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The $578 million megayacht owned by Russian oligarch Andrey Melnichenko was seized by Italy

Russian oligarch Andrey Melnichenko's yacht was seized Friday, Italian authorities said.

Sailing Yacht A is the world's largest sailing yacht at around 469 feet long and has eight decks.

Melnichenko was sanctioned by the European Union in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

A megayacht belonging to Russian oligarch Andrey Melnichenko was seized by Italian authorities on Friday, CNN reported.

A statement from Italy's finance police said the yacht, known as SY A or Sailing Yacht A, was worth around 530 million euros, or $578 million, according to CNN. It also said the yacht was currently in storage in Trieste, Italy. Maritime tracking data viewed by Insider confirmed the location of the yacht in the Adriatic Sea.

Melnichenko is one of the billionaire oligarchs sanctioned by the European Union in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Melnichenko, who is worth $11 billion according to Forbes, founded fertilizer producer EuroChem Group and coal energy company SUEK.

In announcing its decision, the EU council said Melnichenko "belongs to the most influential circle of Russian businesspeople with close connections to the Russian Government." It also said he was among a group of 37 businesspeople who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials on February 24 to discuss the impact of potential sanctions.

"The fact that he was invited to attend this meeting shows that he is a member of the closest circle of Vladimir Putin and that he is supporting or implementing actions or policies which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, as well as stability and security in Ukraine," the EU said, adding it also showed he is "providing a substantial source of revenue to the Government of Russia."

In a statement provided to Insider, a spokesperson for Melnichenko denied the EU's accusations about his connections to the war in Ukraine.

"Andrey Melnichenko is an international self-made entrepreneur. He has no relation to the tragic events in Ukraine. He has no political affiliations. To draw a parallel between attending a meeting through membership in a business council, just as dozens of businesspeople from both Russia and Europe have done in the past, and undermining or threatening a country is absurd and nonsensical," the statement said.

"There is no justification whatsoever for placing him on the EU sanctions list. We will be disputing these baseless and unjustified sanctions, and believe that the rule of law and common sense will prevail," the statement continued.

The spokesperson also noted Melnichenko resigned as a member of the board and main beneficiary of both EuroChem Group and SUEK this week, as the companies announced in separate statements on Thursday. He also said both companies are privately owned and not affiliated with any government, and that EuroChem Group is based in Switzerland.

Sailing Yacht A is the worlds largest sailing yacht at around 469 feet long, according to SuperYachtFan.com . It has 300-foot masts, eight decks, a swimming pool, and an underwater observation pod. It's one of several megayachts owned by Russian oligarchs that are subject to sanctions.

Some Russian oligarchs and billionaires have tried to escape sanctions by transporting their luxury yachts to places like Dubai, which has not enacted sanctions, and the Maldives, which does not have an extradition treaty with the US.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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The best photos of Sailing Yacht A

The  boundary pushing  Sailing Yacht A   is a natural head turner. Delivered in 2017 by German yard Nobiskrug , Sailing Yacht A measures a total of 142.81 metres and is classed as a "sail-assisted motor yacht". BOAT rounds up the best photos of  Sailing Yacht A  from around the world.

Sailing Yacht A in the Isle of Man

In April 2021, Sailing Yacht A was spotted cruising the cool waters of the Irish Sea as she dropped anchor in Douglas Bay on the Isle of Man. She made her way to the island after departing from the Coast of Spain in late March, gathering a crowd of spectators upon her arrival.

Sailing Yacht A with Azzam

Here, Sailing Yacht A is pictured alongside the 180 metre Lürssen Azzam , the largest superyacht in the world. The two superyachts were spotted in Gibraltar in 2021.

Sailing Yacht A in Brela, Croatia

Sailing Yacht A  was built for Russian yacht owner Andrey Melnichenko and has garnered much attention for her unique form, sheer size and well-known owner.

Sailing Yacht A on the French Riviera

Here, Sailing Yacht A is pictured arriving in the French Riviera earlier in the 2020 summer season. The yacht was photographed by Julien Hubert.

Sailing Yacht A Sets Sail

This is the first known image of Sailing Yacht A with all three of her sails hoisted. Captured in the West Mediterranean, this exclusive image was shot by Carl Groll in May 2017 for TheYachtPhoto.com

Underwater lighting illuminates Sailing Yacht A's hull

Pictured in January 2017, shortly before her delivery, Sailing Yacht A is seen here illuminating the waters around the Nobiskrug yard with her underwater lighting. This stunning photo also shows her light-up nameplate, which matches the style of the nameplate on Melnichenko's Motor Yacht A .

Sailing Yacht A Beginning Sea Trials

This image of Sailing Yacht A was shot  in 2015 as the yacht began sea trials. While Sailing Yacht A 's owner Andrey Melnichenko calls her a "sail-assisted motor yacht", she is regarded by many to be the world's largest sailing yacht . 

Sailing Yacht A's Bridge

This photo of Sailing Yacht A gives a close-up view of the yacht's bridge and wingstation, perched atop the superstructure. This photo illustrates just how big this yacht really is. Sailing Yacht A has the tallest carbon masts in the world .

Drone video footage of Sailing Yacht A

One of the best photos of Sailing Yacht A to arise when she went out on sea trials was this shot taken from a drone video. From this angle, we get a great view of the foredeck of Sailing Yacht A and the outdoor living spaces here, which hadn't been seen before.

Masts stepped on Sailing Yacht A

It was big news when the masts were stepped on Sailing Yacht A and we got to see what this formidable vessel would look like for the first time. It also made for one of the best photos of Sailing Yacht A to finally see the giant masts get stepped atop the giant yacht. Dykstra Naval Architects designed the rig on the three-masted yacht, while Philippe Starck , who also designed Steve Jobs' Venus , worked on the yacht's design.

