Spain has temporarily seized a Russian oligarch’s $140m (£108m) yacht in Barcelona as two sources said the vessel belonged to the head of the Russian state-owned conglomerate Rostec, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Today we captured – the technical term is temporarily immobilized – a yacht owned by one of the main oligarchs,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on La Sexta TV on Monday. “We’re talking about a yacht that we estimate is worth $140 million.”
“There will be more,” he added, without going into details. Monitoring website Marine Traffic reported that yachts linked to two other oligarchs who have not yet been sanctioned have also been moored in Barcelona.
The 85-metre (279-foot) superyacht Valerie is owned by Sergei Chemezov, a former KGB officer who heads the state-owned conglomerate Rostec, two sources told Reuters.
According to a 2021 article published in the leaked Pandora Papers, the ship flies the flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and is registered to Chemezov’s stepdaughter Anastasia Ignatova through a company from the British Virgin Islands.
The West imposed sanctions on Russian billionaires, froze state assets and cut off much of the Russian corporate sector from the world economy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Chemezov was sanctioned by the US in 2014 and the UK in 2020 in connection with Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and was added to the US and Australian sanctions lists this month. The US sanctions also affected Chemezov’s stepdaughter, as well as his wife and son.
He did not appear on the latest European list of Russian figures subject to sanctions, but the EU took action against him in 2014. The fourth package of EU sanctions against Russia should be made public in the coming days.
According to Marine Traffic, the yacht has been in Barcelona since February 9 and was under repair at Barcelona’s MB92 shipyard until Monday.
According to a government source, the yacht will remain under arrest until the Spanish authorities confirm its ownership and whether they appear on any list of sanctions targets.
Chemezov told staff in a message given to Reuters this week that Russia, which describes its actions in Ukraine as a “special military operation” to ensure internal security, would come out as a “winner” despite the sanctions.