super yacht in russian

• Saudi Arabia
• Palestine-Israel
• Arab Showcase
• Australasia
• The Americas
• Environment
• Road to Net Zero
• Art & Design
• Film & TV
• Music & On-stage
• Pop Culture
• Fashion & Beauty
• Home & Garden
• Things to do
• Combat Sports
• Horse Racing
• Beyond the Headlines
• Trending Middle East
• Business Extra
• Culture Bites
• Year of Elections
• Pocketful of Dirhams
• Books of My Life
• Iraq: 20 Years On

16 superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs

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

Two superyachts linked to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich were spotted on the Turkish coast on Tuesday, 'Eclipse' and 'My Solaris'. Mr Abramovich is among several wealthy Russians added to an EU blacklist as governments act to seize their yachts and other luxury assets. AP

Live updates: follow the latest news on Russia-Ukraine

Several luxury yachts owned by wealthy Russians have been detained across Europe this month.

It comes after the West imposed sanctions on oligarchs over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine .

Some have taken evasive action – two such superyachts linked to billionaire Roman Abramovich were spotted approaching the Turkish coast on Tuesday. A group of Ukrainians tried to stop one of the yachts from docking in Turkey.

Chelsea FC owner Mr Abramovich is one of several oligarchs who were added to an EU blacklist last week as governments acted to seize yachts and other luxury assets owned by the billionaires.

Western sanctions resulted in many large vessels relocating from Europe in the past few weeks. Several have headed to places such as the Maldives, which have no extradition treaty with the US.

Where is the Abramovich-owned yacht heading?

Mr Abramovich's yacht Eclipse was seen heading towards Marmaris on Tuesday, according to data compiled by monitoring site Marine Traffic, which was seen by Reuters.

The previous day, his superyacht Solaris was moored in Bodrum, about 80 kilometres from Marmaris, data showed, after skirting waters of EU countries.

There was no suggestion Mr Abramovich was on board either of the yachts.

Ukrainians attempt to stop Abramovich's yacht docking in Turkey

Which yachts have been detained?

On Monday, a superyacht linked to another Russian billionaire was detained by authorities after docking in Gibraltar.

The Axioma , believed to belong to Dmitrievich Pumpyansky, moored at Gibraltar on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, Reuters TV footage showed.

Mr Pumpyansky, who is under UK and EU sanctions, owns Russia's largest steel pipe maker TMK. Data shows the 72-metre vessel is owned by a British Virgin Islands holding company called Pyrene investments, Reuters reported. An article published as part of the Panama Papers leaks names Mr Pumpyansky as a beneficiary of the holding.

On March 12, the world's biggest sailing yacht, called Sailing Yacht A and owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko , was seized by Italian police.

Several other luxury yachts have also been detained across Europe, including in Gibraltar, Mallorca in Spain's Balearic Islands and the French coast.

Here are 16 superyachts linked to wealthy Russians

1. Eclipse , a superyacht linked to sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich , was this week spotted heading in the direction of Marmaris in Turkey.

2. Solaris , belonging to Mr Abramovich , moored in Bodrum at the start of the week.

3. The Axioma superyacht, belonging to Russian oligarch Dmitrievich Pumpyansky , who is on the EU's list of sanctioned Russians, was detained by authorities after docking in Gibraltar on Monday.

4. The Crescent , which was seized by the Spanish government in Tarragona, Spain, on March 17. The ship's owner is not publicly known, although it is believed to belong to Russian Igor Sechin, head of Rosneft Oil in Moscow.

5. Ragnar , owned by former KGB officer and Russian oligarch Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, who is not on the EU sanctions list.

6. Tango , owned by Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, who was sanctioned by the US on March 11.

7. Lady Anastasia , owned by Russian arms manufacturer Alexander Mijeev, is retained at Port Adriano, Mallorca, as a result of sanctions against Russia and Belarus issued by the European Union.

8. Valerie was seized by the Spanish government in Barcelona, Spain, on March 15. Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that the ship is linked to Rostec State Corporation’s chief executive Sergey Chemezov.

9. The $578 million Sailing Yacht A owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko was seized by Italian police in the port of Trieste on March 12.