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.css-1d0dlne-HeadlineTextBlock >*{display:inline-block;} .css-1plpptc-HeadlineTextBlock{margin:0;color:rgba(255,255,255,1);font-family:Escrow Condensed,Georgia,serif;font-size:36px;line-height:40px;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:0px;font-style:normal;text-transform:none;font-stretch:normal;padding:0.5px 0px;}.css-1plpptc-HeadlineTextBlock svg{fill:rgba(255,255,255,1);}.css-1plpptc-HeadlineTextBlock::before{content:'';margin-bottom:-0.2266em;display:block;}.css-1plpptc-HeadlineTextBlock::after{content:'';margin-top:-0.1956em;display:block;}.css-1plpptc-HeadlineTextBlock >*{display:inline-block;} Inside a Russian Billionaire's $300 Million Yacht

The "A", designed by Philippe Starck, arrived in San Francisco in September after making stops in Alaska and Seattle. WSJ took an exclusive tour of Andrey Melnichenko's 394-foot mega-yacht in 2010. Photo: AP

April 15, 2010

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MOTOR YACHT A – Cutting-edge $300M Superyacht

MOTOR YACHT A is one of the largest privately-owned megayachts in existence, measuring 119 meters (390 ft) in length.

It is currently ranked the 27th biggest yacht in the world and sails under the flag of Bermuda.

A was built by the famous shipyard Blohm & Voss in Kiel, Germany and after four years of construction, she was handed over to her new owner in 2008.

MOTOR YACHT A interior

The interior of the 119 meters (390 ft) long A offers plenty of natural light and elaborate wooden furniture, providing a luxurious and comfortable ambiance.

The interior design is by Philippe Starck, a renowned French architect, and designer who helped develop the private rooms of the Élysée Palace in Paris.

MOTOR YACHT A features a beautiful master suite and an additional six state-of-the-art guest cabins. A crew of 35 members is able to stay on board to take care of up to 14 guests.

Specifications

Two diesel engines power MOTOR YACHT A with an output of 9,000 kW each. A full tank of over 750,000 liters provides her with an impressive reach of up to 6,500 nautical miles.

Her cruising speed lies at 19 knots, but the vessel can reach maximum speeds of up to 23 knots.

A is equipped with the latest technology and control systems, which aid the crew in maneuvering the gigantic vessel. She has a width of 18.87 meters (61.90 ft) and weighs in at an impressive 5,500 tons.

Philippe Starck also created the exterior design of A in collaboration with naval architect Martin Francis and the shape of the yacht strongly resembles a US Navy destroyer.

A has a total of three swimming pools distributed on the different decks.

The pool on the front deck is the largest of all and is equipped with a jet nozzle that can simulate currents.

Furthermore, A features a spacious beach club as well as three tenders housed in their own garages.

She also has her own helicopter landing pad located on the forward main deck while three elevators make it easy for guests and crew to reach the different levels of the vessel.

Of course, A is equipped with a high-quality gym and a spacious spa area.

The price of MOTOR YACHT A is estimated at about US $300 million, which the owner, Russian billionaire Melnichenko paid for the vessel in 2008.

The annual costs amount to US $12 to $15 million depending on use.

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Here are the superyachts seized from Russian oligarchs

As part of an international pressure campaign on Russia, authorities from around the world have seized more than a half-dozen superyachts belonging to billionaire oligarchs allied with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The yacht seizures since the Feb. 24 invasion are "just the beginning," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in March, as an international task force worked to identify further assets that can be seized or frozen.

“The Justice Department will be relentless in our efforts to hold accountable those who facilitate the death and destruction we are witnessing in Ukraine,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said of the ongoing efforts in May.

Here are the superyachts government officials have seized since Russia invaded Ukraine last month.

The Justice Department announced May 5 that the Fijian government had seized billionaire oligarch Suleiman Kerimov 's 348-foot yacht Amadea. The vessel, which is valued at more than $300 million , arrived in Fiji last month. Kerimov, who's worth an estimated $14 billion and has ties to the Russian government, was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department over alleged money laundering in 2018.

Special features on the sprawling yacht include a helipad, infinity pool, a jacuzzi and multiple bars, according to a report in Boat International . It can accommodate 16 overnight guests in addition to 36 crew members, the report said.

In April, Spanish law-enforcement officials seized a 255-foot yacht called the Tango, which Justice Department says is owned by oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Vekselberg is an aluminum magnate who the Treasury Department says has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Tango is worth an estimated $90 million, prosecutors said , and Vekselberg allegedly purchased it through shell companies. The 11-year-old yacht has seven staterooms and reportedly includes amenities such as a pool, gym and beauty salon .

Authorities in Italy seized a 215-foot superyacht called the Lady M this month. It's owned by Alexei Mordashov, Russia's richest businessman, and it’s estimated to be worth $27 million . The vessel, which requires a crew of 14, has six guest cabins , a pool and a gym.

But it pales in comparison to another of Mordashov's yachts, the $500 million Nord . The 464-foot vessel, which has two helipads and a waterfall and can accommodate 36 guests, was anchored this month in the Seychelles, where the U.S. and European Union sanctions don’t apply.

Italian officials also seized the 132-foot superyacht Lena, owned by the energy magnate Gennady Timchenko. Estimated to be worth $8 million, it has five cabins and can accommodate 10 guests.

SY A — short for Sailing Yacht A — is one of the world's largest superyachts. Valued at over $440 million, the 469-foot vessel, owned by the fertilizer magnate Andrey Melnichenko, has eight decks, multiple elevators, an underwater observation area and the world's tallest masts . It was seized in the Italian port of Trieste.

Authorities in Spain seized Sergei Chemezov's Valerie, a 279-foot superyacht that had been moored in Barcelona. Chemezov , a former KGB officer, heads the state conglomerate Rostec. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez touted the seizure on La Sexta television. “We are talking about a yacht that we estimate is worth $140 million,” Sanchez said.

Officials in France announced this month that they had seized the 289-foot Amore Vero, which was undergoing repairs in a shipyard near Marseille. When they arrived, authorities said, they found the crew preparing for an urgent departure, even though the repair work was scheduled to last through April. The $120 million boat, which has seven cabins , is linked to Igor Sechin, described by the U.S. Treasury Department as a close ally of Putin's.

Dareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News.

