£140m superyacht owned by ex-KGB officer Sergei Chemezov seized by Spain as West cracks down on Putin’s oligarchs
- Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says the country has hijacked a Russian superyacht
- Reliable sources have identified the vessel as the £140 million Valerie, docked in Barcelona.
- Sergei Chemezov, Putin’s personal friend, owns the ship through his daughter
- Sanchez vowed ‘more to come’ as West tightens noose on Putin’s regime
Spain has seized its first oligarch-owned superyacht as Western nations continue to tighten their noose on Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.
The £140 million vessel Valeri, which is ultimately owned by former KGB officer Sergei Chemezov, has been confiscated in Barcelona, where it was being repaired.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced the move on Monday, promising “there will be more.”
Sanchez, leader of the Spanish left-wing party PSOE, as a “temporary immobilization”.
Valerie, a £140m superyacht owned by Russian oligarch Sergei Chemezov, has been arrested in Barcelona where she is undergoing repairs.
Chemezov (left) became friends with Vladimir Putin (right) when they lived in the same apartment building in Dresden, in Soviet East Germany, and worked for the KGB in the 1980s.
In an interview with the Spanish national television channel La Sexta, he said: “Today we captured – the technical term is temporarily immobilized – a yacht belonging to one of the main oligarchs.
‘There will be more. We must act decisively and decisively against Vladimir Putin, his regime and his oligarchs, who have enriched themselves in a system of corruption by oppressing the Russian people.”
He did not name the ship, but people familiar with the matter identified it as “Valerie,” which Chemezov owns through his stepdaughter, Anastasia Ignatova.
The St. Vincent and the Grenadines-flagged vessel is registered to Ignatova through a company from the British Virgin Islands, according to a 2021 article published in the leaked Pandora Papers.
Chemezov is a former high-ranking general who befriended Putin while they were together in Soviet East Germany, working for the KGB.
He enriched himself through personal ties to Putin after the latter became president of Russia in 2001.
In 2007, Putin appointed Chemezov to head the defense technology conglomerate Rostec, which is valued at tens of billions of dollars.
Solaris, a 460-foot superyacht owned by Roman Abramovich, was also undergoing repairs at the same Barcelona shipyard as Valerie just a few days ago.
But the £420 million ship hurried to a port of refuge in Montenegro, where it docked over the weekend, just before the imposition of sanctions.
Solaris, a £430 million superyacht linked to Roman Abramovich, was also undergoing refurbishment at the same Barcelona dock before making a sudden trip to Montenegro’s safe haven last week.
Abramovich is just one of hundreds of oligarchs and Russian politicians targeted by Western sanctions in an attempt to stifle the Putin regime.
Earlier this month, it was reported that Spanish Ministry of Transport officials asked marinas in the Balearic Islands to let them know if any Russian-owned ships over 87 feet in length were moored there.
Reports at the time suggested that one of the superyachts that would be affected if subsequently withdrawn as part of the EU sanctions package would be the Lady Anastasia.
The £5 million yacht was at the center of drama last month when Ukrainian sailor Taras Ostapchuk, the ship’s engineer, tried to sink it.
The 55-year-old man was arrested and later traveled to his homeland to enlist in the military after a court released him on bail in the Mallorcan capital, Palma.
He identified the ship’s owner as Alexander Mizheyev and said he acted after he saw a helicopter carrying weapons he believed were manufactured by the oligarch’s firm attack an apartment building in Kyiv that looked like the one where his family lives.
The unrepentant sailor, after being released by a judge pending an ongoing investigation, vowed to join the fight against Putin’s soldiers as he boarded a plane from Mallorca to Poland before heading overland to Ukraine.
He said: “I do not regret for a minute what I did, only that I did not achieve my goal – to sink the yacht.”
Crew members, also believed to be Ukrainians, rescued the ship from serious damage along with personnel in the harbor of Port Adriano in the southwest of the island.
According to a 2021 article published in the leaked Pandora Papers, Valerie is registered to Chemezov’s stepdaughter Anastasia Ignatova.