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In addition to the Chelsea owner’s boat, those of Chemezov and Molchanov, also very close to the Russian president, are docked
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None of the three billionaires appear on the list of people targeted by the sanctions of the European Union
Two days after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, a 70-meter-long palatial yacht departed from Port Vell in Barcelona towards the coast of Montenegrin, a newly minted former Yugoslav republic that does not belong to the European Union and does not have an extradition treaty with the United States. The ‘Galactic Super Nova’ set sail with cayman islands flagbut its true lingua franca is Russian, the language of Vagit Alekperovits owner and fourth richest man in Russia, CEO of the Lukoil oil company and one of the oligarchs closest to Vladimir Putin. Not surprisingly, on that black Thursday in European history, Alekperov participated in the meeting that the Russian president held with his country’s business elite to inform them of the imminent start of the military offensive.
It is not clear why the ‘Galáctica’ left Barcelona, but his change of destination is part of the budding trend among the luxurious water toys of the Russian oligarchs to seek refuge in ports of the Maldives and Montenegro in the face of the battery of sanctions that the European Union has imposed on personalities of Putin’s entourage. Both his political lieutenants and the barons of some privatized industries after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In total, almost fifty individuals of the Kremlin clientelistic elite. The same one who summers on the Costa Azul and Marbella, she educates her children in the best private universities in the West and does business from her glass palaces in London.
That elite has more than half of its fortune parked in tax havens and low-tax territories, according to a recent study by several economists. But his fears are only partially justified, as shown by other three Russian magnate yachts are still moored in Barcelona. All of them in MB92 springs, the shipyard where some of the world’s largest superyachts are tuned up. And it is that the European sanctions only call for freeze assets, a task that in Spain falls to the Ministry of Economy. “No goods will be seizedbut to freeze them so that nothing can be done with them & rdquor ;, assure sources from the ministry.
Forbidden to profit from frozen assets
In other words, technically their owners will be able to continue enjoying their mansions, jewels and yachts on European territory, but they will not be able to make any economic transaction with them. Neither sell them nor use them as collateral nor collect dividends from shares and funds. And once the European regulation accompanying the sanctions is published, the so-called “obligated subjects & rdquor; in Spain (banks, notaries, registrars or jewelers) will have to inform the Directorate General of the Treasury of the identified assets and any transaction that attempts to violate the sanctions.
In this sense, the Government has already made a move by asking the Balearic ports to report on the Russian yachts moored in their facilities, according to the ‘Diario de Mallorca’. Something that has not happened at the moment in the Port of Barcelona. “We have not received any notificationbut if it materializes, the appropriate measures will be taken & rdquor ;, assures one of its spokesmen.
Three Russian superyachts in Barcelona
There are three yachts of discord moored in Barcelona. None as big as him. ‘My Solaris’ from Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea and the metallurgical giant Evraz. This Tuesday he was covered under a tarpaulin, which hides his 140 meters longtheir 36 cabins for guests or missile radar who climbs his command bridge. Very close to the ‘Dawn’property of Andrew Molchanov, a construction and real estate tycoon who has held various public positions under Putin’s umbrella. The third is the ‘Valerie’ from Sergei Chemezovan old friend of the Russian autocrat since they both worked for the KGB on the East Germanynow at the head of the public conglomerate Rostec, one of the key players in the Russian military-industrial complex.
None of the three tycoons has been included in the European sanctions, so nothing should prevent them from setting sail for the Mediterranean or the Caribbean as soon as their set-up is complete, as they usually do in normal times. Another thing is the fate they could run in other jurisdictions. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khanhas asked to be expropriate the real estate of the oligarchs in the British capital, whose value would exceed 1,000 million pounds sterling, according to Transparency International. At the moment, it is just a proposal.
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