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16 superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs

Western sanctions over moscow's invasion of ukraine led to many luxury vessels being detained in europe.

Two superyachts linked to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich were spotted on the Turkish coast on Tuesday, 'Eclipse' and 'My Solaris'. Mr Abramovich is among several wealthy Russians added to an EU blacklist as governments act to seize their yachts and other luxury assets. AP

Live updates: follow the latest news on Russia-Ukraine

Several luxury yachts owned by wealthy Russians have been detained across Europe this month.

It comes after the West imposed sanctions on oligarchs over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine .

Some have taken evasive action – two such superyachts linked to billionaire Roman Abramovich were spotted approaching the Turkish coast on Tuesday. A group of Ukrainians tried to stop one of the yachts from docking in Turkey.

Chelsea FC owner Mr Abramovich is one of several oligarchs who were added to an EU blacklist last week as governments acted to seize yachts and other luxury assets owned by the billionaires.

Western sanctions resulted in many large vessels relocating from Europe in the past few weeks. Several have headed to places such as the Maldives, which have no extradition treaty with the US.

Where is the Abramovich-owned yacht heading?

Mr Abramovich's yacht Eclipse was seen heading towards Marmaris on Tuesday, according to data compiled by monitoring site Marine Traffic, which was seen by Reuters.

The previous day, his superyacht Solaris was moored in Bodrum, about 80 kilometres from Marmaris, data showed, after skirting waters of EU countries.

There was no suggestion Mr Abramovich was on board either of the yachts.

Ukrainians attempt to stop Abramovich's yacht docking in Turkey

Which yachts have been detained?

On Monday, a superyacht linked to another Russian billionaire was detained by authorities after docking in Gibraltar.

The Axioma , believed to belong to Dmitrievich Pumpyansky, moored at Gibraltar on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, Reuters TV footage showed.

Mr Pumpyansky, who is under UK and EU sanctions, owns Russia's largest steel pipe maker TMK. Data shows the 72-metre vessel is owned by a British Virgin Islands holding company called Pyrene investments, Reuters reported. An article published as part of the Panama Papers leaks names Mr Pumpyansky as a beneficiary of the holding.

On March 12, the world's biggest sailing yacht, called Sailing Yacht A and owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko , was seized by Italian police.

Several other luxury yachts have also been detained across Europe, including in Gibraltar, Mallorca in Spain's Balearic Islands and the French coast.

Here are 16 superyachts linked to wealthy Russians

1. Eclipse , a superyacht linked to sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich , was this week spotted heading in the direction of Marmaris in Turkey.

2. Solaris , belonging to Mr Abramovich , moored in Bodrum at the start of the week.

3. The Axioma superyacht, belonging to Russian oligarch Dmitrievich Pumpyansky , who is on the EU's list of sanctioned Russians, was detained by authorities after docking in Gibraltar on Monday.

4. The Crescent , which was seized by the Spanish government in Tarragona, Spain, on March 17. The ship's owner is not publicly known, although it is believed to belong to Russian Igor Sechin, head of Rosneft Oil in Moscow.

5. Ragnar , owned by former KGB officer and Russian oligarch Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, who is not on the EU sanctions list.

6. Tango , owned by Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, who was sanctioned by the US on March 11.

7. Lady Anastasia , owned by Russian arms manufacturer Alexander Mijeev, is retained at Port Adriano, Mallorca, as a result of sanctions against Russia and Belarus issued by the European Union.

8. Valerie was seized by the Spanish government in Barcelona, Spain, on March 15. Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that the ship is linked to Rostec State Corporation’s chief executive Sergey Chemezov.

9. The $578 million Sailing Yacht A owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko was seized by Italian police in the port of Trieste on March 12.

10. The 156-metre Dilbar superyacht is owned by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.

11. La Datcha belongs to Russian billionaire businessman Oleg Tinkov.

12. Lady M , owned by Russian oligarch Alexei Mordashov, was seized by Italian police on March 5.

13. Amore Vero was seized in the Mediterranean resort of La Ciotat on March 3 by French authorities. The yacht is linked to Igor Sechin, a Putin ally who runs the Russian oil giant Rosneft.

14. Quantum Blue , owned by a company linked to Russian billionaire Sergei Galitsky, the head of Russian oil giant Rosneft, was seized in southern France on March 3.

15. Superyacht Luna is owned by Russian billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov.

16. Triple Seven is owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Abramov, according to media reports. The yacht was last up for sale in 2020 for €38 million ($41.85 million).

Insiders still have no idea what's going to happen to Russian oligarchs' seized superyachts

• It's been two years since Russia invaded Ukraine, leading to sanctions against Russian oligarchs.
• Many of their superyachts were seized or frozen , leading industry insiders to question their fate.
• The yachts, some of which are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, remain in a state of limbo.

More than two years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the boating world still doesn't have many answers about what's going on with the very large, expensive elephants in the sea: oligarchs' superyachts .

The war prompted many governments to enact sanctions against Russia's richest , including seizing their superyachts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. But it's unclear whether they can be sold or who'd buy them, leaving ports peppered with massive boats stuck in a floating limbo.

"The Russian problem, it's becoming a bigger and bigger and bigger problem," one luxury yacht broker told Business Insider at the Palm Beach International Boat Show last week. Like many others, he requested not to be named, given the sensitive nature of the matter at hand and the generally discreet nature of the industry.

Russia has been a massive player in the massive boat market for a long time. In August 2021 — about six months before Russia's Ukraine invasion — Russians owned the second-largest share of yachts over 40 meters in length, according to a report from the industry publication SuperYacht Times.

They were responsible for 16% of new build superyacht purchases in the decade preceding the report and are known for splashing out on extravagant interiors and unique features. (One builder BI spoke to recalled a mandate from an oligarch for a large safe in the owner's cabin in which he could keep his rifles. The builder later learned he'd use them to skeet shoot on deck.)

But those sales have now screeched to a halt as oligarchs get hit by international sanctions. At least a dozen superyachts — worth well over $1 billion combined — have been affected.

And no one is quite sure what will happen to them.

