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SAILING YACHT A – World’s Biggest Sailing Yacht – $600 Million

SAILING YACHT A measures 143 meters making her the world’s biggest sailing yacht.

SAILING YACHT A is far more than a luxury vessel. She is a masterpiece of design and innovation combining sleek metal surfaces with futuristic naval architecture that took over two years to complete.

Launched in 2017, both the interior and exterior of this mega sailing yacht were designed by Phillippe Starck, who calls SAILING YACHT A one of his most high-profile projects.

The superyacht has taken on voyages all around the world and was most recently spotted sailing off the coasts of Gibraltar and Cyprus.

SAILING YACHT A interior

Both the interior and exterior of SAILING YACHT A were designed by Philippe Starck , a French architect known for his wide range of design projects.

He famously worked on the impressive MOTOR YACHT A, and the two iconic vessels share a lot of similarities in their layout and specifications.

Both yachts look incredibly futuristic and are sure to attract attention wherever they go.

While no exact details are known about the interior of SAILING YACHT A, it is rumored that she has an underwater observation pod with 30 cm (1 ft) thick glass located in the keel of the vessel.

This is one of the few parts where design mockups are publicly available, and the style of the interior can be examined.

The observation pod appears to have cream upholstery that stretches across the floor and ceiling of the cabin.

Two large symmetrical glass windows allow guests to view the breathtaking underwater world without even having to leave the yacht.

A third window is located at the bottom of the pod, which lets it feel like a true 360-degree experience and is almost comparable to a submarine.

A small floating side table provides guests with a space to place drinks or snacks in the pod and enjoy a one-of-a-kind dining experience in this unusual location.

Since the pod is located at the keel of the yacht, the large propellers are most likely visible from the windows suggesting it is most commonly used at anchor.

The superyacht has ten cabins that can accommodate 20 guests as well as a further 54 crew member.

Paparazzi photos and the work of yacht spotters provide a rare glimpse into the interior of SAILING YACHT A.

No official footage of cabins or salons has been released, although Starck’s past work suggests that the yacht would be furnished with opulent elements that perfectly combine luxury with style.

Silver and metal decorations play a large role and tie the interior design of the yacht together. 

However, SAILING YACHT A was launched much later than her motorized companion suggesting her interior might be more modern with minimalistic elements rather than lavish furnishings.

Occasional photographs shot through open doors, and portholes show expensive art pieces decorating the interior of the yacht and rather absurd design choices like a set of chairs shaped like large human heads.

The yacht appears to feature a large, open salon with an elevated seating area and symmetrical arches on either side.

While details aren’t known to the public, it is rumored that SAILING YACHT A features a luxurious spa area, a sizable gym as well as an owner’s suite with several rooms that is only accessible via fingerprint.

The massive private area is said to feature a 60-inch television that disappears into the floor as well as a rotating bed. 

Considering she is the largest sailing yacht in the world, it is surprising that SAILING YACHT A can only host 20 guests.

This suggests that there are spacious entertainment areas located on board, including several saloons and ample below-deck space for crew members.

Due to her large size and a small number of cabins, it is assumed that SAILING YACHT A can welcome a large number of day guests onboard for special events and celebrations.

Biggest sailing yacht controversy

It has been the topic of debate that SAILING YACHT A is not the largest yacht in the world but instead the ‘largest sail-assisted motor yacht.

Depending on the definition used, that would make BLACK PEARL the biggest sailing yacht in the world.

The most expensive sailing yacht

SAILING YACHT A is the most expensive sailing yacht in the world and cost an estimated price of US $600 million – a relatively “affordable” price considering her large size and tonnage.

A calculated US $48,000 per ton is considered low in the yachting industry, where European yachts are usually priced at US $60,000 per ton and over.

This average price would bring the value of SAILING YACHT A up to nearly US $800 million. However, due to the fact that the official sales price has not been released to the public, these numbers are mere estimates and cannot be validated officially.

Since the yacht is a custom project and one of a kind, it can be assumed that the total value of SAILING YACHT A lies far higher than her initial price.

In addition to any cost for the crew, supplies, and docking fees, she has annual running costs of US $50-75 million.

SAILING YACHT A is currently not available for sale or charter.

Specifications

SAILING YACHT A is incredibly large for a sailing yacht, and even compared to the longest motor yachts in the world, she would rank in the top ten.

Paired with her unusual futuristic design, this mega sailing yacht has a length of 143 meters (469 ft), a beam of 25 meters (82 ft), and a draft of 8 meters (26 ft) making her a more than an impressive vessel.

SAILING YACHT A was built by Nobiskrug , a German superyacht builder at their Kiel shipyard, and launched in 2017 after more than two years of construction.

To date, SAILING YACHT A is the largest yacht ever built by Nobiskrug and remains their flagship.

It is considered the most complicated project to ever be completed in the sailing industry and gained international media attention on its launch date. It has a total volume of 12.558 tons and is powered by hybrid diesel-electric engines. 

SAILING YACHT A is considered the longest sailing yacht in the world and is more than 36 meters (118 ft) longer than BLACK PEARL, which ranks in second place on the list.

Coincidentally her project name was WHITE PEARL which is a reference to her brilliant white exterior, although it couldn’t have referred to BLACK PEARL since she was only launched in 2018, a year after Melnichenko’s masterpiece.  

Her three-carbon masts stand at an impressive 100 meters (328 ft), making them some of the largest in the world and taller than Big Ben in London.

However, her large size is sometimes also limiting as she struggles to fit underneath most bridges and is therefore constrained to certain routes.

She once passed under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco with only 20 feet to spare between her masts and the bottom of the famous bridge.

She is rumored to have an electric gimbal crow’s nest, which allows for remote operation and advanced wind measurements. Her sails are all white, and her masts have nearly sickle-like shapes, which add to her striking futuristic appearance.

It is noteworthy that she is commonly photographed with her sails down, which suggests she might be using her support engines more frequently than true wind power.

With a sail area of more than 3.700m^2 (40.000 square ft), she can reach top speeds of up to 21 knots which is supported by her twin 4895 Horsepower MTU engines .

Her average cruise speed lies at 16 knots, and her total range is estimated to lie at 5320 nautical miles. She features a state-of-the-art sail system that is able to raise and lower the sails and anchors at the touch of a button. 

SAILING YACHT A has a steel hull and composite steel superstructure, which is unusual in the superyacht industry as most shipyards choose aluminum to reduce weight and keep the vessel light.

She currently sails under the flag of Bermuda, which is common for prominent sailing yachts.

During construction, SAILING YACHT A was called project WHITE PEARL, a fitting name for this sizable vessel.

Like her interior, the exterior of SAILING YACHT A was designed by Philippe Starck, although the Dutch studio Dykstra Naval Architects played a role in the naval architecture of the vessel.

They specialize in sailing yachts of all sizes and have been involved in many prominent projects in the industry over the years.

She features eight teak decks with a large swimming pool located in the center and several elevators spread across the yacht.

She is even said to carry a submarine. The main pool is lowered into the deck allowing for additional privacy for the owners.

Her hull has 24 shell doors, which are used to access equipment and provide additional deck space if needed. She is accompanied by four tenders also designed by Philippe Starck and built by Lloyd Stevenson in New Zealand.

Their sleek and elegant design matches that of the main vessel, and they are used for transporting guests and taking them on excursions.

One of the tenders of SAILING YACHT A is a carbon fiber speedboat especially reserved for the owner who can operate the vessel autonomously whenever required without the aid of crew members.

This allows Melnichenko, who is a fan of driving high-speed cars to be independent when staying aboard his luxury yacht. The tender is small but powerful, reaching speeds of up to 53 knots.

The larger tenders can seat up to eight passengers and feature panoramic windows ideal for sightseeing and exploring but are much slower at only 30 knots. 

The aft features a large garage used for storing jet skis, tenders, and other equipment.

High-profile artists such as Snoop Dogg are rumored to have performed here, although detailed evidence of such concerts remains unknown.

Whenever the aft isn’t used for performances or parties, it can be transformed into a swimming platform designed in the yacht’s iconic futuristic style. 

However, despite her cutting-edge design features, SAILING YACHT A surprisingly also includes classic nautical elements. She has a wooden steering wheel that is reminiscent of a pirate ship, although it is not operational.

The captain of the vessel can instead use modern technologies to operate the massive yacht via a small joystick and touchscreen.

There are symmetric extendable balconies that protrude from the bridge of the yacht and allow the crew to have a better view to be able to gauge the dimensions of the immense vessel.

Of course, SAILING YACHT A has a modern underwater lighting system that illuminates the vessel perfectly at night.

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U.S. moves to claim $300M superyacht associated with ‘Russian Gatsby’

The Justice Department officially moved Monday to claim a 348-foot superyacht it says belongs to a sanctioned billionaire oligarch known as the " Russian Gatsby ."