10. The 156-metre Dilbar superyacht is owned by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.

11. La Datcha belongs to Russian billionaire businessman Oleg Tinkov.

12. Lady M , owned by Russian oligarch Alexei Mordashov, was seized by Italian police on March 5.

13. Amore Vero was seized in the Mediterranean resort of La Ciotat on March 3 by French authorities. The yacht is linked to Igor Sechin, a Putin ally who runs the Russian oil giant Rosneft.

14. Quantum Blue , owned by a company linked to Russian billionaire Sergei Galitsky, the head of Russian oil giant Rosneft, was seized in southern France on March 3.

15. Superyacht Luna is owned by Russian billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov.

16. Triple Seven is owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Abramov, according to media reports. The yacht was last up for sale in 2020 for €38 million ($41.85 million).

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

A multimillion-dollar superyacht once owned by a Russian oligarch has gone to auction

Dustin Jones

The Axioma superyacht, seen in Gibraltar in March, once belonged to Russian oligarch Dmitrievich Pumpyansky. The vessel was seized last March in accordance with sanctions imposed by Britain and the European Union. It will be auctioned off Tuesday, with the proceeds going to JP Morgan Chase. JON NAZCA/REUTERS hide caption

The Axioma superyacht, seen in Gibraltar in March, once belonged to Russian oligarch Dmitrievich Pumpyansky. The vessel was seized last March in accordance with sanctions imposed by Britain and the European Union. It will be auctioned off Tuesday, with the proceeds going to JP Morgan Chase.

A superyacht once belonging to a Russian billionaire went to auction Tuesday in the British territory of Gibraltar. The vessel, estimated to have a value in the tens of millions of dollars, was seized in March as part of Western sanctions against Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.

Gibraltar's Admiralty Marshal was tasked with appraising and selling the yacht, which received 63 bids, according to court documents. Its official appraised value is "a confidential matter which cannot be disclosed," although outside estimates reportedly place it anywhere from $42 million to $75 million. Details about who ultimately purchases the vessel and for what price will be made public when the transaction is complete.

Measuring 236 feet long and weighing over 1,600 tons, the Axioma is a sight to behold. It can accommodate 12 guests in six cabins — along with a 20-person crew in 12 other rooms — and features a gymnasium, full-service spa, infinity pool and luxury cinema, as stated on the Howe Robinson Partners auction site.

The cost to charter the Axioma for a week runs an average of roughly $500,000 , not including other operating costs, according to Yacht Charter Fleet.

The former owner of the ship is Dmitrievich Pumpyansky, once Russia's largest steel pipe manufacturer and currently worth $2 billion, according to Forbes . Unfortunately for Pumpyansky, he was sanctioned by Britain and the European Union after the invasion.

Other superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs have been detained as a result of the sanctions, but the Axioma is the first to be sold off, the Guardian reported.

Despite calls for the proceeds of the sale to benefit Ukraine, the funds will instead be paid to JP Morgan Chase. According to the Guardian, the international bank had a loan agreement with Pumpyansky's holding company, Pyrene Investments.

However, the sanctions against Russia prevented JP Morgan Chase from accepting payments from the holding company, breaching the agreement, and the bank filed a legal claim to have the vessel seized and sold at auction.

Other superyachts belonging to Russian elites have been detained all over the world — including the Amadea, which was seized in Fiji at the request of the United States in May. That $300 million yacht belonged to Suleiman Kerimov, a Russian gold producer worth over $12 billion, according to Forbes .

The fate of the Amadea is uncertain, however; it, too, could be sold to the highest bidder, which would be in line with President Biden's aims to hold Russian oligarchs accountable for their role in the invasion and, potentially, use the proceeds to aid Ukraine.

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.

Watch CBS News

Seized Russian-owned yacht Amadea finally sets sail from Fiji under U.S. control

By Graham Kates

Updated on: June 7, 2022 / 11:44 AM EDT / CBS News

The Amadea, a Russian-owned superyacht, set sail from Fiji Tuesday bearing a U.S. flag, ending weeks of legal and administrative hurdles that had stalled American efforts to seize the $300 million vessel it says is owned by a sanctioned oligarch.