Russia's sanctioned superyachts are hard to buy and sell

The first problem is that many of the yachts are "frozen" — not seized. That means that although the Russian owners can't operate or collect them, they don't technically belong to an overseas government, so they can't be sold without special permission.

Earlier this month, federal prosecutors petitioned a judge asking for consent to sell the Amadea, the 106-meter superyacht that has been docked in San Diego and costs the US as much as $922,000 a month to maintain.

"I've had some inquiries, but all you can tell them is we don't know the outcome yet" of the case, another superyacht broker told BI at the yacht show.

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And despite the broker's claim of interest in yachts like Amadea , most ultrarich — or at least their brokers — don't want to go near the vessels with a ten-foot pole, even if the government does get legal permission to sell them.

"How does it look if you bought a Russian boat?" Julia Simpson, a broker at Thompson of Monaco, said. "Even if it's completely legal and normal, there are too many things on the line," she said, like how the original owner got their money and whether that could make the new buyer look bad.

There are also possible legal implications, as it's hard for the government to prove who actually owns the yachts.

"Oligarchs typically structure their ownership of these high-value assets through a web of offshore shell companies and trusts that is designed to conceal the true owner," Joshua Naftalis, a former federal prosecutor who now works for Pallas Partners, told BI.

And if the government does assume ownership, it's highly dependent on court orders. For example, a Russian whose yacht had been seized by the French government regained access to his boat after winning a legal battle in 2022.

"It's a very difficult process to buy them," Ralph Dazert, the head of intelligence at SuperYacht Times, told BI. "There is a high risk of the former (Russian) owner suing you to get the boat back."

He pointed to the Alfa Nero, the 82-meter yacht that Eric Schmidt planned to purchase for $67 million last year in an auction put on by Antigua and Barbuda. He backed out after various parties tried to block the sale, likely deeming it not worth the legal headache.

"When the reason for sanctioning goes away, which it may do," the Russian owners will try to get their boats back , Simpson said. After all, "the government's not going to pay them."'

That said, if sanctions are dropped, the yachts will be worth much less than when they were seized, as a boat not in use deteriorates much faster than one sailing the seas.

"Those yachts need to be used to be kept in shape, kept in condition," the second broker said. "​​Just having them sit at the dock with a temporary crew on board is not good for the boats."

And the sanctioned Russians who have managed to maintain control of their superyachts won't have an easy time offloading them in the future.

Americans who try to do business with sanctioned oligarchs would have a number of hoops to jump through — like finding a bank to process the purchase, which would be next to impossible. If somehow they did and the government caught wind, they'd face hefty penalties and the transaction would be void.

So Russia's richest have found themselves "stuck" sailing in a select few countries that will let them, like the Maldives, Montenegro, and Dubai.

Watch: Video of Russian naval ship explosion shows a much-needed win for Ukraine

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US spends more than $7m a year to keep up superyacht seized from Russian oligarch

Government efforts to auction Amadea, vessel allegedly owned by Suleiman Kerimov, challenged by ex-head of Russian oil company

The US government has said it is spending more than $7m a year to maintain a superyacht it seized from a sanctioned Russian oligarch , and urged a judge to let it auction the vessel before a dispute over its ownership is resolved.

Authorities in Fiji seized the 348ft (106-meter), $300m Amadea in May 2022, pursuant to a US warrant alleging it was owned by Suleiman Kerimov , a multibillionaire sanctioned by the US treasury department in 2014 and 2018 in response to Russia’s activities in Syria and Ukraine.

Efforts to auction the yacht are being challenged by Eduard Khudainatov, who led Russian state oil and gas company Rosneft from 2010 to 2013.

Khudainatov claims ownership of the Amadea, and has said it cannot not be forfeited because he has not been sanctioned.

In a court filing late on Friday federal prosecutors in Manhattan told the US district judge Dale Ho that the $600,000 average monthly maintenance bill for the Amadea has been “excessive”, justifying an auction. They also said talks to have Khudainatov pay for the yacht’s upkeep have broken down.

Prosecutors have said in previous court filings that Khudainatov is acting as the Amadea’s “straw owner” to disguise Kerimov’s role, and that maintenance payments are essential to preserving a yacht’s value.

Khudainatov has until 23 February to reply to prosecutors’ request. In a statement, his lawyers said the motion to sell the vessel was “premature” and urged Ho to deny it until he “determines whether the seizure was unconstitutional”.

The seizure came as Washington ramped up sanctions enforcement against people close to Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, to pressure Moscow to halt its war against Ukraine.

If the US government succeeded in auctioning the yacht, it would likely eventually transfer sale proceeds to Ukraine.

Prosecutors have said Kerimov violated US sanctions by making more than $1m in maintenance payments for the Amadea through the US financial system, making the vessel now docked in San Diego subject to forfeiture.

Kerimov and his family are worth $10.7bn, according to Forbes magazine. He amassed his fortune through Russian gold miner Polyus, though he is no longer a shareholder.

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Ukrainian navy says a third of Russian warships in the Black Sea have been destroyed or disabled

FILE - A sea drone cruises on the water during a presentation by Ukraine’s Security Service in Kyiv region, Ukraine, on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

An engineer assembles an antenna for guiding an exploding drone in Kyiv region, Ukraine, on Saturday, February 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A worker stores mortar shells at a factory in Ukraine, on Wednesday, January 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

FILE - Local fishermen try to catch fish in front of Russia Navy ships in Sevastopol, Crimea, Oct. 27, 2014. Successful Ukrainian drone and missile strikes have provided a major morale boost for Kyiv at a time when its undermanned and under-gunned forces are facing Russian attacks along the more than 1,000-kilometer front line. Challenging Russia’s naval superiority also has helped create more favorable conditions for Ukrainian grain exports and other shipments from the country’s Black Sea ports. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - In this photo released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Feb. 10, 2022, the Russian navy’s amphibious assault ship Kaliningrad sails into the Sevastopol harbor in Crimea. Successful Ukrainian drone and missile strikes have provided a major morale boost for Kyiv at a time when its undermanned and under-gunned forces are facing Russian attacks along the more than 1,000-kilometer front line. Challenging Russia’s naval superiority also has helped create more favorable conditions for Ukrainian grain exports and other shipments from the country’s Black Sea ports. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File)

FILE - This image taken from video shows smoke rising from the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea. Sept. 22, 2023. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has suffered heavy damage from Ukrainian drone and missile attacks. (Crimean Telegram channel via AP, File)

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine has sunk or disabled a third of all Russian warships in the Black Sea in just over two years of war, the navy spokesman said Tuesday, a heavy blow to Moscow’s military capability.