In a civil forfeiture claim filed in federal court in New York, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams' office said that the $300 million vessel, the Amadea , is "beneficially owned" by Suleiman Kerimov and that the "superyacht was improved and maintained in violation of applicable sanctions against Kerimov and those acting on his behalf."

The filing contends the yacht, which has a helipad, an infinity pool, a Jacuzzi and multiple bars, should be forfeited to the U.S. government.

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Kerimov , who's worth an estimated $14 billion and has ties to the Russian government, over alleged money laundering in 2018.

He has been referred to as a "Russian Gatsby" in part because he rarely does interviews while indulging in the high life. He has hosted multimillion-dollar parties at his villas on the French Riviera, including one in 2008 that reportedly featured a performance by Beyoncé, and his car collection includes a rare Ferrari Enzo, which he once crashed into a tree in 2006.

The yacht was seized in Fiji last year as part of the work of the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, which has been going after the assets of sanctioned oligarchs in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

The court filing said officials were able to prove Kerimov's ownership by showing that he was responsible for numerous upgrades to the vessel, including a new pizza oven.

However, another oligarch, Eduard Khudainatov, maintains that he's the owner of the Amadea and has filed legal challenges for its return. Khudainatov is the former chairman and CEO of Rosneft, the state-controlled gas company in Russia, and he has not been sanctioned by the U.S. government.

The Justice Department has said in court filings that Khudainatov is a "straw owner" and that he couldn't even afford the upkeep on the Amadea and another superyacht he says he owns.

Khudainatov's lawyer, Adam Ford, sued in federal court in California seeking the yacht's return late Sunday, before the federal action Monday. The filing says the government's estimate of his client's wealth is based in part on his failure to show up on Forbes' annual billionaires list, and it contends "a magazine's list should not be the basis of, or suffice as evidence for, any U.S. government enforcement action."

Ford said in a statement, "We are confident that a neutral arbiter will order the return of the Amadea to our client."

The U.S. has worked with numerous countries to seize a number of superyachts with ties to oligarchs, whose ownership interests are often hard to prove.

Task Force KleptoCapture co-director Michael Khoo said in a statement that the forfeiture proceeding against the Amadea came "after a careful and painstaking effort to develop the necessary evidence showing Suleiman Kerimov’s clear interest in the Amadea and the repeated misuse of the U.S. financial system to support and maintain the yacht for his benefit."

“Getting to this point required extensive cooperation across the U.S. government and with foreign partners. It underscores our resolve to undertake challenging, cross-border investigations and to send a message to Russian oligarchs and their enablers: if you flout the rule of law, you can expect to pay real and meaningful consequences,” Khoo said.

Michael Kosnar is a Justice Department producer for the NBC News Washington Bureau.

Dareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.

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A 459-Foot Mystery in a Tuscan Port: Is It a Russian’s Superyacht?

As European authorities go after the luxury assets of oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin, a superyacht cloaked in secrecy has come under investigation.

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By Michael Forsythe Gaia Pianigiani and David D. Kirkpatrick

From Germany’s North Sea ports to the French Riviera, open season has been declared on superyachts. Across Europe, authorities are hunting down luxury vessels tied to Russian oligarchs in the effort to inflict pain on President Vladimir V. Putin’s allies.

In Marina di Carrara, a small Italian town on the Tuscan coast, one of the world’s biggest, newest and most expensive superyachts — called the Scheherazade — is under scrutiny by the Italian police. Almost as long as a U.S. guided-missile destroyer, it dominates the waterfront.

The yacht, estimated by the website SuperYachtFan to cost about $700 million, has two helicopter decks and is studded with satellite domes. Inside, photos supplied by a former crew member show, is a swimming pool with a retractable cover that converts to a dance floor. Then there’s the fully equipped gym and the gold-plated fixtures in the bathrooms.

In the rarefied world of the biggest superyachts ( only 14 that are at least 140 meters, or 459 feet long), the Scheherazade is alone in that no likely owner has been publicly identified. That has spurred speculation that it could be a Middle Eastern billionaire or a superconnected Russian — even Mr. Putin.

The ship’s captain, Guy Bennett-Pearce, a British national, denied that Mr. Putin owned or had ever been on the yacht. “I have never seen him. I have never met him,” he said. He added, in a phone interview from the yacht, that its owner was not on any sanctions list. He did not rule out that the person could be Russian, but declined to say more about the owner’s identity, citing a “watertight nondisclosure agreement.”

Captain Bennett-Pearce said that Italian investigators had come aboard on Friday and examined some of the ship’s certification documents. “They are looking hard. They are looking at every aspect,” he said. “This isn’t the local coppers coming down, these are men in dark suits.” A person familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it, confirmed that the Italian financial police had opened an inquiry.

On Monday night, Captain Bennett-Pearce said he had “no choice” but to hand over documents revealing the owner’s identity to the Italian authorities. He said he would do so on Tuesday and had been told they would be handled with “confidentiality.”

“I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that this will clear the vessel of all negative rumors and speculations,” he wrote in a message to a New York Times reporter.

The mystery about the ship’s owner arose because — even for the hyper-confidential world of superyachting — there is an unusual degree of secrecy surrounding this vessel. Not only do contractors and crew members sign nondisclosure agreements, as on many superyachts, but the ship also has a cover to hide its name plate. And when it first arrived at the port, workers erected a tall metallic barrier on the pier to partly obscure the yacht from onlookers. Some locals remarked that they had never seen anything like it for other boats.

In his State of the Union address last week, President Biden announced a Justice Department task force to go after oligarchs close to Mr. Putin and facing sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Sanctions have been imposed against hundreds of people, and the list keeps growing.

Last week, French authorities seized the yacht Amore Vero near Marseille as it was preparing to depart, claiming it was owned by a man on that list: Igor Sechin, the head of the Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft. In Italy, police in Sanremo impounded Lena, a yacht belonging to Gennady Timchenko, a Putin friend who controls an oil exporting company. In nearby Imperia, police also impounded the Lady M, a yacht belonging to Alexei Mordashov, Russia’s richest man. The fate of the Dilbar, one of the world’s biggest yachts that the United States says belongs to the oligarch Alisher Usmanov, is unclear. It is in Hamburg, and German officials said the vessel could not leave without an export waiver, Bloomberg News reported .

Some of the biggest superyachts are owned by Russians who are not on the sanctions list. The world’s second-largest, Eclipse, which has a missile defense system and a mini submarine, is owned by Roman Abramovich, the billionaire who is selling his ownership stake in the British soccer club Chelsea. Andrey Melnichenko, a billionaire coal baron, owns Sailing Yacht A.

Determining the ownership of assets that the wealthy want to keep hidden is difficult, especially without a warrant, because they are often zealously guarded by private bankers and lawyers and tucked away in opaque shell companies in offshore secrecy havens. The Scheherazade is flagged in the Cayman Islands and its owner, Bielor Assets Ltd. , is registered in the Marshall Islands. The yacht’s management company, which Captain Bennett-Pearce says is also registered in the Cayman Islands, works from the ship and uses his rental villa in nearby Lucca as its address.

One trade website, which bills itself as “the global authority in superyachting,” claims that the vessel’s owner is “known to be a Middle Eastern billionaire.” The Scheherazade shares a name with the female storyteller in “The Arabian Nights,” and it made one brief foray into the Red Sea in September 2020, calling at the Egyptian port of Hurghada. But mostly it stays in Marina di Carrara, where it has been moored since last September.

Locals have their own theory about the ship’s ownership. Some have heard people onboard speaking Russian. And Scheherazade is also the title of a symphonic work by the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

“Everybody calls it Putin’s yacht, but nobody knows whose it is,” said Ernesto Rossi, a retired clerk who was taking a walk along the marina’s promenade on Friday. “It’s a rumor that’s been going around for months.”

In Italy, the phrase “Putin’s yacht” has become shorthand for a mysterious and ultra-luxurious ship. It’s also a joke among the dozens of crew members, Captain Bennett-Pearce said. “I’ve heard the same rumors.”

Another, smaller vessel, the Graceful, has long been tied to the Russian president and is known as “Putin’s yacht.” It was tracked leaving Germany for the Russian port of Kaliningrad just weeks before the invasion of Ukraine. (U.S. government officials point out that Mr. Putin owns little outright; many of the luxurious homes or ships he uses are owned by oligarchs.)

Mr. Putin appears to have a penchant for big pleasure boats. During his time as Russia’s leader, he’s been photographed on yachts from Russia’s northern reaches to the Black Sea in the south. Last May, he and Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, took a cruise on a yacht at the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.