U.S. Justice Department officials had been stymied by a frenzied legal effort by the Amadea's owner to contest the American seizure warrant, and a yacht crew that refused to sail for the U.S.

Fiji's Supreme Court ultimately weighed in Tuesday, clearing the U.S. to take the 348-foot ship.  The Amadea boasts luxury features such as a helipad, a mosaic-tiled pool, a lobster tank and a pizza oven, nestled in a décor of "delicate marble and stones" and "precious woods and delicate silk fabrics," according to court documents.

The ship was targeted by the Justice Department's Kleptocapture task force, a team devoted to seizing the luxury assets of sanctioned Russian oligarchs , as part of U.S. efforts to punish Russia for its deadly war in Ukraine. Legislation supported by President Biden that has passed the House of Representatives, but not the Senate, would allow the U.S. to sell the Amadea and direct the proceeds toward the Ukraine war and recovery effort.

Today, with authorization from the Fijian High Court and under a new flag, the Amadea set sail for the United States after having been seized as the proceeds of criminal evasion of US sanctions against Russian oligarch Suleyman Kerimov. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/JHiYUDKcmQ — Anthony Coley (@AnthonyColeyDOJ) June 7, 2022

The U.S. claims the Amadea is owned by sanctioned gold mining billionaire Suleiman Kerimov, but a Fijian lawyer for the holding company the ship is registered to has said the U.S. is incorrect.

The lawyer, Feizel Haniff, said the true owner is Eduard Khudainatov, a Russian oil executive who was sanctioned by the European Union on June 4 but has not been sanctioned by the U.S. The Amadea is one of at least two massive superyachts — with a combined value of about $1 billion — owned by holding companies tied to Eduard Khudainatov

American officials are dismissive of his claim to the yachts, arguing he's not rich enough to own them. An FBI agent wrote in a warrant that Khudainatov is "a second-tier oligarch (at best) who would not have anywhere near the resources to purchase and maintain more than $1 billion worth of luxury yachts."

U.S. officials claim in court documents that Khudainatov is a "straw man" for the sanctioned Russian elite who really own the yachts. 

Haniff declined to comment on Fiji's decision Tuesday to end the legal saga that began in April , when U.S. officials accompanied Fijian police in boarding the ship to interview crew and pore through records on the ship's computers.

Those same police would later escort U.S. officials off the ship after they boarded on the morning of May 7 and demanded the captain "immediately handover the Amadea with all available key personnel," according to a sworn affidavit by the captain, filed in Fiji court.

The day before, a Fiji court had effectively frozen the ship in place, issuing a stay of a previous ruling authorizing the U.S. to take it. 

But even without that stay, the U.S. faced an unexpected hurdle. The crew, whose pay had already been frozen due to sanctions, were "refusing to sail on the Amadea with the U.S. authorities to an unknown destination," the captain wrote in his affidavit. He added that they feared cooperating with the U.S., in breach of their contracts with the ship's owner, would damage their reputations in the yachting industry.

By the end of May, contractors for the U.S. had hired a new crew of 24, led by a captain who had previously been at the helm of the Amadea.

On Tuesday, Fiji's Supreme Court ruled that the ship needed to be turned over to the U.S. in order for Fiji to comply with the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. 

Fiji's top prosecutor said in a statement to media organizations that "the court accepted the validity of the US warrant and agreed that issues concerning money laundering and ownership need to be decided in the court of original jurisdiction," in this case, the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

• United States Department of Justice

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]

More from CBS News

Supreme Court wary of restricting government contact with social media firms

Alito extends order pausing new Texas immigration law for now

Peter Navarro must report to prison after chief justice rejects bid to delay

Blind 750-pound alligator named Albert seized from New York home

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Spain has seized Russian oligarch’s $140m superyacht in Barcelona, PM says

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said ‘there will be more’ after the seizure as the west targets Russia over its invasion of Ukraine

• Russia-Ukraine war: live updates

Spain has temporarily seized a Russian oligarch’s $140m (£108m) yacht in Barcelona, as two sources said the vessel belonged to the head of Russian state conglomerate Rostec, 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 Sánchez said on La Sexta television on Monday. “We are talking about a yacht that we estimate is worth $140m.”