Ukraine’s Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk told The Associated Press that the latest strike on Saturday night hit the Russian amphibious landing ship Kostiantyn Olshansky that was resting in dock in Sevastopol in Russia-occupied Crimea. The ship was part of the Ukrainian navy before Russia captured it while annexing the Black Sea peninsula in 2014.

Pletenchuk has previously announced that two other landing ships of the same type, Azov and Yamal, also were damaged in Saturday’s strike along with the Ivan Khurs intelligence ship.

He told the AP that the weekend attack, which was launched with Ukraine-built Neptune missiles, also hit Sevastopol port facilities and an oil depot.

Russian authorities reported a massive Ukrainian attack on Sevastopol over the weekend but didn’t acknowledge any damage to the fleet.

Pletenchuk said that with the latest attack, a third of all warships that Russian had in the Black Sea before the war have been destroyed or disabled. At the same time, he acknowledged that just two of about a dozen of Russian missile carrying warships have been sunk and pledged that Ukraine will continue the strikes.

“Our ultimate goal is complete absence of military ships of the so-called Russian Federation in the Azov and Black Sea regions,” Pletenchuk told the AP.

Successful Ukrainian drone and missile strikes have provided a major morale boost for Kyiv at a time when its undermanned and under-gunned forces are facing Russian attacks along the more than 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line.

Challenging Russia’s naval superiority also has helped create more favorable conditions for Ukrainian grain exports and other shipments from the country’s Black Sea ports.

Moscow officials have kept mum on most of Ukrainian claims, but previous navy losses have been confirmed by Russian military bloggers and media who have harshly criticized the military brass for its slow and sloppy response to the threat.

Earlier this month, Russian media reported that the navy chief, Adm. Nikolai Yevmenov, had been fired and replaced with Adm. Alexander Moiseyev, the commander of Russia’s Northern Fleet. The Kremlin hasn’t yet announced the reshuffle, but last week Moiseyev was presented as the new acting navy chief during a ceremony at a Russian naval base.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Taxpayers Stuck Paying the Bills for Oligarchs' Seized Yachts and Mansions

F ALMOUTH HARBOUR, Antigua and Barbuda—Two dozen armed police and five FBI agents fanned out across the harbor here early one morning last year. They raided the Alfa Nero, a 270-foot megayacht believed to be owned by Andrey Grigoryevich Guryev, a Russian phosphates magnate sanctioned by the U.S. for links to President Vladimir Putin. 

Ever since, the $120 million yacht—nearly the length of a football field and outfitted with an infinity pool that transforms into a dance floor—has sat idle in this sleepy harbor. It’s a floating reminder of the West’s economic war against Russia and the difficulties in managing and offloading billions in seized Russian assets. It has also become a nightmare for this tiny country of 93,000. 

Taxpayers of this cash-strapped nation are currently paying $28,000 a week to maintain the stationary boat, including the salary of an Italian captain and $2,000 a day in diesel to keep its air conditioning running. If it turns off, mold will spread through the vessel within 48 hours, potentially damaging its hardwood interior and the Miro painting on board. A skeleton crew of six—having eaten through the boat’s supply of Champagne, lobsters and caviar—toils to ensure the vessel can one day be sailed away.

“You take thousand dollar bills, tear them up, and just keep going,” said Tom Paterson, the dock master of the marina, making a ripping up motion with his hands in the marina offices. 

Since Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, dozens of governments launched an unprecedented effort to pressure Putin to end the war by going after his well-heeled cronies. The Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs Task Force, a multinational government group that coordinates on sanctions, reported in March that an estimated $58 billion of oligarchs’ assets, including yachts, mansions and investments, have been frozen or blocked because of their owners’ links to the Kremlin.  

The initial impulse to make life uncomfortable for Putin’s allies by blocking access to their wealth has evolved, as the war has dragged on, into moves to permanently confiscate their assets. Yet freezing an asset doesn’t immediately give authorities the right to take ownership and sell it. In many cases that comes only after complicated legal efforts to show those sanctioned people committed crimes, a process that could take months or years.

European countries have launched more than 300 criminal investigations against sanctioned Russians. The U.S. Justice Department has a team of 50 officials building criminal cases it hopes can rake in hundreds of millions of dollars by selling sanctioned Russian assets, which in turn can be handed over to help rebuild Ukraine. 

So far, the grand total from the assets delivered to Ukraine by the U.S. is just $5.4 million, the U.S. said. The U.K. hasn’t turned any frozen assets into funds. Neither has the European Union.

“The costs for Ukraine are huge, and morally I think it is a no-brainer that the party that inflicts that cost and a horrible war should pay,” said Anders Ahnlid, who heads the EU’s working group on frozen Russian assets. “But that has to be done under the law.” 

In practical terms, it is often taxpayers who are on the hook for eye-watering bills to maintain a fleet of high-end yachts and mansions that no one is allowed to use while sanctions remain in place. 

Efforts to bypass drawn-out legal proceedings in Western courts to sell the assets are coming up short. 

Earlier this year, the Antiguan government, arguing the Alfa Nero posed a risk to its harbor in case a hurricane sank it, passed new legislation and seized the ship outright. This summer it tried to sell the Alfa Nero to ex-Google chief executive Eric Schmidt for $67 million. But a company linked to Guryev launched a last-minute legal fight to block the sale, and Schmidt got cold feet, according to people familiar with the matter. The Antiguan government is now trying to line up a new buyer. 