The Scheherazade’s builder, Lurssen Group, whose website promises customers “complete confidentiality,” declined to comment about its ownership. Until June 2020, when the completed ship left the pier in Bremen, Germany, it had the code name “Lightning.” The same company built the even bigger superyacht the Dilbar. A similar gigantic yacht, code-named “Luminance,” is now being built at Lurssen, scheduled to be completed next year.

“Of course, all orders and projects of the Lurssen Group and its subsidiaries are treated in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations,” said Oliver Grun, a company spokesman.

About 70 percent of the Scheherazade’s crew is Russian, Captain Bennett-Pearce said. And during each of the past two summers, it has sailed to Sochi, the last time in early July 2021, according to MarineTraffic, a top maritime analytics provider. The ship’s construction was managed by Imperial Yachts, a company in Monaco that, Reuters reported , manages the Amore Vero, Mr. Sechin’s seized yacht. Nick Flashman, who oversees construction of large vessels at Imperial Yachts, declined to comment.

One former crew member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the nondisclosure agreement, said that shipmates called it “Putin’s yacht.” The person said the ship was manned by an international crew during “boss off” times; when it was “boss on,” the crew was replaced by an all-Russian staff. In the weeks before the Scheherazade’s 2020 trip to the Black Sea, the foreign crew was dismissed, the person said.

The former crew member supplied photos of rosters of both international and Russian crew members. The Times reached out, via social media, phone or email, to at least 17 of them. Few responded.

One of the Russians said only that he had worked on the Scheherazade, citing a nondisclosure agreement. Another person said it would be dangerous to talk. One man denied serving on the vessel; another said he hadn’t worked at sea in 25 years.

Captain Bennett-Pearce said “categorically there is not a European crew that comes on and a Russian crew that comes on.” Many of the ship’s senior officers are from Britain, New Zealand and Spain. Many international crew members were dismissed in 2020, replaced by Russians who didn’t demand the high salaries and benefits that their predecessors had, the captain said. “It came down to economics,” he said.

Given the antipathy that people outside of Russia have toward Mr. Putin, if the Russian president really were the owner or principal user of the yacht, keeping non-Russian senior crew members like him on staff would make no sense, Captain Bennett-Pearce said.

“If there’s a European crew onboard it’s the biggest smoke and mirror and the biggest risk I’ve ever heard of,” he said.

Reporting was contributed by Dmitriy Khavin , Christoph Koettl , Julian E. Barnes , Jason Horowitz , Rebecca R. Ruiz and Eric Schmitt .

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article referred imprecisely to the new task force announced by President Biden in his State of the Union address. He announced a Justice Department task force to pursue and seize the assets of oligarchs associated with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, not a joint task force with partners in Europe, which was previously announced.

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Michael Forsythe is a reporter on the investigations team. He was previously a correspondent in Hong Kong, covering the intersection of money and politics in China. He has also worked at Bloomberg News and is a United States Navy veteran. More about Michael Forsythe

Gaia Pianigiani is a reporter based in Italy for The New York Times.  More about Gaia Pianigiani

David D. Kirkpatrick is an investigative reporter based in New York and the author of “Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East.“ In 2020 he shared a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on covert Russian interference in other governments and as the Cairo bureau chief from 2011 to 2015 he led coverage of the Arab Spring uprisings. More about David D. Kirkpatrick

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The Deserter :  A Russian officer didn’t want to fight in the war in Ukraine — he just wanted to survive. But to make it back to his family and live in peace, he would have to run .

Zelensky’s Tough Act:  In his speech at the U.N. General Assembly and then a meeting with President Biden, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine will be pleading for more military and political support .

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Russian oligarch's $300 million mega-yacht, the Amadea, seized in Fiji

By Graham Kates

Updated on: May 5, 2022 / 11:34 AM EDT / CBS News

Fijian officials have  seized a massive Russian-owned  yacht worth more than $300 million, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday.

Two days earlier, a Fiji court authorized a U.S. warrant for the seizure of the ship, the Amadea, which American authorities say is owned by billionaire oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, who built his fortune in gold mining. Kerimov was  sanctioned  in March by the United States, United Kingdom and European Union in response to the Russian  invasion of Ukraine . The Justice Department said in a press release that Fijian law enforcement executed the seizure of the Cayman-Islands flagged vessel Thursday. 

"There is no hiding place for the assets of criminals who enable the Russian regime," Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in the press release.

The court's ruling came despite the objections of a lawyer for Millemarin Investments, the company the 348-foot ship is registered to, who said it's not owned by Kerimov. Instead, he argued in court that corporate paperwork traces the Cayman Islands-flagged ship's ownership to Eduard Khudainatov, a former executive at Russia's state-owned Rosneft oil company who has not been sanctioned. 

Khudainatov has been tied to another even larger yacht that is the focus of intense international speculation and investigation in Italy. Local media there have said the $700 million Scheherazade — one of the world's largest yachts, which U.S. officials reportedly suspect may be tied to Russian President Vladimir Putin — is registered to him.

Kerimov and Khudainatov could not be reached for comment. The company appeal Tuesday's decision and Fiji's court was expected to rule on the appeal Friday. It is not clear why authorities moved to seize the Amadea before that ruling was made.

The office of Fiji's top prosecutor, which handled the case, could not be reached for comment.

The Amadea berthed in Fiji on April 13, according to local reports and the maritime analytics website Marine Traffic. That day, a federal judge approved a warrant for the ship to be seized and on April 19, Fiji's top prosecutor moved to prevent the ship from leaving.

The warrant claims the yacht had traveled "from the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, to Mexico, then to Fiji," a route U.S. officials believed meant Kerimov may have been "making plans for the Amadea to travel to Russia in an effort to avoid U.S. efforts to seize the vessel."

• Russian oligarchs moving yachts as U.S. tracks down assets

On April 4, the agency announced that Spanish authorities had assisted it in seizing another Russian yacht, the $90 million Tango, which was owned by Viktor Vekselberg, the owner of the Russian conglomerate Renova Group.

Legislation passed by the House of Representatives on April 27 would allow the U.S. to sell the yacht and other properties worth more than $2 million seized from  Russian oligarchs  in order to fund the Ukrainian war effort. President Joe Biden supports the bill, which has yet to pass the Senate.

"We're going to seize their yachts, their luxury homes and other ill-begotten gains," Biden said on April 28 at the White House.

Graham Kates is an investigative reporter covering criminal justice, privacy issues and information security for CBS News Digital. Contact Graham at [email protected] or [email protected]

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Photos show the luxury mega yachts that belong to Russian oligarchs — some of whom have hidden their ships as the UK ramps up sanctions.

• Sanctions targeting Russian oligarchs threaten their luxury assets — including their mega yachts.
• Many countries have implemented sanctions targeting Putin and Russian oligarchs following Russia's attack on Ukraine.
• Insider compiled a photo list of some of the luxury vessels.

Russian billionaires' assets — including their megayachts — are in danger of being seized as countries continue to impose sanctions on Russian oligarchs in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden announced that the US will make a substantial effort to seize Russian oligarchs' assets.

"We are joining with our European allies to find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets," Biden said in his State of The Union address on March 1. "We are coming for your ill-begotten gains."

Since the US is not in "armed conflict" with Russia it may be legally tricky to seize assets like yachts, Insider reported . 

"The threshold for seizing assets under sanctions is that the US has to be in armed conflict with the owner of the assets," Brian O'Toole, an economic sanctions expert, tweeted last Friday. "The idea of turning Russian corruption into Ukrainian assistance is lovely but this idea is illegal, period."

It can also be difficult to find out who the owners of these yachts are.

Offshore companies typically own the luxury vessels, but enough "public speculation" pointing to a Russian oligarch as an owner is likely "sufficient for a seizure," Insider reported . 

Many of the oligarchs moved their yachts to places where they can't be seized, such as the Maldives, which does not have an extradition treaty with the US.

Insider has compiled a list of photos with mega yachts linked to Russian oligarchs.

Galactica Super Nova

Amid sanctions and seizures targeting Russian billionaires, Galactica Super Nova — said to be linked to the CEO of Russian oil firm Lukoil — is no longer detectable via ship tracker site MarineTraffic , The Daily Beast reported Thursday. 

The superyacht — whose owner is named Vagit Alekperov — had just been in Montenegro last week, Insider reported .

Alekperov is not currently the target of any sanctions. 

The yacht is almost 230 feet long and can hold up to 12 guests and 16 crew members, according to the ship maker Heesen Yachts .

The ship also has a helicopter pad that can turn into an outdoor movie theatre, also according to the ship maker.

The Amore Vero

France seized Amore Vero, a 281-foot megayacht linked to oligarch and politician Igor Sechin, on March 3.

The yacht, Amore Vero, is estimated to have a value of $120 million . It has a swimming pool that doubles as a helicopter pad and a private deck for its owner, according to Oceana , the ship maker.