“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 were also docked in Barcelona.

The 85-metre (279ft) superyacht Valerie belongs to Sergei Chemezov, a former KGB officer who heads state conglomerate Rostec, two sources told Reuters.

Sailing under the flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the vessel is registered to Chemezov’s stepdaughter, Anastasia Ignatova, through a the British Virgin Islands company, according to a 2021 article published in the Pandora Papers information leak.

The west has sanctioned Russian billionaires , frozen state assets and cut off much of the Russian corporate sector from the global economy since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.

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 US sanctions also targeted Chemezov’s stepdaughter as well as his wife and son.

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 9 February, 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.

Most viewed

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.”

Yet Another Russian Oligarch For Lukoil Dies In Mysterious Circumstances

According to reports on Russian Telegram , Robertus felt he was being 'persecuted' and feared he was being set up to face a criminal investigation amid bitter feuding at the top level of the US-sanctioned company. He had held a meeting with his boss Oleg Pashaev where he probably got the bad news. A few hours later he was found dead in his washroom.

Previous causes of death among Lukoil executives include toad venom, 6th-story hospital window defenestration, and 'heart attack.'

Lukoil is the second largest company in Russia after Gazprom, but they made the unfortunate choice (for them) of criticizing Russia's war in Ukraine as bad for business. Since then it's been very bad for their top executives.

Source: Daily Beast

Russian oil giant Lukoil has lost yet another top executive under mysterious circumstances as its vice president died “suddenly” at the age of 53, adding to a spate of deaths of figures linked to the gas and oil industry in the country. The company announced the death of Vitaly Robertus in a brief statement Wednesday, expressing “deep regret” over his death but providing no further details on the manner in which he died. His passing comes after a string of bizarre deaths at the company. Most recently, in late October, Vladimir Nekrasov, the chairman of the company’s board, died unexpectedly of what the company said was acute heart failure. He was 66 and had been brought in to head the board after the previous chairman, Ravil Maganov, plunged from a sixth-floor hospital window and died in September 2022. Months earlier, in May 2022, another top executive at the company died under strange circumstances. Alexander Subbotin was said to have died of a “drug-induced heart attack,” with Kremlin-friendly media outlets claiming he’d ingested some kind of toad venom while visiting with a shaman.

According to Russian Telegram channel Baza :

Russian media reported that shortly before his death, Robertus complained of feeling unwell and asked for headache pills, after which he went to his office. "He didn't leave for several hours, Robertus didn't answer his phone. The employees decided to go into his office and found his body. The top manager committed suicide and died of asphyxia. He had worked at the company for about 30 years," the publication writes.

And it's also been a hell of a week for Lukoil in other ways too, as three of their major oil refineries were put of commission by Ukrainian drone strikes. For whatever reason, Russian air defenses seem incapable of bringing down the slow-moving drones. They were able to hit their targets within meters, despite being hundreds of kilometers from the border.

❗️ Deaths of top managers continue to haunt Russia's largest oil company Lukoil On March 13, the company reported the death of Lukoil vice-president Vitaly Robertus. He died at the age of 53. The company did not disclose the cause of death of the vice-president. Robertus became… pic.twitter.com/jsD484YQff — NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 13, 2024

All these assassinations of Lukoil executives likely stem from Lukoil going directly against Putin when they issued a public call to end the war on March 3rd, 2022, just 7 days after his full-scale invasion of Ukraine right as he was trying to capture Kyiv. pic.twitter.com/ulS83gorzw — Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) March 13, 2024

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

To become an ad-free subscriber please select one of the following two options. Once you click your selected plan a window will open taking you to Admiral, our ad-free partner.

If you don't mind the ads and would rather donate, please select one of the options below:

Explore more

Ukraine Sinks Yet Another Russian Warship With Sea Drones

Two More Russian Oligarchs Die In Suspicious Circumstances

France Seizes $120 Million Super-yacht From Russian Oligarch

Baby Tiger Stolen From Ukrainian Zoo Dies In Russian Circus

Another Russian Headquarters Blown Up

Trump Can't Make $464M Bond In NY Civil Fraud Case

Killer Kyle To Speak At Kent State

Trump Lashes Out At Media Being 'Shocked' Over His 'Bloodbath' Remark

Happening now.