There is a long legal path between freezing an asset, which bans the owner from using it, and confiscating the asset, which means the state can take ownership and sell it. Being sanctioned isn’t in itself a crime. So the state has to prove the sanctioned person both owns the asset, which is often held by a maze of shell companies, and broke a law, which can justify having it confiscated as proceeds of a crime. 

The U.S. is “leaving a lot of money on the table” from the asset seizures, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco testified before Congress in April. DOJ officials have asked Congress to broaden the government’s ability to turn over proceeds to Ukraine, including by expanding the range of seized assets they can transfer. 

The DOJ has seized two megayachts it says belong to sanctioned Russians and is in the process of trying to confiscate them, according to officials. One is the $300 million Amadea that U.S. taxpayers paid to have sailed to San Diego from Fiji. The other is the Tango, a $90 million yacht that U.S. authorities say is owned by Viktor Vekselberg, a sanctioned oligarch with close ties to Putin. Vekselberg is accused by the U.S. of tax fraud, money laundering and using fake documents and shell companies to avoid sanctions and hide his ownership of the Tango. 

U.S. investigators sometimes spend years building a case strong enough to take before a judge for a seizure warrant. That involves shoe-leather detective work such as poring over bank and property records and also mapping out connections and traveling the globe to talk to witnesses, said David Lim and Michael Khoo, DOJ officials leading Task Force KleptoCapture, which enforces sanctions on Russians.

“We still have to be able to meet our burden of proof in court,” Khoo said in an interview. A lot of the evidence and witnesses are overseas, “sometimes in jurisdictions that are not necessarily friendly to the U.S. And so it becomes a challenge to work across those borders,” he said.

In Italy, law-enforcement officials have seized at least four yachts and 20 luxury homes, as well as cars, artwork and other items since spring 2022, according to a list of frozen assets reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The Italian government last year earmarked €13.7 million, or about $14.8 million, to cover urgent maintenance costs of assets such as yachts and villas. The actual costs are much higher, Italian officials said. 

“Our problems are the yachts,” said an Italian official. “If the war continues…the running costs could potentially exceed their actual value.” 

As a rule of thumb, big yachts cost around 10% of their value a year to maintain, said Benjamin Maltby, a lawyer at Keystone Law, which specializes in advising on megayachts. Their hulls need to be regularly scraped and air-conditioning units run nearly round the clock. The crew also needs paying. So does insurance and rent in marinas. 

Forcing owners themselves to pay for their upkeep is complicated—the sanctioned parties aren’t allowed to use the financial system to transfer funds without special permission from governments, which can take months or years to obtain. Some European countries such as Spain allow the sanctioned owners to move funds to pay their maintenance costs. 

Selling a recently sanctioned boat is also hard, Maltby said. Many buyers don’t like the idea of a secondhand sanctioned boat for fear it might be reclaimed by its original owners when it enters a different legal jurisdiction. “A lot of these boats are going to be stuck in limbo,” he said. 

“There is a market for yachts. There is no market for moldering yachts,” said Andrew Adams, the former director of the KleptoCapture task force, to U.S. lawmakers recently. “We have to take care to make sure we’re maintaining that value.” 

The Scheherazade, one of the world’s biggest and most expensive yachts, was seized by Italy last year. But the €650 million boat has no publicly identified owner. Italy’s financial police have linked the Scheherazade to former Rosneft President Eduard Khudainatov but haven’t been able to confirm that he owns it. The anticorruption group of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny has raised the possibility it could even belong to Putin himself. 

The 460-foot yacht is moored in the Tuscan port of Marina di Carrara, where it is being refitted, work that began before it was seized. The company that officially owns the boat, registered in the Cayman Islands, is still covering those costs, according to people familiar with the boat’s current status. What will happen to the Scheherazade once the refurbishment is completed is unclear. 

Also stuck in Italy is Sailing Yacht A, a €530 million boat with running costs of around €1 million a month. It belongs to Andrey Melnichenko, a Russian coal and fertilizer billionaire. The 469-foot yacht has been stuck in the northern Italian port of Trieste since March 2022, when Melnichenko was sanctioned by the EU.

Like other oligarchs, Melnichenko is hoping to get his property back. Worried the yacht will suffer serious damage in the hands of the Italian state, Melnichenko has offered to pay for its upkeep, according to a person familiar with his legal moves. 

The EU is currently negotiating how to make sanctions evasion a crime in all its member states. That could eventually provide a broader basis for confiscating assets, but it would still require proof of active evasion. 

So far, the most high profile Russian boat confiscation was engineered not by a government but by J.P. Morgan. The U.S. bank successfully appealed to have the yacht Axioma sold at auction to pay off €20.5 million its owner, a sanctioned Russian oligarch, owed to the lender. The vessel, replete with a 3-D cinema, fetched $37.5 million at auction to an unnamed buyer in Gibraltar where it was impounded. JPMorgan said it received what it was owed. A court in Gibraltar still has to decide what to do with the remaining funds, according to a court official. 

On a recent day in Antigua, the Alfa Nero’s glossy black hull floated in a largely empty harbor. Most of the other yachts had left to avoid hurricane season. On the dock next to it two security guards sheltered under a canopy in front of a red sign reading “Property of The Antigua & Barbuda Government.” 

In the months after the invasion of Ukraine, the Alfa Nero had shut off its transponder to avoid being tracked but was ultimately located by U.S. officials. Guryev is the founder of PhosAgro, a leading Russian chemical company, and according to the U.S. government owns the second-largest estate in London after Buckingham Palace. Guryev is also sanctioned in the U.K. 

The Office of Foreign Assets Control, an enforcement arm of the U.S. Treasury, said the sanctioned Russian bought the yacht in 2014. Guryev had previously claimed the Alfa Nero wasn’t his but that he used it from time to time. The boat is owned by a company listed in the British Virgin Islands called Flying Dutchman, which in turn is managed by Opus Private, a fiduciary services company based in Guernsey, the island in the English Channel. Opus Private in turn represented a trust of which Guryev’s daughter is the beneficial owner, according to court filings in Antigua. 

