International governments continue to seek out and seize assets from sanctioned Russians due to Russia’s war on Ukraine. The latest yacht arrest took place yesterday. Italy’s Guardia di Finanza, its financial police, is detaining Lady M.
The move is part of a larger seizure, which includes villas belonging to multiple individuals. Italy’s foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, announced the plans for the assets arrests on Italian state television Friday. The country, like others, is targeting individuals close to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. “We must be able to stop Putin’s attack, bringing him to the table, and he won’t go with niceties,” he says.
Italian government officials identify the owner of Lady M as Alexei Mordashov. He is the largest stakeholder in Severastal, Russia’s largest steel company. Additionally, he has business stakes in telecom, media, gold mining, and engineering. At the end of February, he attended a meeting at the Kremlin at the behest of Putin, along with other oligarchs. The European Union placed him on its sanctions list on February 28.
Lady M is from Palmer Johnson, seeing delivery in 2013. LOA is 213 feet (65 meters).
Besides detaining Lady M, at the dock in Imperia, government officials say they have seized villas in the country belonging to Mordashov. Furthermore, they report seizing the yacht Lena, a 126-foot (38.5-meter) Sanlorenzo, in San Remo. Officials identify her owner as Gennady TImchenko, who owns the private investment company Volge Groupe and has gas and petrochemical holdings. He, too, has close ties to Putin. In fact, those ties are why the United States sanctioned him in 2014.
Italy’s moves follows other countries arresting assets belonging to Russians. Earlier this week, for instance, the seizure of Amore Vero occurred in France. The 281-footer (85.6-meter), from Oceanco, has been in La Ciotat for work since January. French customs officials confirmed the detention, indicating they seized her “after an inspection lasting several hours” overnight from yesterday to today. Additionally, the statement alleges that the crew was hurrying to depart, “without having completed the planned work.”
Finally, despite multiple media reports on March 2 and 3, Dilbar, currently in Germany, is not among the yachts under arrest.
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