Mike's Blog Round-Up

Carville Has Some Hilarious Advice For Biden, And It Involves An Anvil

Boeing Wants You Dead

Latest from blue america.

Are You Serious About Global Warming?

Endorsement Alert: Marisol Rubio For State Senate

California Primary— Next Tuesday

• Terms of Service
• Corrections

Russia tight-lipped on reports navy commander sunk by Black Sea losses

Kremlin refuses comment on report it replaced navy commander after losing warships to Ukrainian attacks in Black Sea.

The Kremlin has declined to comment on reports that the commander-in-chief of the Russian navy has been sacked.

A spokesperson in Moscow said on Monday that “no public decrees” have been made on the fate of Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov. Reports over the weekend asserted that he had been replaced following the loss of a string of warships to Ukrainian attacks in the Black Sea.

Keep reading

Russia-ukraine war: list of key events, day 747, outrage in ukraine over pope’s call for courage to ‘raise the white flag’, turkey offers to host russia-ukraine peace talks as erdogan hosts zelenskyy, how has modern russian culture been shaped by putin’s war in ukraine.

Several news outlets, including the pro-Kremlin Izvestia newspaper, claimed that Yevmenov, 61, had been replaced by Northern Fleet commander Alexander Moiseyev. Any such appointment would typically be announced by presidential decree.

“There are decrees labelled secret, I cannot comment on them. There were no public decrees on this matter,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

If confirmed, the removal of Yevmenov – who was appointed head of the navy in May 2019 – would be the biggest shake-up in Russia’s military top brass since the sacking of aerospace force chief Sergei Surovikin last year.

Ukrainian forces claim to have destroyed more than two dozen Russian ships since the conflict began in February 2022, including a military patrol boat last week.

The losses are an embarrassment for Moscow, which has been forced to move ships from its historic Sevastopol naval base in Crimea to Novorossiysk, further east.

Russia’s Black Sea woes come in stark contrast to its land offensive in east Ukraine, where its forces have advanced in recent months after over a year of deadlocked fighting.

‘Understandable’

The Kremlin spokesman also refused to comment on a recent CNN report that claimed that in late 2022 the US had been primed for a potential nuclear strike by Russia in Ukraine.

“This is the type of speculation that is published in various newspapers,” Peskov told reporters, without confirming or denying the report that Russian military commanders had discussed such a scenario at the time.

Peskov was, however, more enthusiastic to discuss the call by Pope Francis for Ukraine to sue for peace.

President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly spoken of Russia’s willingness and openness to negotiations, but Kyiv had rejected such proposals, the Kremlin spokesman said.

Ukraine has rebuffed the pope’s call for it to show what he called the courage of the “white flag” and negotiate an end to the two-year war.

“It is quite understandable that he [the pope] spoke in favour of negotiations,” Peskov told reporters.

“Unfortunately, both the statements of the Pope and the repeated statements of other parties, including ours, have recently received absolutely harsh refusals.”

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also leapt upon the pope’s comments.

“The way I see it, the pope is asking the West to put aside its ambitions and admit that it was wrong,” she said, claiming that the West is using Ukraine to try to weaken Russia.

Peskov said that the battlefield situation showed that Western hopes of inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia were mistaken.

“This is the deepest misconception, the deepest mistake, and the course of events, primarily on the battlefield, is the clearest evidence of this,” he said.

Advertisement

Supported by

After Ukrainian Strikes, Russia Fires Top Naval Commander

American officials estimated that Ukraine, a country without a traditional navy, has sunk 15 Russian ships in the past six months.

• Share full article

By Julian E. Barnes ,  Maria Varenikova and Paul Sonne

Julian E. Barnes reported from Washington, Maria Varenikova from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Paul Sonne from Berlin.

The Kremlin has fired its top naval commander, the biggest fallout yet from a series of devastating attacks by Ukraine on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, according to a Ukrainian and a Western official.