The boat, which originally had a crew of 37, found itself in legal limbo. Its owners were barred from using the financial system to pay its bills or sail it away.

Opus said it had done its utmost to obtain the licenses needed to make payments for the vessel’s maintenance and to explain the position to the Antiguan government “to no avail.”

The yacht, meanwhile, spewed raw effluent into the harbor after its onboard sewage system broke. It also became uninsurable after the guarantees on fire extinguishers and other safety equipment expired and hurricane season approached. Most of the crew left because they weren’t being paid. A group of 26 crew subsequently filed a lawsuit in Antigua, which enforced the sanctions as part of a treaty with the U.S., asking for $2.2 million for unpaid wages from the boat’s unspecified owner, according to their lawyer. 

A skeleton crew stayed on board and kept the decks polished while bartering vintage bottles of wine stored in the ship for basic foodstuffs. The going rate: two bottles of wine for one tuna, according to the captain. 

In February those remaining crew finally mutinied, writing a letter to the Antiguan government saying, “We can no longer deal with this,” said Darwin Telemaque, chief executive officer of the Antigua port authority. 

Without these key crew members, no one would know how to keep the ship running or move it in case of a storm, he said. If the megayacht keeled over, it would block Falmouth Harbor, a key financial artery for the island. 

So the government decided to pass emergency legislation to seize the vessel, auction it, pay off maintenance expenses and keep the staff on board, retaining the surplus for the country’s treasury. The government of Antigua petitioned the U.S. Treasury to allow the boat to be sold, a move the U.S. took in June. 

The chance to buy a top-class yacht at a knockdown price caused a flurry of interest. Telemaque said he got WhatsApp messages from as far afield as Algeria. Schmidt, the former Google CEO, won the ensuing auction with a $67 million bid. 

A company linked to Guryev’s daughter filed a last-minute injunction to block the sale. The appeal was dismissed. The fiduciary company that controls the yacht then filed for a judicial review over the legality of Antigua’s sudden change of the law, according to filings. The case is ongoing. 

Schmidt refused to take ownership while the legal battle was unresolved and dropped out, according to people familiar with the matter. The Antiguan government was hit by another lawsuit, this one from Warren Halle, a U.S. real-estate magnate, who had the second-highest bid in the auction. Halle argued that since Schmidt hadn’t transferred the cash for the boat within a stipulated seven-day deadline, his bid should be disqualified. 

Andrea Maccaferri, the acting captain of the Alfa Nero, said he has no idea what will happen next. He compared life on board the stranded boat to a monastery. Lunch is served at noon, dinner at 6 p.m. sharp, cooked by a British chef. The captain said he constantly checks weather reports tracking hurricanes, which he fears could wreck the vessel. 

Deidra Cochrane, 28, an office assistant at the marina, said the Alfa Nero is a source of gossip on the bus she takes to work. People don’t generally believe the government will be able to sell it, and if it does, they see little benefit accruing to them, she said. “It’s a boat that creates a lot of scandal and opinion,” she said. 

At the Skullduggery bar and restaurant alongside the marina, a table of regulars drank vodka and fretted that Antigua’s decision to take on a Putin ally would alienate rich Russian customers who flock to the island in winter. “Don’t flick the tiger’s balls,” warned one. 

When he ventures out to St John’s, the capital of the two-island nation, Maccaferri never wears the red polo shirt bearing the logo of the Alfa Nero he wears in the marina, worried that a Russian agent may target him.

Whoever one day sails the Alfa Nero out of port, “I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a submarine with a red star waiting for it,” he said.

Write to Max Colchester at [email protected], José de Córdoba at [email protected] and Margherita Stancati at [email protected]

Audience Laughs At LibsofTikTok Lady: She Can't Define 'Woke'

Chaya Raichik, a former Brooklyn real estate agent who is behind the hate-inciting LibsOfTikTok account, is against wokeness, which she claimed is being rammed down her hateful throat. So, she should know what wokeness is, amirite? During a speech alongside Republican Rep. Jim Banks at the Indiana Memorial Union at Indiana University in Bloomington, she was left dumbfounded when asked what wokeness is.

LGBTQ Nation reports :

During her speech, she ranted about "pornographic" books in schools and moved on to her hatred of everything "woke." "It's been in schools, it's on college campuses, it- it's in the workforce, it is in the streets, it's when you go to the store," she complained. "I mean, like, you can't do anything in peace without this wokeness being shoved down your throat wherever you go!" Some students started laughing. "Um, do you have a question? Is something funny?" she asked, apparently not expecting people to find her over-the-top concerns funny. "How do you define wokeness?" someone in the back asked. Raichik tried to respond: "Wokeness is the destruction of normalicy [sic] and… And… Um… Uh…” More students started laughing. "… of our lives," she said, apparently thinking she was finishing a sentence. propertag.cmd.push(function () { proper_display('crooksandliars_content_1'); });

That's when Banks tried to save her and described wokeness as "anti-Americanism."

"I'm sick and tired of being taught that America isn't worth fighting and dying for, it's a great country, it's the greatest country in the history of the world," Banks said.

Well, jinkies, on Tuesday, their hero Donald Trump said , "America is not a great country." Go get him, Chaya! Trump sounds woke, according to Banks's definition.

Some of the attendees inside the IMU held signs, including one that read, "Chaya is a stupid name. It means spinach tree. I'm calling you spinach tree from now on."

I'll call her dumbfuck. Wokeness is a word that was derived by Black Americans to "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination," like when the police shoot another unarmed Black individual for no explainable reason. So, some of them would say, "Stay woke" so they won't get shot. And it pisses me off that conservatives couldn't even let the Black community have a word. It's their word, Chaya Dumbfuck.

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Chris Baraniuk

Why the Baltimore Bridge Collapsed So Quickly

Just shy of half past 1 in the morning, the MV Dali , a giant container ship, was sailing gently out of the port of Baltimore when something went terribly wrong. Suddenly, lights all over the 300-meter-long vessel went out. They flicked on again a moment later, but the ship then began to veer to the right, toward one of the massive pylon-like supports on the Francis Scott Key truss bridge—a huge mass of steel and concrete that spans the Patapsco River.