Per The Wall Street Journal , officials believe that Amore Vero is "owned by a company whose majority shareholder was Mr. Sechin," though the outlet does not provide the name of the company.

Sechin is the CEO of Rosneft, Russia's oil giant, and a former deputy prime minister. A known Putin ally , he was sanctioned by both the EU and the US before France seized his yacht last week .

Sechin was one of seven oligarchs sanctioned by the UK on Thursday. 

People in Russia have referred to Sechin as "Darth Vader" and "the scariest man on Earth," according to The Guardian .

Alisher Usmanov has been sanctioned by the EU, the US, the UK, and Switzerland. His boat remains in Germany, but the country says it hasn't seized it.

Usmanov's Dilbar is "is the largest motor yacht in the world by gross tonnage," according to Lürssen , the German ship's maker.

It's 512-foot long and weighs 15,917 tons. The ship has been docked in Germany for months undergoing a "refitting," but last week Forbes reported that it was unable to leave the dock.

Germany, however, has denied that it formally seized Dilbar.

Forbes said that "the German federal customs agency is the 'responsible enforcement authority' and would have to issue an export waiver for the yacht to leave, and that 'no yacht leaves port that is not allowed to do so.'" 

Still, multiple outlets reported that Usmanov has fired the crew on the Dilbar.

The Uzbekistan-born oligarch is a supporter of Putin. 

"I am proud that I know Putin, and the fact that everybody does not like him is not Putin's problem," Usmanov told Forbes  in a 2010 interview. 

Suleyman Kerimov was sanctioned by the US, and his son, Said Kerimov, owns ICE. The superyacht is worth is an estimated $170 million.

The Kerimov family owns the majority of Polyus Gold, Russia's biggest gold producer .

ICE was dubbed "Superyacht of the Year" in 2006 at the World Super Yacht Awards, according to Boat International . It is approximately 300 feet and has its own resident helicopter, according to Club Yacht .

Quantum Blue

Sergey Galitsky's ship, Quantum Blue, has an estimated value of $250 million and is last known to be docked in Monaco.

Galitsky is the founder of one of Russia's largest supermarket chains, Magnit.

His name is not currently on the list of sanctioned Russian oligarchs,

Though he also is not the target of any current sanctions, Vladimir Potanin's superyacht, Nirvana, is one of at least four ships docked in the Maldives .

Potanin is the Former First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and was a longtime trustee for the Guggenheim museum before stepping down on March 2, according to The New York Times . 

Nirvana is not Potanin's only superyacht, he also owns another named Barbara, according to Fortune .

Alexander Abramov's Titan, Alexei Mordashovis' Nord, and Oleg Deripaska's Clio are also located in the Maldives.

At 533 feet long, Roman Abramovich's Eclipse was the largest yacht on the globe until 2013 when the 590-foot Azzam overthrew it. 

Abramovich, once Russia's richest man , is the departing owner of Chelsea FC soccer club. He was sanctioned by the UK on Thursday along with six other oligarchs, Insider reported .

The luxury boat has a host of amenities, including two helicopter pads, a missile detection system, and a swimming pool more than 50 feet long. It also has space for up to 36 guests and 70 crew members, according to Yacht Harbour .

Insider previously reported that it is currently docked in the Caribbean .

Another yacht named Solaris is linked to Abramovich. The vessel, worth approximately $600 million, left Spain Tuesday after having been under repair since late 2021, Insider reported.

Solaris is 460 feet and can host a total of 36 guests, according to SuperYachtFan .

Tango, owned by the US-sanctioned Viktor Vekselberg, is currently located in Palma, Spain.

Tango can host up to 14 people and is 254 feet long, won the 2012 World Superyacht Awards, and has an estimated worth of $120 million, according to SuperYachtFan .

Vekselberg is a Ukrainian-born businessman who owns Renova, a Russian conglomerate, according to The Guardian .

He was one of nearly two dozen Russian oligarchs and officials that the US sanctioned on Friday.

The US Treasury Department claims that he has close ties with Putin, and has announced that assets such as his $90 million jet and his superyacht Tango have been frozen, Insider reported .

Graceful, a yacht reported to belong to Russian President Vladimir Putin, left Germany just before his invasion of Ukraine, Insider reported in early February.

—Manu Gómez (@GDarkconrad) February 9, 2022

Graceful is 270 feet long and has a saloon, gym, spa, library, and an indoor pool nearly 50 feet long that doubles as a dance floor.

Scheherazade

A mystery yacht remains untouched as the owner remains a mystery.

The owner of the 459-foot Scheherazade is suspected to be a Russian billionaire, though the owner was never publically identified, The New York Times reported .

Many people believe it belongs to Vladimir Putin, nicknaming the vessel "Putin's Yacht."

SuperYachtFan estimates the ship's value sits at $700 million.

Stella Maris

Stella Maris is linked to oil and gas tycoon Rashid Sardarov. It was last seen in Nice, France, according to The Washington Post .

The luxury vessel is priced at $75 million, is 237 feet long, and can hold up to 14 guests, per SuperYachtFan .

Sardarov is not being sanctioned. 

Sailing Yacht A

Sailing Yacht A is believed to belong to Andrey Melnichenko. The boat was seized by Spanish officials Saturday, Reuters reported .

The ship is more than 465 feet long and can hold up to 20 guests, according to SuperYachtFan . The website says that Sailing Yacht A also features an underwater observation area and has a value of more than $500 million.

Melnichenko is an EU-sanctioned Russian billionaire who works in coal and fertilizers, according to Forbes . The magazine also reported that he owns a second yacht, Motor Yacht A, which is similar to a submarine. 

Oligarch Gennady Timchenko's superyacht "Lena" was seized in the port of Sanremo, Italy on March 5, Reuters reported.

Timchenko is the owner of a private investment group, Volga Group and a shareholder of Bank Rossiya. The oligarch has been sanctioned by the EU, which describes him as a "long-time acquaintance of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin."

Timchenko was also sanctioned by the UK on February 22. 

The superyacht is valued at around 50 million euros ($54 million), Reuters reported. It has fold-down terraces, as well as an "owner's suite" which opens out onto the sea with "gull-wing doors," according to its manufacturer, Sanlorenzo.

Italian authorities also seized a $71 million super-yacht belonging to one of the wealthiest men in Russia , Alexei Mordashov. 

The 215-ft "Lady M" superyacht was seized in the Port of Imperia, northern Italy, a source confirmed to Reuters.

The yacht can accommodate up to six guests on and also has accommodation for four crew members, per the Superyacht Times .

The oligarch, who is the chairman of steel mining company, Severstal, has also been sanctioned by the EU, which says Mordashov is "benefiting from his links with Russian decision-makers." Mordashov has insisted he has "absolutely nothing to do" with Russia's attack on Ukraine. 

The Oligarch moved $1.3 billion worth of shares in travel company, TUI, to an offshore tax haven on the day he was hit by sanctions, Insider's Huileng Tan previously reported. 

He was also added to the UK government's sanctions list on March 15.

Some superyachts belonging to Russian billionaires are currently seeking refuge in the Maldives, including a yacht owned by billionaire Oleg Deripaska, Reuters reported.

The billionaire, who is also the founder of one of Russia's largest industrial groups, Basic Element, was added to the UK's sanctions list on March 10.

Also built by Lürssen, the superyacht - which is around 238 feet long - can accommodate 18 guests in nine cabins, per Superyacht Fan.

The superyacht Valerie - worth $140 million - was seized in Barcelona on Monday, Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, said on La Sexta television, per Reuters.  

Sanchez did not confirm the owner of the yacht, but two sources confirmed to Reuters that it belonged to Sergei Chemezov, who is said to be a close ally of Putin.

The oligarch, who was previously a KGB spy with Putin in the former Soviet Union, recently said that Russia would emerge victorious from Western sanctions, Reuters previously reported . 

Chemezov, who is the CEO of Russian defense conglomerate Rostec was added to the US sanctions list on March 3. 

His yacht is 279 feet long and can accommodate 17 guests in eight suites, per Superyacht Fan.

Crescent, most likely owned by Igor Sechin but also rumored to belong to Putin, was the third yacht Spain seized as the West ramps up sanctions, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

The superyacht is 443-feet long and costs an estimated $600 million, according to  SuperyachtFan, which also says the vessel hosts a retractable helicopter hangar and a large pool with a glass bottom.

Lady Anastasia

Lady Anastasia is owned by Russian oligarch Alexander Mikheyev but was seized by Spain on Tuesday, according to Reuters . 

The boat is almost 160 feet long and can hold up to 10 guests, according to Yacht Harbour .

Mikheyev, who was sanctioned by the EU, is the head of a helicopters division under Rostec, New York Mag reported .

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16 superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs

Western sanctions over moscow's invasion of ukraine led to many luxury vessels being detained in europe.