Adm. Nikolai Yevmenov, the head of the Russian Navy for the past five years, was removed from command and replaced by the head of the Russia’s Northern Fleet.

Russian publications, citing anonymous sources, reported on Sunday that Admiral Yevmenov had been fired. The Financial Times, citing Ukrainian officials, reported the development on Monday . The Russian government, however, has declined to confirm any of the personnel changes.

U.S. officials have assessed that while Kyiv’s counteroffensive last year in eastern and southern Ukraine largely failed, its strikes on the Crimean Peninsula and attacks on the Black Sea Fleet were unexpectedly effective.

The victories have been all the more surprising because Ukraine does not have a traditional navy or a fleet of warships. Instead, Ukraine has used sea drones and missiles to attack Russian ships.

U.S. officials believe Ukraine has sunk 15 Russian ships in the past six months. European officials have said the naval victories have reopened the western Black Sea, allowing Ukraine to again ship grain from Odesa.

A Ukrainian military intelligence official said that Admiral Yevmenov’s removal from command was directly related to the loss of Russian ships.

Ukraine estimates that a third of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which once numbered 80 ships, has been destroyed since the war began two years ago. The April 2022 sinking of the Moskva , the Russian flagship, with a Ukrainian-built missile was one of Kyiv’s great symbolic victories.

But the more recent campaign has been as important for practical gains. As a result of the attacks, Russia has moved its fleet back from Ukraine’s coast and out of the western Black Sea.

The Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, said on Tuesday that the Ukrainian military had “basically won the war over the control of the western half of the Black Sea.”

“And Ukrainian grain is now again flowing through the Bosporus to Africa and China, which are Ukraine’s traditional markets,” Mr. Sikorski told reporters in Washington at a breakfast hosted by The Christian Science Monitor.

At a Senate hearing on Monday, William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, said Ukraine would be able to conduct more strikes against Crimea and the Black Sea Fleet if the United States provided additional military assistance.

“Ukraine can continue to exact costs against Russia, not only with deep penetration strikes in Crimea, but also against its Black Sea Fleet, continuing this success, which has resulted in 15 Russian ships sunk over the course of the last six months,” said Mr. Burns, who wrote in an article this year that Ukraine should double down on such tactics .

Ukrainian military analysts said the decision to replace the top naval commander was logical, given that Russian efforts to defend its fleet from attacks have failed.

“What did the Russians do to increase the effectiveness of countering our strikes?” Oleksandr Kovalenko, a military analyst, told the Ukrainian news media. “Nothing. They currently have no effective solution to increase the security of their warships. The only viable solution they managed to implement was to flee from Sevastopol to Novorossiysk.”

Russian publications have reported that Admiral Yevmenov will be replaced by the head of Russia’s Northern Fleet, Adm. Aleksandr A. Moiseyev. Admiral Yevmenov, however, is still listed as the naval commander in chief on the Russian military’s official website.

“There are decrees classified as secret,” the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters on Monday. “I cannot comment on them. There were no open decrees published about this.”

Instead, Russia’s military put out statements regarding naval operations, including one on Tuesday about Russian naval ships participating in joint exercises with Iran and China in the Gulf of Oman.

It is not the first time that questions about the leadership of the Russian Navy have gone unanswered in public.

In February, Russian Telegram channels that follow the country’s military reported that the Black Sea Fleet’s top officer had been removed, but he is still listed as the commander of the fleet on the Russian military’s website.

Last year, Ukrainian authorities claimed to have killed the same commander , but Russia quickly rolled out footage of him giving an interview to prove he was alive.

Julian E. Barnes covers the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security matters for The Times. He has written about security issues for more than two decades. More about Julian E. Barnes

Paul Sonne is an international correspondent, focusing on Russia and the varied impacts of President Vladimir V. Putin’s domestic and foreign policies, with a focus on the war against Ukraine. More about Paul Sonne

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

News and Analysis

Ukraine fired a volley of exploding drones  at Moscow and other targets on the final day of Russia’s presidential vote, the local authorities said, continuing a flurry of attacks timed for the rubber-stamp election .