The Dali ’s lights went out a second time. Then the impact came. The ship plowed into the support, with large sections of the bridge’s main truss section instantly snapping apart and falling into the river. It took just 20 seconds or so for the structure to come down.

Now, a major US port is in disarray, and several people who were working on the bridge at the time of its collapse are missing. A rescue operation is underway. President Biden has called the disaster a “terrible accident.” Ship traffic is currently stuck on either side of the crash site, and a major roadway through Baltimore has been cut off.

“It’s a dreadful tragedy and something you hope never to see,” says David Knight, a bridge expert and specialist adviser to the UK’s Institution of Civil Engineers. But commenting on footage of the bridge collapse , he says he is not surprised by the manner in which it crumpled.

Large steel structures may seem invulnerable, but steel, explains Knight, is relatively lightweight for its size. As soon as it is pushed or pulled the wrong way with enough force, it can fold like paper. In this case, the Francis Scott Key Bridge was a “continuous,” or unjointed, bridge that had a 366-meter-long central truss section. (Truss bridges use steel beams, arranged in triangular shapes, to support their load.) The central truss was made up of three horizontal stretches, known as spans, with two sets of supports holding these above the water. It was the third-largest structure of its kind in the world.

Dell Cameron

Andy Greenberg

Julian Chokkattu

Reece Rogers

“When you take a support away, there is very little in the way of robustness,” says Knight. “It will drag down, as we saw, all three spans.” The separate approach spans remain standing. There is nothing in Knight’s view that immediately suggests any structural problem with the bridge. An engineering firm, Hardesty & Hanover, confirmed to WIRED that it performed an inspection of the bridge in 2019, and that other inspections have been carried out since, but did not provide any additional details on the state of the structure. WIRED has approached H&H for further comment. In June last year, the US Federal Highway Administration rated the condition of the bridge as satisfactory .

The immense force of the container ship impact should not be underestimated, adds Knight. Such vessels require a lot of power and time—perhaps many minutes—to come to a complete stop. The Francis Scott Key Bridge was completed in 1977. In more recent decades, bridge engineers have commonly incorporated defenses to reduce the potential damage by ship strikes when bridges are erected in similar locations, Knight says. These include hydraulic barriers and additional concrete around the base of bridge supports, for instance. However, even with such fortifications in place, heavy strikes can still cause devastating damage.

It is not clear why lights turned off and on again on the Dali , a Singapore-flagged ship built in 2015. “That is an indication of a massive problem,” says Salvatore Mercogliano, a maritime historian at Campbell University in North Carolina and a YouTuber who has analyzed the crash .

At the time of the accident, two pilots—mariners who board a ship to help it navigate particular stretches of water, including in and out of ports—from Baltimore were on board. The Dali was broadcasting its position publicly via the automatic identification system (AIS) and was traveling at a speed of over 8.5 knots. It then slowed to around 6 knots in the moments before the crash, according to AIS data .

Both pilots and all crew members on the Dali are accounted for. There are no reports of injuries, the ship’s management company, Synergy Group, said in a statement on March 26.

ABC News reports that the crew of the vessel made a desperate mayday call in an attempt to warn transport officials that the crash was about to occur. A report from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, seen by ABC, says the Dali “lost propulsion” and that the crew were aware they had “lost control” of the ship. Maryland governor Wes Moore told reporters that , thanks to the mayday call, officials were able to stem the flow of traffic over the bridge, an intervention that he says “saved lives.”

Mercogliano says it is very difficult for ships of this size to make rapid adjustments to their trajectories. Video footage shows a sudden outpouring of smoke from the vessel’s stack, indicating a change in engine activity of some kind. What is particularly disturbing is that, in this case, the vessel ends up plowing straight into one of the key supports for the bridge, clearly off course. No information as to why this happened has become public.

Photographs of the aftermath show the bow of the ship pinned beneath fallen sections of the bridge . The anchor chain is visible, meaning that at some point the anchor was dropped, though it is not certain whether this happened before or after impact. The chain appears to be at an angle, however, which Mercogliano says could be a sign that it was dropped shortly before the crash and dragged for a brief time.

Lawyer James Turner of Quadrant Chambers in London specializes in, among other things, ship collisions. He says that there would have been no automated systems on board a merchant ship of this kind able to prevent the impact. Information from radar, AIS, and visual observations would have been available to the crew, however.

But data-collecting systems may now reveal exactly what happened. As on airplanes, commercial ships have data and audio recorders on the bridge, which are often a key source of information for investigators post-incident. “The master will hit a button and that ensures that the last two hours of audio recording are preserved, as well as all the data from the various parts of the ship, like the engine and steering and so on,” explains Turner. “That can be downloaded and queried.”

He adds that estimates of the ship’s speed at the time of the incident as recorded by AIS are likely “99.99 percent accurate.”

For now, the focus of responders will be on locating survivors from the fallen bridge. Two people have been rescued, one of whom is in the hospital. Six construction workers remain missing .

The disaster has come at a difficult time for shipping, with drought afflicting the Panama Canal and Houthi attacks striking multiple vessels in the Red Sea in recent months. Somali piracy is on the rise again , also. The grounding of the Ever Given in the Suez Canal is very much still within recent memory—it occurred a mere three years ago.

The Port of Baltimore insists in a statement that it has not been shut down—road vehicles are still operating within the port—however, all ship traffic in and out is suspended until further notice. AIS data reveals around a dozen commercial vessels at anchor outside the port, their entry now blocked by the stricken bridge and the Dali . It will take some time for the US Army Corps of Engineers to remove the steel pieces of the bridge, which present a significant threat to passing vessels, from the river.

“Whatever ships are in the port are now stuck,” says Mercogliano, who notes that Baltimore is an important port in terms of car deliveries and coal exports.

Overall, he argues, maritime operations are extremely safe today, though the volume and velocity of trade mean that when things go wrong it can be especially serious.

“We move goods a lot faster than ever before, and there’s very little margin for error,” he says. “When there is a mistake, the mistakes tend to be very large.”

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