March 23, 2022

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Why the U.S. put a $1 million bounty on a Russian yacht’s alleged manager

On Sept. 3, 2020, the staff of a $90 million yacht placed an order with a U.S. company for a set of luxury bathrobes that came to $2,624.35.

For roughly two years before that, according to federal prosecutors, the yacht’s management had been falsely claiming it was working for a boat named “Fanta.” But the luxury bathrobes came embroidered with a monogram that, prosecutors said, revealed the yacht’s true identity: “Tango.”

That was a problem, officials say in court papers, because Tango was owned by a Russian billionaire under U.S. sanctions, and doing business on his behalf violated federal law.

Late last month, U.S. authorities unveiled a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest and or conviction of the man they say was running the yacht staff and orchestrated the deception with the robes — Vladislav Osipov, 52, a Swiss-based businessman from Russia. In a new indictment , federal prosecutors say Osipov misled U.S. banks and companies into doing business with the Tango yacht despite the sanctions on the Russian owner, whom the Justice Department has identified as billionaire Viktor Vekselberg .

Osipov has denied the allegations. Osipov’s attorney has said that the government has failed to demonstrate that Vekselberg owned the yacht, and that its management was therefore not a sanctions violation.

The reward offer for Osipov reflects the latest stage in the evolution of the West’s broader financial war against Russia two years into the war in Ukraine, as the United States and its allies increasingly target intermediaries accused of enabling Russian oligarchs to circumvent sanctions.

Many Russians close to President Vladimir Putin have been under sanctions dating to 2014, when Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine and sent proxy forces into that country’s eastern Donbas region. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, President Biden vowed to deal a “crushing blow” with a barrage of new sanctions on financial institutions, industries, business executives and others tied to the Kremlin. But roughly two years later, Russia’s economy has proved surprisingly resilient after the nation poured tens of billions of dollars into ramping up its military industry. Moscow has also worked around the sanctions, finding new third parties to supply it with critical military and industrial hardware, as well as countries beyond Europe to buy its oil.

Now, the West is trying to increase the reach of its sanctions by digging deeper into Russian supply chains. Late last month, the Treasury Department announced more than 500 new sanctions targeting Russia , primarily on military and industrial suppliers. The Justice Department also announced charges against two U.S.-based “facilitators” of a Russian state banker who is under sanction, as well as the guilty plea of a dual national based in Atlanta who was accused of laundering $150 million through bank accounts and shell companies on behalf of Russian clients.

Prioritizing criminal charges against — and the arrests of — Western employees of Russia’s elites represents a new escalation of the U.S. financial war against Putin, experts say. One Moscow businessman, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said many influential Russians are concerned about the arrest of two associates of Andrey Kostin, the head of VTB, Russia’s second-biggest state bank. These associates, Vadim Wolfson and Gannon Bond, were charged with helping Kostin evade sanctions by maintaining a $12 million property in Aspen, Colo., for Kostin’s benefit while concealing his ownership. Kostin has said that the charges of sanctions evasion against him are “unfounded” and that he has not violated any laws . Bond has pleaded not guilty; Wolfson hasn’t made an initial court appearance yet.

Wolfson, also known as Vadim Belyaev, had been a Russian billionaire until the Russian government took over his bank in 2017. Bond, 49, is a U.S. citizen from Edgewater, N.J. For all Russians living abroad and working with people in Russia, the threat of criminal charges is a much more worrying prospect than the sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department last month against hundreds of individuals and entities, the businessman said, in part because sanctions are far easier to dodge than criminal charges.

“What you have seen through today’s public announcements are our efforts at really targeting the facilitators who possess the requisite skill set, access, connections that allow the Russian war machine [and] the Russian elites to continually have access to Western services and Western goods,” David Lim, co-director of the Justice Department’s KleptoCapture task force, which is tasked with enforcing U.S. sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, told reporters last month.

Thad McBride, an international trade partner at the law firm Bass Berry & Sims, said the crackdown on intermediaries reflected the natural evolution of the U.S. sanctions campaign in response to Russian adjustments.

“It seems to me they have gone through a comprehensive list of the oligarchs, and you can debate whether or not it’s had a meaningful impact on the Russian war effort,” McBride said. “Because they’re getting smarter about who’s who, they’re finding other people who play meaningful roles in these transactions, even though they’re not showing up in the headlines.”

The charges against Osipov related to his alleged management of the Tango yacht illustrate the mounting potential consequences for people in Europe and the United States who attempt to do business with Russians targeted by Western allies, as well as the opaque structures allegedly employed by those seeking to evade sanctions.

With a net worth estimated by Forbes in 2021 at $9 billion, Vekselberg, 66, has long drawn scrutiny from the West — and sought to safeguard his wealth. He made his initial fortune in aluminum and oil in Russia’s privatization of the 1990s and then expanded into industrial and financial assets in Europe, the United States and Africa, with Putin’s blessing. In addition to the yacht, federal prosecutors say, Vekselberg acquired $75 million worth of properties, including apartments on New York’s Park Avenue and an estate in the Long Island town of Southampton.

Vekselberg, who declined to comment for this article, has not been criminally charged by the Justice Department. In a 2019 interview with the Financial Times, he denounced the sanctions as arbitrary and harmful for international business, saying he had been targeted just because he was Russian and rich and knows Putin.

In April 2018, the Treasury Department under the Trump administration sanctioned Vekselberg and six other Russian oligarchs as part of broader financial penalties over the Kremlin’s invasion of Crimea, support for President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Vekselberg was also targeted for his work for the Kremlin as chairman of the Skolkovo Foundation, an attempt to create Russia’s version of the Silicon Valley — evidence that appeared to undermine the Russian businessman’s claims that he operated independently of the Kremlin.

But with Vekselberg’s payments monitored by U.S. banks, according to the federal indictment , Osipov used shell companies and intermediaries to avert the bite of sanctions. Vekselberg kept other major assets out of the reach of U.S. authorities by making use of the Treasury Department’s 50 percent ownership rule, which stipulates that it is illegal to transact with firms only if an owner under sanction controls more than 50 percent of the business.

For example, a month after Treasury imposed sanctions on Vekselberg in April 2018, his Renova Innovation Technologies sold its 48.5 percent stake in Swiss engineering giant Sulzer to Tiwel Holding AG, a group that is nevertheless still “beneficially owned” — meaning, owned in practice — by Vekselberg through Columbus Trust, a Cayman Islands trust, according to Sulzer’s corporate filing. Vekselberg’s longtime right-hand man at Renova, Alexei Moskov, replaced one of Vekselberg’s direct representatives on the board. Moskov told The Washington Post that he stepped down from all his executive positions at Renova Group in 2018 after U.S. sanctions were first imposed and from that moment ceased to be Vekselberg’s employee.

The attempts to circumvent the sanctions appear to have found some success in the U.S. legal system. Columbus Nova, a U.S.-based asset management fund controlling more than $100 million in assets in the U.S. financial and tech industry, is run by Vekselberg’s cousin, Andrew Intrater. The firm battled for more than two years to lift a freeze on Columbus Nova’s assets, imposed by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control because of the sanctions on Vekselberg, and won, reaching a settlement agreement with the Treasury Department. After renaming itself Sparrow Capital LLC, Columbus Nova successfully argued that Intrater — not Vekselberg — owns the fund. Intrater argued that the company was 100 percent owned by U.S. citizens and that no individual or entity under sanction held any interest in it. Intrater said Columbus Nova had earned fees for managing investment funds owned by Renova. He said he had repeatedly told Treasury he would not distribute any funds to Vekselberg.

Now Osipov, the alleged manager of Vekselberg’s $90 million yacht, is attempting a similar argument as U.S. authorities seek his arrest on charges of bank fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and violations of sanctions law.

The federal indictment states that the Tango was owned by a shell corporation registered in the British Virgin Islands that was in turn owned by several other companies. The Virgin Islands shell company, authorities say, was controlled by Osipov, who also served in senior roles for multiple companies controlled by Vekselberg. U.S. officials also say Vekselberg ultimately controlled the other companies that owned the Virgin Islands shell company.

According to the indictment, a Tango official instructed a boat management company in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to use a false name for the yacht — “Fanta” — to disguise its true identity from U.S. financial institutions and firms, which try to avoid doing business with an entity or person under sanction.

Working at Osipov’s direction, according to the indictment, employees for Tango bought more than $8,000 worth of goods for the yacht that were unwittingly but illegally processed by U.S. firms and U.S. financial institutions, including navigation software, leather basket magazine holders provided by a bespoke silversmith, and web and computing services. The management company running Tango, run by Osipov, also paid invoices worth more than $180,000 to a U.S. internet service provider, federal prosecutors say.

