Newsie Events:
A $140 million superyacht belonging to a Russian Oligarch has been temporarily seized in Barcelona, Spain, the country stated on Monday.
According to two sources, the 85-meter (279-foot) Superyacht Valerie belongs to Sergei Chemezov, a former KGB officer who heads the Russian state conglomerate Rostec, and an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Today we seized – the technical term is provisionally immobilised – a yacht belonging to one of the principal oligarchs,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on La Sexta television. “We are talking about a yacht that we estimate is worth $140 million.”
“There will be more,” he added, without elaborating.
Monitoring site Marine Traffic has said that yachts linked to two other oligarchs who are not yet sanctioned are also docked in Barcelona.
Reuters reported that the superyacht was sailing under the flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and is registered to Chemezov’s stepdaughter, Anastasia Ignatova, through a British Virgin Islands company, as was seen in a 2021 article published in the Pandora Papers information leak .
Recall that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, the West has sanctioned Russian billionaires, frozen state assets and cut off much of the Russian corporate sector from the global economy.
Chemezov was sanctioned by the United States in 2014 and Britain in 2020 over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and was named in sanctions lists this month by the United States and Australia. The U.S. sanctions also targeted Chemezov’s stepdaughter as well as his wife and son. [USN:S0N2TL013]
He was not named in the latest European list of sanctioned Russian figures but the EU imposed measures against him in 2014. A fourth package of EU sanctions against Russia is due to be unveiled in the coming days.
The yacht has been in Barcelona since Feb 9, according to Marine Traffic, and was until Monday under repair at Barcelona’s shipyard MB92.
The yacht will remain under detention while Spanish authorities confirm its ownership and whether they feature on any list of sanctions targets, a government source said.
Chemezov told staff in a message shared with Reuters this week that Russia, which describes its actions in Ukraine as a “special military operation” to safeguard domestic security, would emerge “victorious” despite the sanctions. [USN:L5N2VD1W9]
Culled From Reuters
NEWSIE EVENTS MEDIA TEAM Follow Us On Twitter: @NewsieEvents, Instagram: newsieevents, Facebook: Newsie Events (Subscribe to our YouTube Page: Newsie Eventsng. LinkedIn Newsie Events