Source: Reuters
According to shipping records, a luxury yacht worth more than $500 million belonging to sanctioned Russian oligarch Alexey Mordashov has moored in Hong Kong waters after a week-long cruise from Russia.
Mordashov was one of several Russian oligarchs sanctioned by the European Union and the United States following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine because of their ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The yacht Nord landed in Hong Kong on October 5 following a seven-day cruise from Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, down through the Sea of Japan and East China Sea, according to the vessel tracking website Marine Tracker.
The marine department of the Hong Kong government did not immediately answer the enquiries about whether it was aware of the restrictions imposed on the vessel’s owner.
The multi-story yacht, which has six decks and a helipad, was spotted parked in waters west of Hong Kong’s renowned Victoria Harbour on Friday, flying a Russian flag at the stern.
The Nord, a 465-foot (141-meter) luxury yacht built by a German shipyard last year, is one of the world’s most lavish luxury boats, valued at $521 million by Forbes magazine.
Another luxury yacht owned by Mordashov, the 65-metre (215-ft) “Lady M,” was confiscated by Italian authorities in the port of Imperia in March.
In recent months, a number of Russian-owned superyachts have been relocated to locations considered safe from Western sanctions, such as Turkey, parts of Asia, and the Caribbean.
Mordashov amassed his fortune through the Russian steelmaker Severstal (CHMF.MM).
Source: Reuters
Taking his family’s assets into account, Forbes estimates Mordashov had a net worth of $29.1 billion before the sanctions were imposed, making him Russia’s richest man.
Oligarchs of Russia
Russian oligarchs are business oligarchs from the former Soviet republics who amassed vast fortunes in the 1990s as a result of Russian privatisation following the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
The dissolving Soviet state left state asset ownership contested, allowing for informal arrangements with former USSR officials (primarily in Russia and Ukraine) to obtain state property. Historian Edward L. Keenan has connected these oligarchs to the late-medieval Muscovy system of powerful boyars.
Since 2017, many Russian oligarchs and their businesses have been sanctioned by the United States under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) for their support of “the Russian government’s harmful activity around the world.”
As a rebuttal to Russia’s war against Ukraine, numerous Russian oligarchs were targeted and sanctioned by nations around the world in 2022.
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