The Tango was seized by the FBI and Spanish authorities in the Mediterranean not long after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and Osipov was first indicted last year. The owner of the Spanish yacht management company hired by Osipov, Richard Masters, 52, of Britain, was criminally charged last year by federal prosecutors with conspiracy to defraud the United States and violating federal sanctions law. A request for comment sent to Masters’ firm was not returned.

But in recent court documents, Osipov’s attorney argues that the yacht was not more than 50 percent owned by Vekselberg, and that the government hasn’t demonstrated it was. Barry J. Pollack, an attorney at Harris, St. Laurent and Wechsler, also says the government never warned Osipov of its novel and “unconstitutional” application of federal sanctions law.

“The government points to no precedent that supports its extraordinary interpretation and cites no authority that allows the traditional rules of statutory construction to be turned on their head,” Pollack wrote in a defense filing. The filing adds: “[Osipov] is not a fugitive because he did not engage in any of the allegedly criminal conduct while in the United States, has never resided in the United States, did not flee from the United States, and has not concealed himself.”

Still, the State Department’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program has said it will provide up to $1 million for information leading to Osipov’s arrest, warning that he may visit Herrliberg, Switzerland; Majorca, Spain; or Moscow.

The case demonstrates the extent of the U.S. commitment to tighten the screws on those seen as aiding Russian elites, even if they themselves are not closely tied to the Kremlin.

“When DOJ levels legal action against an individual or entity, they have quite a bit of evidence, especially because the threshold to press charges for money-laundering and sanctions evasion is so high,” said Kim Donovan, director of the Economic Statecraft Initiative within the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center. “We’ve had quite a bit of experience targeting Russia directly, and what you’re starting to see is the U.S. go after the facilitators enabling sanctions evasion. That’s where the U.S. is focusing its efforts right now.”

Russian destroyer opens fire on Western fishing boat in Arctic raising WWIII fears

A Russian warship opened fire on a Norwegian fishing boat in a sinister Arctic incident triggering alarm over the threat of a full-scale war between Russia and the West.

The ugly flashpoint in the Barents Sea on September 12 has only been revealed now, almost two weeks later. It coincides with a Japanese fighter jet firing flares at a Russian plane after an alleged violation of Tokyo's airspace .

Øystein Orten and his twin brother Torstein were on the 49ft MS Ragnhild Kristine during the chilling confrontation with the Russian anti submarine destroyer Admiral Levchenko, one of the largest vessels in Vladimir Putin's Northern Fleet.

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He was warned in a message from the the Putin battleship: "This is Russian warship, you need to leave the area."

Orten refused the Russian order.

"I replied that it was out of the question for us to move. We had longlines to take onboard," said first mate Orten.

The hulking 535 ft-long Admiral Levchenko then sailed threateningly towards the before slowing at a distance of around 200 yards, according to Orten.

Orten alleged the Russian warship fired a warning shot - which exploded in the water.

"It was a powerful blast, our boat was shaking," he said.

The Norwegian fishermen then sailed west and the 6,200-ton Russian destroyer followed until the fishing boat was out of the danger zone.

Radio contract then followed between the Russian warship and the Norwegian coastguards.

The head of communication of the Norwegian Joint Headquarters, Lt-Col Vegard Finberg, told the Barents Observer that there was "nothing from our observations that can confirm any warning shot" while adding that "the fishermen might have experienced the situation [differently]."

"The Norwegian authorities must put pressure on Russia so that they stop sabotaging Norwegian fisheries and shipping," Orten told FriFagbevegelse.

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The incident came outside Norwegian territorial waters, but inside the Norwegian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Russia's Northern Fleet had announced live shooting as part of the large-scale strategic exercise Ocean-2024, the largest naval war games since the end of the Cold War, overseen by Putin.

Orten said: "I glanced over my shoulder to starboard, and the warship came at us at full steam.

"The ship stopped 200 meters [220 yards] from us, broadside on.

"It was rather intimidating, you might say.

"They sounded their foghorn for around 15 seconds to get our attention.

"Then they fired a shot with a cannon somewhere into the sea. The sound echoed through our hull, and it shook."

The head of the Norwegian Seamen's Union also reacted to Norwegian seafarers being threatened and frightened in this manner.

"This is unacceptable sabotage against Norwegian seafarers," said Kurt Inge Angell.

"An incident like this could easily have been avoided if there was a genuine desire to do so, for example, by improving communication from the Armed Forces and using more platforms."

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Ukraine invasion — explained

The roots of Russia's invasion of Ukraine go back decades and run deep. The current conflict is more than one country fighting to take over another; it is — in the words of one U.S. official — a shift in "the world order." Here are some helpful stories to make sense of it all.

A $49M Russian superyacht has been detained by U.K. officials near London

Rachel Treisman

The newly-detained superyacht Phi is pictured while docked in Canary Wharf in east London on Tuesday. James Manning - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images hide caption

The newly-detained superyacht Phi is pictured while docked in Canary Wharf in east London on Tuesday.

Officials in the United Kingdom say they've detained a Russian-owned superyacht docked near London, a first under new sanctions imposed over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The $49.67 million yacht, which is named Phi, belongs to an unnamed Russian businessman and was docked in the Canary Wharf financial district of London, according to the government.

"Today we've detained a 38 million pound superyacht and turned an icon of Russia's power and wealth into a clear and stark warning to Putin and his cronies," Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement reported by Reuters . "Detaining the Phi proves, yet again, that we can and will take the strongest possible action against those seeking to benefit from Russian connections."

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A spokesperson for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this is the first time a Russian superyacht has been detained in U.K. waters, according to SkyNews — which added that the government later clarified that the unidentified owner of the vessel is not currently subject to U.K. sanctions.

Officials said the yacht's ownership is "deliberately well hidden." The company it's registered to is based in the Caribbean islands of St. Kitts and Nevis, but the ship itself carries Maltese flags, purportedly to hide its origins.

Reuters reports that Phi was in Canary Wharf for a superyacht awards ceremony and was planning to depart today.

But the yacht won't be leaving anytime soon, according to Shapps.

"When you see what he's doing to Ukraine, when you see what he's doing to people's lives, it can't be right to have a yacht like this here in London, able to just sail away and that is why we've impounded it, and denied it ability to go anywhere right now, and it's another indication of how seriously we take these matters," he said.

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Phi measures more than 190 feet long. It was completed in 2021 by Dutch builder Royal Huisman , which said it was set to be the longest sub-500GT yacht in the world. Its amenities include a freshwater swimming pool that converts into a sealed tank and an "infinite wine cellar," according to Boat International .

It also boasts a laser-powered exterior lighting system, Auto Evolution reports , and is accompanied by what is called a shadow vessel — "where all the water toys and additional equipment can be carried, in order to free up even more space on the mothership." The 118-foot shadow vessel, Phi Phantom , can reportedly fit a "huge tender and a boat," personal watercraft, motorbikes, additional fuel and a car.

Officials said that they first flagged the yacht as being potentially Russian-owned on March 13 and that the Department for Transport, National Crime Agency and Border Force Maritime Investigation Bureau worked together to identify and detain it.

The transportation department said it's also looking at a number of other vessels and hopes that its "strong stance sends an example to international partners."

This story first appeared in the Morning Edition live blog .

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Russian Destroyer Fired Warning Shots At Norwegian Fishing Boat: Report

A Russian Navy warship fired warning shots at a Norwegian fishing vessel in the Arctic Ocean earlier this month, according to an account from the boat’s skipper. The Russian Udaloy class destroyer , Admiral Levchenko , was taking part in large-scale maneuvers off the Norwegian coast, a region of increasingly strategic importance to both Moscow and NATO.

The incident is said to have happened on September 12 when the 49-foot fishing boat MS Ragnhild Kristine was in the Norwegian exclusive economic zone (EEZ), north of Vardø, in the Barents Sea, off Norway’s northern coast.

«This is Russian Warship, you need to leave the area» When the norwegian MS "Ragnhild Kristine" a 15m fishing vessel was confronted with the "Admiral Levchenko" a russian 163m warship in the Barents Sea. https://t.co/cm8hFKwvUe pic.twitter.com/v7zEnH637R — Fischkopp (@FischkoppNorth) September 24, 2024

The Norwegian vessel was fishing and had already been in contact with the Russian destroyer, via radio. As the boat’s captain explained to FriFagbevegelse, a Norwegian news website:

“I get called up on the radio. ‘This is Russian warship; you need to leave the area.’ I repeated that we should pull up our lines. Then the Russian warship comes at us at full speed…”

The Russian captain explained that the warship was taking part in a live-fire exercise, but his Norwegian counterpart refused to move.

