What kind of oligarch are you if you don’t have a luxury yacht! As it turns out, Russian billionaires lived exactly according to this principle. Every day, there are reports of the arrest of the next “waterfowl toys” under Western sanctions. The performance characteristics of the yachts are impressive – many of them, in terms of their cost and displacement, have long surpassed the navies of small states. In the Komsomolskaya Pravda collection, Anton Fokin lists the most notable “flagships” of the Russian business fleet.
Named after mother
If we talk about the most expensive confiscated yacht, then the undisputed leader is Alisher Usmanov with his Dilbar, the cost of which is estimated at $600-750 million. This 156-meter beauty, named after the mother of a billionaire, Russian teacher Dilbar Usmanova, was detained in Germany. The yacht was in Hamburg for scheduled repairs.
Perhaps, “Dilbar” can rightly be called a synonym for the word “luxury” and “chic”, because, according to the Daily Mail, it was built for more than 4 years – longer than the Navy aircraft carrier “Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov”! Inside there is everything: a cinema, a gym, swimming pools, a jacuzzi, a kitchen, even a smaller marina. All interior elements were developed on an individual project by the most famous designers, and to deliver all this wealth to the ship, it took 27 trucks packed to capacity. A small detail: so that this “mansion” does not deteriorate during mooring, the pier (and not the ship!) Is covered with a special agent.
“Baby” Abramovich
According to official data, now the second largest motor yacht in the world, Eclipse, owned by Roman Abramovich, has so far remained under the control of the businessman. This engineering marvel worth over a billion dollars is located in Turkey, although sanctions will make it difficult for anyone to sell or maintain the ship.
Eclipse, owned by Roman Abramovich, has so far remained under the control of a businessman
Now the fate of the brand new 145-meter yacht Solaris, the construction of which for Roman Arkadyevich is now being completed at a shipyard in Germany, is also unclear. The Solaris was to be an 8-deck, 48-cabin “servant’s house” with elevators and helicopters. It was planned to use it both for receiving various cargoes from helicopters, storing boats, equipment, and as a place of residence for guests and staff. The cost of such a “hozblok” was “only” $300-450 million.
First letter of the alphabet
Another vessel “crushed by the sanctions skating rink” was Andrey Melnichenko’s sailing yacht with the laconic name “A”, which was encroached upon by the Italians. True, the ship itself, with a displacement of about 13 thousand tons, has a very non-concise design and is considered the largest sailing yacht in the modern world.
Its length is 143 meters, width – 25, and the total area is about 1767 square meters, and three huge masts with powerful sails proudly hover above the hull. Not much is known about the decoration and interior decoration of this miracle of technology, but in terms of its characteristics, this “thunderstorm of the seas” is in 11th place along the deck length among the largest sailing ships ever built by mankind, and in terms of displacement, it generally claims to be “ bronze!
Italy seized Melnichenko’s yacht
Andrey Melnichenko’s yacht with the laconic name “A”
Stuck in Mallorca
The yacht “Tango” of the famous keeper of the Faberge eggs Viktor Vekselberg does not claim to record in terms of cost and size. The ship was detained by the Spanish authorities in the port of Palma de Mallorca, where FBI agents arrived along with local policemen.
For the arrest, they even had to connect a secret witness, who, in great secret, said that the owner of Tango turned out to be a Russian oligarch (the nominal owner is a company from the British Virgin Islands, which, in turn, is controlled by citizens of Panama).
True, there is a lot of information on the Internet that Vekselberg is the owner of Tango. For example, it is written about this on the Superyacht Fans website, and in the press in recent years it has been mentioned that the oligarch owns this vessel.
The FBI detained the superyacht “Tango” of billionaire Viktor Vekselberg
“Tango” is not a simple vessel, but a real work of “yacht art”. It has everything: swimming pool, jacuzzi, gym, comfortable cabins. And the team is like on a real ship – 22 people. The cost of the vessel in different sources varies from 90 to 120 million dollars.
Victim of a “saboteur”
Of the simpler yachts, the most curious story happened with Alexander Mikheev’s vessel “Lady Anastasia”, which was also detained in sunny Spain in Mallorca. This yacht became a victim of a real Ukrainian saboteur!
Taras Ostapchuk, 55, a citizen of Nezalezhnaya, had been working on the ship as a mechanic for 10 years by the time the special military operation began. Yielding to violent feelings, the man opened two valves on the ship: in the engine room and in the compartment where the crew lives. Taras turned off the electricity and ordered the other crew members to leave the ship. As a result, water got into the yacht and the ship almost turned into a submarine, but was saved by other “less patriotic” Ukrainians from the same crew.
The most curious story happened to Alexander Mikheev’s ship “Lady Anastasia”
The hero was arrested and wanted to be sent to prison, but the Spanish judges, impressed by the accused’s story of “righteous revenge”, released the “saboteur” on bail. According to the Spanish press, Ostapchuk was sentenced to only 36 hours in prison, after which he returned to Ukraine, where the former sailor allegedly had already joined the Ukrainian armed forces.
So far, everything seems to be fine with the Lady Anastasia, and the beautiful vessel, almost 48 meters long, is standing in the roads of Mallorca. At the moment, the yacht is worth about 7 million euros. According to the manufacturers, the vessel is designed for 10 people, for whom 5 luxurious cabins with marble trim and a Jacuzzi have been prepared.
Not only yachts fall into the net of insidious Americans, but also such “real estate” as airplanes. For example, at Yevgeny Shvidler, the British detained two aircraft, one of which, the Cessna Citation Latitude, worth about $13 million, was excluded from the British aircraft register, banning it from flying in the foreseeable future. Earlier, London seized a $45 million Bombardier Global 6500 registered at Farnborough Airport.
What’s inside these aircraft is a mystery, but Business Insider claims that the Bombardier Global 6500 has a “club suite area” as well as a “cabin designed for rest and relaxation.” If you want – sleep, if you want – arrange business negotiations, the main thing is that you don’t have to huddle up to each other and ask your neighbor to raise your back. And most importantly, “two toilets are included as standard,” so there is no need to queue in advance either.
However, the rest of the oligarchs were able to avoid the confiscation of aircraft, because overtaking them from an unfriendly state to Russia or a “non-aggressive” country is much faster and easier than equipping a yacht. As a result, Schwindler is still the only businessman from the Russian Federation who has lost his “air fleet”.
Photo: If we talk about the most expensive confiscated yacht, then the undisputed leader here is Alisher Usmanov with his “Dilbar”
