU sanctions against Russia “, the French Ministry of Economy and Finance said in a statement.
This yacht is “owned by a company in which Igor Sechin, CEO of Rosneft, has been identified as the main shareholder”, adds the ministry. “She falls within the scope of the freezing measures decided against the owner of her” by the European Union, she adds.
The luxurious yacht of almost 86 meters, whose main deck, which houses a swimming pool can be transformed into a heliport and whose interiors were designed by the famous interior designer Alberto Pinto, was stopped in this yard for repairs and had to remain there until to April 1. “At the time of the inspection, the ship was organizing to set sail as a matter of urgency, without having completed the planned works”, explains the ministry in motivating the seizure. She is the third vessel blocked by France as part of the retaliatory measures adopted after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
In the morning there was also the news that the German authorities have seized the 600 million yacht of the Russian oligarch. Alisher Usmanovone of the closest to Putin and for this reason sanctioned by the European Union for the Russian invasion in Ukraine.
Big hunt for Putin’s oligarchs. Between steel, finance and Costa Smeralda: here are the men targeted by the US and the EU
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The news relaunched by Forbes cites three sources inside the luxury ship industry and concerns his Dilbar: 512-foot (156-meter) boat, which had been in a shipyard in the port of Hamburg since last October
Hunting for oligarchs: the shares of Mordashov, Fridman and Aven are frozen. But in Costa Smeralda there is an occupation alarm
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Usmanov, Forbes recalls, bought the Dilbar in 2016: a credited purchase worth $ 600 million, in fact. Almost one hundred men of crew, to manage 12 suites and 24 passengers. It took the German shipyard Lürssen over 52 months of work to put in the water what was called “one of the most complex and challenging yachts ever, both in terms of size and technology”. There was also talk of anti-aircraft missile systems, which however had been denied by the CEO of the shipyard: “you have the most advanced safety systems of any yacht in the world, but these things are nonsense”.
Usmanov is listed as one of Putin’s closest men and became a billionaire thanks to the activities of Metalloinvest, and was one of the first Facebook investors of which he bought a stake of more than 2% before its listing on the stock exchange. He was also the owner of 30% of Arsenal, the English football team, from which he left in 2018 with 700 million dollars, but until yesterday some of his companies were sponsors of Everton.
In addition to owning numerous real estate properties ranging from Great Britain near London, to Munich in Germany, to Lausanne in Switzerland, Usmanov is at home in Sardinia where he bought Antonio Merloni’s villa in Romazzino years ago. To which were added several other villas scattered south and north of Porto Cervo, in the Gulf of Pevero and in Liscia di Vacca. On August 15th he usually has a party for his son’s birthday and on that occasion consumption has no limits: from the Surrau cellars for that party he usually buys 350 cases of wine while a company in Cagliari fills the pantries. Locals say that on the Costa there are at least 40 villas over a thousand square meters owned by Russians and that Usmanov alone employs about 100 for his properties and that now they risk being unemployed as it is unlikely that the oligarch will be able to sail the seas of Sardinia. ‘summer. In Porto Cervo, at his expense, a pier was built only to allow the Dilbar to dock but the mega yacht has so far never appeared in the port. Usmanov’s mega jet usually stops in the Olbia airport hangar, which is so large as to leave the enormous tail of the fuselage in view.
On Tuesday, following the news of the EU sanctions against him, Usmanov resigned from the presidency of the International Fencing Federation which he had held since 2008, issuing a statement as follows: “On February 28 I became a target of restrictive measures imposed by the European Union I believe that this decision is unfair, and that the reasons used to justify the sanctions are false and defamatory, harm my honor, my dignity and my reputation as a businessman. I will use all legal means to protect my honor and my reputation. “
Other oligarchs’ yachts are set on the move these days to try to escape sanctions against them. Close to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. The Clio of Oleg Deripaska, owner of Rusal, was reported off the archipelago of Male, and also the Titan owned by Alexander Abramov, the co-founder of the steel producer Evraz, arrived in those waters in recent days. While Vladimir Potanin’s 88-meter Nirvana, one of the richest men in Russia, is sailing west of India towards Sri Lanka-Maldives.
The My Solaris of Roman Abramovich, the oligarch who is trying to sell Chelsea, is instead stopped in the port of Barcelona, but it could be the next to be seized even if its owner, for the moment, has not been affected by the sanctions by Boris Johnson.
The hunt for the oligarchs’ yachts could also extend to Italian waters, and to be precise in the Adriatic, where the Galactica Super Nova, the vessel of Vagit Alekperov, the former oil minister who controls 25% of the extraction company of Lukoil hydrocarbons. The company also has activities in Italy, since 2008 it has purchased 49% of Isab from Erg dei Garrone, a refinery in Priolo, near Syracuse, where it came to control 80% in 2014 but which in recent times it is rumored to be on sale. It is not excluded that these activities could now enter the crosshairs of the sanctions decided by the EU.
One of the quickest to lose track of his mega yacht is Aleaxei Mordashov, the main shareholder of Severstal, who in the summer of 2021 showed up on the Costa Smeralda with the North, a 142-meter, 500 million dollar beast, second only at Usmanov’s Dilmar. The North was located in navigation in the Indian Ocean, at Anse Boudin, east of the Seychelles Islands. Mordashov is one of the oligarchs on the black list of the men closest to Putin and therefore his heritage is a possible target of sanctions.
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