Sep 12 NO fishing boat Ragnhild Kristine was chased away from their fishing gear in NO exclusive economic zone by a Russian warship who after some threats fired its gun. NO MOD calls the incident "a dialogue" and points out that it is legal to have drills in intl water. pic.twitter.com/PLAqBu9wmK — auonsson (@auonsson) September 24, 2024

The Norwegian captain continued:

“I look over my shoulder on the starboard side and the warship is coming towards us in full steam. The ship is 200 meters [650 feet] from us … It’s slightly threatening, you might say. They turn on the typhoon foghorn for about 15 seconds to get our attention. Then he fires a cannon somewhere in the sea. There’s a loud bang and the hull shakes violently.”

The fishing vessel was not hit and it’s unclear if the Russian warship fired a live round or an inert one. The crew of the fishing boat assessed that some kind of projectile came down in the water near their vessel and exploded.

The Admiral Levchenko is armed with two single 100mm AK-100 dual-purpose guns and four AK-630M 30mm Gatling-type guns for close-in defense. These are in addition to Rastrub anti-submarine missiles, Kinzhal short-range surface-to-air missiles, torpedoes, and RBU-6000 anti-submarine rocket launchers.

“After the bang, we agreed to go west. It was ‘voluntary coercion,’ as it was called when I was in the military,” the Norwegian captain explained. “He led us all the way out of the field. The Norwegian Coast Guard also came down and talked to the Russians.”

A spokesperson for the Norwegian Joint Headquarters said that a radio conversation took place between the vessels but said it was not able to confirm that a warning shot was fired.

Regardless, Russian live-fire exercises in these waters are not unheard of and are announced in advance, however, Norwegian commercial vessels don’t necessarily have to leave the EEZ — which is in international waters — during military exercises. In the past, this has led to consternation from Norwegian fishermen, due to the potential risks as well as lost revenues.

In this case, however, the crew of the Ragnhild Kristine says they didn’t receive the usual warning, which would be provided by the Norwegian authorities.

The Admiral Levchenko was underway as part of the Okean 24 naval exercise . These drills date back to the Cold War era and the latest iteration was claimed to be the biggest of its kind in 30 years. According to Russian accounts, over 400 warships and 120 aircraft were used, and China also participated.

While the Okean 24 exercises are nothing new, it’s reported that these maneuvers are being run closer to Norway and now involve a greater degree of live firing than they did in the past, especially since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The announcement of the incident also comes just a month after it was revealed that one of Norway’s most strategic air bases was the target of sabotage , earlier this year. According to reports, a critical communications cable associated with Evenes Air Station , in northern Norway, was severed in April and is now being investigated.

Suspected sabotage against Air Force Base in Northern Norway. It was an intentional and calculated action, the Norwegian Police says about the damage to the cable that belongs to the Evenes Air Station https://t.co/UGdDPG5ED1 — The Barents Observer (@BarentsNews) August 23, 2024

The incident at Evenes was announced amid increasing warnings about nefarious Russian activity in Europe, part of an apparent wave of ‘hybrid warfare’ as the conflict in Ukraine further stokes East-West tensions.

With its strategic position in the far north of Europe, Norway, a NATO member, is very much on the front line of some of these tensions.

The country has previously also had encounters with the Russian military. Back in 2018, the Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) disclosed three separate instances where Russian aircraft had flown mock attack profiles against a secretive radar station in the northern part of the country. The year before that, the NIS blamed Russian jamming for disruptions in cell phone and GPS service in the region, though it said this was a byproduct of an exercise and not a deliberate attack.

Norway’s geopolitical significance has been recognized by the U.S. military as it intensifies its focus on the strategically important Arctic region . This has included the deployment of U.S. Air Force bombers to Norway, which happened for the first time in 2021, as you can read about here .

As part of its 2020 Arctic Strategy , the U.S. Air Force is looking to bolster its presence in the region to counter the threat posed by Russia. The wider region has been identified as a potential flashpoint, as climate change sees a scramble to secure the potential wealth offered by natural resources, as well as new maritime trade routes that are no longer constrained by year-round sea ice.

For Russia, the region is also home to its largest and most important naval force, the Northern Fleet, which includes the majority of the country’s nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines.

Exercises like Okean 24 also practice defending Russian nuclear submarines, ensuring they can leave their ports and go on patrol as a critical part of the country’s strategic deterrent.

This factor has been reflected in generally increased Russian submarine activity in the Barents Sea and the Arctic region, as well as the Atlantic, in recent years. In 2020, the U.S. Navy took the unusual step of releasing a number of pictures of its nuclear attack submarine USS Seawolf , which surfaced in a fjord near Tromsø, Norway, for what was at the time a very rare public appearance in Scandinavia.

For its part, Russia established a new Northern Fleet Joint Strategic Command in 2014, which is responsible for the Arctic, North Atlantic, and Scandinavian regions. It includes the Northern Fleet, assets of which are concentrated on the Kola Peninsula, as well as military garrisons, and airbases.

Moscow has also been using increasingly bold rhetoric when it comes to the Arctic. Just last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that “the Arctic is not the territory of the North Atlantic alliance” and that Moscow was “fully ready to defend its interests” there.

With that in mind, the reported incident of September 12, pitting a Norwegian fishing boat against a Russian Navy destroyer, is very much indicative of the potential for flashpoints and aggression in this increasingly contested part of the world.

Contact the author: [email protected]

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CBSA advised Andrey Yakunin sail 1,000 nautical miles off course to Goose Bay, N.L., to apply in person after his remote application was denied

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When the son of one of Vladimir Putin’s former close allies sought to travel through the Northwest Passage to Alaska, the Canada Border Services Agency instead demanded he sail 1,000 nautical miles off course in an attempt to get permission for the voyage.

The 26-metre yacht Firebird is owned by Andrey Yakunin, the son of Vladimir Yakunin, who was a loyal Kremlin ally and president of the Russian Railways until his son applied for British citizenship a decade ago. The younger Yakunin, who now lives in Italy, attempted to make his journey at a time when tensions have risen between Canada and Russia over the invasion of Ukraine and tit-for-tat sanctions put in place by both countries.

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“We wanted to do an attempt of crossing the Northwest Passage from Atlantic to the Pacific, and as far as we understood the existing rules and regs, we needed to apply for remote clearance, which we did, and we were not able to obtain one,” Andrey Yakunin said early Tuesday in an interview from his home in Italy.

The trip, which journeys through the waters of Canada’s Arctic, is a draw for high-latitude sailors.

“For anybody who is doing high lats, the Northwest Passage is one of the final attempts you can do,” Yakunin said.

“It’s the remoteness, the challenges, the necessity to navigate through the quickly changing ice conditions.”

On July 5, 2023, Firebird skipper Peter Madej made a remote clearance application to the Canadian government for the ship’s passage. The luxury sailboat was in Greenland at the time, waiting to make the voyage planned for Aug. 5 to Sept. 12 of that year. There were supposed to be phone interviews, which never occurred, and Firebird’s captain got an email from the CBSA on July 14, 2023, “advising that the vessel was not authorized for remote clearance and was not to proceed to Canada or Canadian waters,” according to court documents.

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“It has been brought to our attention that the department of Immigration and Citizenship has cancelled the electronic travel authorization for an individual or individuals aboard,” the CBSA told Madej. The vessel was later told to sail to Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, where there is a CBSA reporting site, after Madej lawyered up and sought a reconsideration of the decision.

Madej wrote back to the border agency July 23, 2023, “indicating the importance of the voyage for the crew, and the significant detour (adding approximately 2,000 nautical miles both ways) to the itinerary should the vessel not be cleared for remote clearance,” according to the Federal Court decision from Justice Russell Zinn.

Zinn’s decision says the captain argued the diversion to Goose Bay would bring “significant increased risk to their safety,” and that there would be lost time and increased fuel consumption.

The stretch of water they would have had to sail for the diversion is “very tricky,” Yakunin said. “If the conditions are nice, I can do 200 miles per day. But sometimes you just sit in a bay and wait for a weather window for weeks.”

In response, Firebird Ocean Ltd. took Canada’s Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, which oversees the border agency, to federal court, looking for a judicial review of the decision.

“I am, more than anybody else, interested in understanding what has (gone) wrong with our reputation to make sure that we do not repeat the same mistake twice,” Yakunin said.

On Sept. 12, 2024 the judge sent the matter back to the border agency for a second look from a different decision maker.

“The facts underlying this (private vessel remote clearance) application process reveal communication and disclosure deficiencies” by the border agency which have left those at the helm of Firebird “inadequately informed and without meaningful participation,” wrote Zinn.

Yakunin wouldn’t wade into whether he thinks his father’s position in Russia was the hurdle that prevented the voyage in 2023. “I think it would be improper for me to offer any comment on my father’s side,” he said. “It would be very difficult for me to draw any conclusions with the current information that we have.”

