Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the assets of many of Russia's super-rich have been frozen worldwide. Now, last Saturday, Italian financial authorities have chained up the "A", the largest private sailing yacht in the world, in the harbour of Trieste.
This has been made possible by a European Union sanctions list since the beginning of March. A transatlantic task force is tracking down the assets of the Russian super-rich around the world, including not only bank accounts and property but also movable assets such as aeroplanes and yachts.
The 143 metre long yacht is said to belong to the oligarch Andrei Igorevich Melnichenko. According to crew members, the superyacht was in an Italian shipyard to repair rigging damage to a boom.
The three-master was built at the Nobiskrug shipyard in Rendsburg. It is registered with Lloyd's Register as a "motor yacht with sail assistance". The "A" was launched in 2017 and is said to have cost around 400 million euros at the time. Today, its value is estimated at around 530 million euros.
Melnichenko himself does not hide the fact that he owns the yacht. The ownership of many other superyachts is more nebulous. Of the 19 largest sailing yachts in the world after the "A" (see list), only the "Black Pearl" was considered certain to have a Russian owner: the oligarch Oleg Burlakov, who died of Covid-19 last year.
After Burlakov's death, his relatives are fighting over the "Black Pearl". According to AIS, it is currently in Montenegro. The Balkan country is not a member of the EU, but has agreed to join the EU's economic sanctions.
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