Italy has moved to seize a $700m yacht linked to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. The yacht was docked at Italy’s Tuscany where it was undergoing repairs. The yacht, Scheherazade, is being seized under the European Union sanctions imposed on Russia in the wake of the war on Ukraine.
The finance ministry in Rome said that boat owners are tied to ‘prominent elements of the Russian government’, news agency BBC reported. News agency New York Times in a separate report quoting US officials said that the yacht may belong to Putin himself.
Some reports say that the yacht belongs to Eduard Khudainatov, the former chief of Russian energy giant Rosneft. Khudainatov does not come under the ambit of the sanctions imposed by the EU.
It is hard to find out who really owns the yachts which are linked to Russian oligarchs. In most cases, the ownership is shrouded in secrecy as they are registered through a series of offshore companies.
The Scheherazade boasts two helicopter landing pads and a swimming pool inside. It costs up to $140 million.
Before Scheherazade, authorities in Fiji seized the Amadea, a yacht linked to Suleiman Kerimov, an economist and former Russian politician who was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department. Kerimov also faced sanctions from Canada, Europe, Britain and other nations after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The Amadea which costs $325 million was seized after a judge allowed US officials to seize it.
“There is no hiding place for the assets of individuals who violate US laws. And there is no hiding place for the assets of criminals who enable the Russian regime,” the US attorney general Merrick Garland said.
The US president Joe Biden authorised another $150 million in military assistance for Ukraine. The funds will be for artillery rounds and radar systems in its fight against Russia. The Biden administration has asked the Congress to bring a law under which the US authorities can confiscate the assets of sanctioned oligarchs and ‘remedy the harm Russia caused … and help build Ukraine’. The House last month passed a bill urging Biden to sell the frozen luxury assets of Russian oligarchs but it is non-binding.
However, current laws only permit freezing, and not selling, foreign property in the course of an ongoing war or international crisis.
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