The younger Yakunin — a dual Russian-British citizen — was acquitted earlier this year by a Norwegian court on charges that he flew a drone from the yacht in the fall of 2022 while it was in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Authorities clamped down on Russian citizens using drones in Norway after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Yakunin argued successfully that the drone was used to capture images of himself and his crew skiing and fishing. He even joked during the trial that while he isn’t a spy, he does own a full collection of James Bond movies.

“That one is very happily I can say behind us,” Yakunin said Tuesday. “The court there has supported what I’ve been saying from day one — that there is no offence.”

Yakunin has distanced himself from Russia’s invasion. When asked if he feels like different countries are keeping tabs on him due to his connections with Russia, he said, “We’re just living through very challenging times, and quite sad times.”

If he can get permission from Canadian authorities, Yakunin hopes to try for the ultimate Canadian adventure again aboard Firebird.

“Logistically, I think it will be a three-or-four year run-up before we are properly positioned and prepared for another attempt at the Northwest Passage,” he said. “It will definitely be more than two years. And I do hope to make it in less than four.”

If it happens, he’s hoping to see lots of Arctic wildlife during the adventure. He’s heard about “the abundance of beluga whales,” and notes “the chances of sighting a narwhal could make anybody’s day, including mine.”

He’ll be careful to avoid polar bears. “I think I have a low compatibility with them, so I (will) try to give them right of passage and steer well clear.”

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Eye on the Arctic

Issues affecting circumpolar nations

Small Norwegian fishing boat confronted Russian warship during live-shooting exercise

Shootings or no shootings, the fishermen wanted to secure the catch and confronted the Northern Fleet’s large destroyer Admiral Levchenko in the maritime border area north of the Varanger Peninsula.

“This is Russian warship, you need to leave the area”, was the message chief mate Øystein Orten got over the radio as his crew was about to take the fishing gear up from the water. 

It was news online FriFagbevegelse that first talked with the crew of the fishing boat Ragnhild Kristine about the scary confrontation with the Russian navy in the Barents Sea. 

The incident happened on September 12th in the maritime border areas north of the Varanger Peninsula. Outside territorial waters, but in Norwegian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Here, Russia’s Northern Fleet had pre-annonced live shootings as part of the large-scale strategic exercise Ocean-2024 .

But the military exercise and the order to sail away didn’t at first scare the Norwegians.

“I replied that it was out of question for us to move. We had longlines to take onboard,” Orten told to FriFagbevegelse.

The Admiral Levchenko is an anti-submarine destroyer and one of the largest warships in the Northern Fleet. 

Warning shot 

Øystein Orten and his crew of five onboard the 15-meters small fishing boat saw the huge warship sailing towards them and first stopped at a distance of 200 meters.

The warship then blew the powerful horn for about 15 seconds. According to Orten, the Admiral Levchenko fired a warning shot that exploded in the water. “It was a powerful blast, our boat was shaking,” Øystein Orten tells. 

The Norwegians fishermen decided to sail west and the 163-meters long destroyer followed until the fishing boat was out of the danger zone.

“There the Norwegian Coast Guard came and talked [over radio] with the Russian ship.”

Coast Guard can’t confirm 

“We had a Coast Guard vessel in the area and we know there was a conversation between the Russian navy and the fishing boat,” says head of communication with the Norwegian Joint Headquarters, lieutenant colonel Vegard Finberg in a phone interview with the Barents Observer. 

“There are, however, nothing from our observations that can confirm any warning shot,” says Finberg, but he underlines that “the fishermen might have experienced the situation different.”

Norwegian fishermen have several times over the past few years protested Russia’s extensive navy shootings in the Barents Sea.

“Norwegian authorities must put pressure on Russia so that they stop sabotaging Norwegian fisheries and shipping,” says Øystein Orten in the interview with FriFagbevegelse .

“Ideally, the Russians can place the firing range further north, east and in their own area. They should not be allowed to close Norwegian fishing areas,” Orten says. 

More Varanger fjord exercises 

A recent study made in collaboration between the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment (FFI), Nord University and the Barents Observer of Russian NOTAMs (Notice to Airmen) in Norwegian EEZ shows that more of the Northern Fleet’s exercises takes place across the maritime border in the Barents Sea. 

“Our study showed that there has been an increase in the average size of Russia’s naval exercise areas in the Barents Sea in recent years, and that many of them are laid across the Norwegian-Russian maritime delimitation line, outside the territorial waters of both states,” says Kristian Åtland, senior researcher with FFI.

“They are in other words located partly in Russia’s Exclusive Economic Zone, and partly in Norway’s. Russia’s live-fire training events in the High North also last longer than they used to do in the past,” Åtland explains. 

The study is published in the the Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies.  

Last fall, Russia announced missile shootings north and south of the Bear Island in Norwegian EEZ of the Barents Sea. The move caused Norwegian officials to fear for the Search- and Rescue capacities in the area in case of emergencies. 

In May this year, Russia closed off an area west of the Fishermen Peninsula for artillery firing. At the nearest the no-sail zone was just 4 nautical miles from where Russia’s land border with Norway meets the maritime border into the Barents Sea.

Related stories from around the North: 

Canada:   New military sleeping bags not suitable for ‘typical Canadian winter’: Canadian Army , CBC News

Denmark :   Denmark’s Arctic, North Atlantic focus: Canada among new defence attaché posts , Eye on the Arctic

Finland :   Military exercise apparently disrupts weather images from Lapland , Yle News

Iceland :  RAF Squadron begins NATO airspace patrols in Iceland , Eye on the Arctic 

Norway:   Military experts suspect sabotage at Andøya in Arctic Norway , The Independent Barents Observer

Russia:   Murmansk region of Arctic Russia targeted in drone attack , The Independent Barents Observer

Sweden: Landmark Nordic declaration includes plan for new icebreaker , The Independent Barents Observer

• ← New educational bursary honours late Carcross/Tagish First Nation elder Edna Helm
• Why an Alaska island is using peanut butter and black lights to find a rat that might not exist →

Thomas Nilsen, The Independent Barents Observer

For more news from the Barents region visit The Independent Barents Observer .

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Russian destroyer opens fire on ​Western fishing boat in Arctic raising WWIII fears

A russian attack on a norwegian fishing boat has further stoked already tense relations between the superpower and its western neighbors..

A Russian warship opened fire on a Norwegian fishing boat in a sinister Arctic incident triggering alarm over the threat of a full-scale war between Russia and the West.

The ugly flashpoint in the Barents Sea on September 12 has only been revealed now, almost two weeks later. It coincides with a Japanese fighter jet firing flares at a Russian plane after an alleged violation of Tokyo's airspace .

Øystein Orten and his twin brother Torstein were on the 49ft MS Ragnhild Kristine during the chilling confrontation with the Russian anti submarine destroyer Admiral Levchenko, one of the largest vessels in Vladimir Putin ’s Northern Fleet.

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He was warned in a message from the the Putin battleship: “This is Russian warship, you need to leave the area.”

Orten refused the Russian order.

“I replied that it was out of the question for us to move. We had longlines to take onboard,” said first mate Orten.

The hulking 535 ft-long Admiral Levchenko then sailed threateningly towards the before slowing at a distance of around 200 yards, according to Orten.

Orten alleged the Russian warship fired a warning shot - which exploded in the water.

“It was a powerful blast, our boat was shaking,” he said.

The Norwegian fishermen then sailed west and the 6,200-ton Russian destroyer followed until the fishing boat was out of the danger zone.

Radio contract then followed between the Russian warship and the Norwegian coastguards.

The head of communication of the Norwegian Joint Headquarters, Lt-Col Vegard Finberg, told the Barents Observer that there was “nothing from our observations that can confirm any warning shot” while adding that “the fishermen might have experienced the situation [differently].”

“The Norwegian authorities must put pressure on Russia so that they stop sabotaging Norwegian fisheries and shipping,” Orten told FriFagbevegelse.

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The incident came outside Norwegian territorial waters, but inside the Norwegian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Russia ’s Northern Fleet had announced live shooting as part of the large-scale strategic exercise Ocean-2024, the largest naval war games since the end of the Cold War, overseen by Putin.

Orten said: “I glanced over my shoulder to starboard, and the warship came at us at full steam.

“The ship stopped 200 meters [220 yards] from us, broadside on.

“It was rather intimidating, you might say.

“They sounded their foghorn for around 15 seconds to get our attention.

“Then they fired a shot with a cannon somewhere into the sea. The sound echoed through our hull, and it shook.”

The head of the Norwegian Seamen’s Union also reacted to Norwegian seafarers being threatened and frightened in this manner.

“This is unacceptable sabotage against Norwegian seafarers,” said Kurt Inge Angell.

“An incident like this could easily have been avoided if there was a genuine desire to do so, for example, by improving communication from the Armed Forces and using more platforms.”

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