The United States and six other major world powers warned Iran not to provide ballistic missiles to Russia  to aid Moscow’s war against Ukraine and threatened to retaliate if it did by cutting off Iranian air travel to Europe, among other measures.

A U.N. commission said it had uncovered new evidence of widespread torture of Ukrainian prisoners  held by Russian security forces, detailing a range of what it described as Russian war crimes, including summary executions and sexual violence.

Targeting Russia’s Oil Industry: With its army short of ammunition and troops to break the deadlock on the battlefield, Kyiv has increasingly taken the fight beyond the Ukrainian border, attacking oil infrastructure deep in Russian territory .

Electronic Warfare: Drones have become a critical weapon for both Russia and Ukraine. But Moscow’s capability to overpower Ukrainian signals  by broadcasting on the same frequencies at higher power is putting Kyiv at a disadvantage.

Helping the War Effort: Since the early days of the war, thousands of Ukrainian volunteers have led crowdfunding efforts that have been crucial in supplying the military with equipment. But as the conflict drags on, it is becoming harder to raise money .

How We Verify Our Reporting

Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs , videos and radio transmissions  to independently confirm troop movements and other details.

We monitor and authenticate reports on social media, corroborating these with eyewitness accounts and interviews. Read more about our reporting efforts .

Rupert Murdoch's new Russian fiancée ties him to a sprawling web of money — with some surprising connections

• Rupert Murdoch is getting married for the fifth time, and with the union comes some interesting ties.
• His fiancée, Elena Zhukova, was once married to Alexander Radkin Zhukov, a Russian oligarch.
• Her daughter, Dasha Zhukova, was married to Roman Abramovich from 2008 to 2017. 

Rupert Murdoch , 92, is engaged again.

For his fiancée, Elena Zhukova , 67, the engagement stands to add another page to a storied family history and sprawling ties to wealth and power. And with this union comes some new, shared history between Murdoch and a couple of Russian oligarchs, one of whom is thought to be a confidant to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Murdoch announced his engagement to Zhukova on Thursday. The engagement comes about six months after he announced his retirement .

This marriage is set to be Murdoch's fifth and Zhukova's third. The pair met through Murdoch's third wife, Wendi Deng , The Daily Mail previously reported.

Zhukova was previously married to a Russian oligarch, Alexander Radkin Zhukov. In 2001, Zhukov was detained in Italy and spent six months in jail over accusations that he worked with the Russian mafia to smuggle massive caches of arms, The Guardian reported. He denied the charges of arms dealing and hasn't served prison time for them.

The Times reported that Zhukov was now living in London, where he had obtained British citizenship.

Zhukova shares a daughter with Zhukov, Dasha Zhukova . Like her mother, Dasha Zhukova was once married to a Russian oligarch. The art collector and socialite was married to Roman Abramovich from 2008 to 2017. They have two children together.

Related stories

Abramovich has been closely linked to Putin and is regarded as the Russian leader's backchannel to the West. The billionaire served as an envoy in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine weeks after the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

Before the Ukraine war, Abramovich owned a vast luxury empire , which included private jets and the superyacht Eclipse . He also owned the Premier League soccer team Chelsea Football Club, which he quickly sold after the war began .

But Abramovich's close ties with Putin meant he was the subject of sanctions by the European Union and the UK . US officials seized two of Abramovich's private jets in June 2022 after a federal judge in New York said the planes had violated export restrictions.

The billionaire links don't stop there.

Dasha Zhukova is now married to Stavros Niarchos , the grandson of a Greek shipping tycoon. They got married in 2020 at a star-studded wedding in Switzerland and have a son together.

Murdoch had a seven-decade career , including founding News Corp. He stepped down as chairman of the company in late 2023.

During a News Corp. earnings call in 2008, Murdoch said the company was selling its stake in an outdoor advertising company in Russia because he didn't want to do business there .

"The more I read about investments in Russia, the less I like the feel of it. The more successful we'd be, the more vulnerable we'd be to have it stolen from us, so there we sell now," Murdoch said then.

Representatives for Murdoch didn't respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Watch: VIDEO: How a Russian-Ukrainian couple has managed to stay together during war

• Main content