War in Ukraine: Italy seizes the yacht of a Russian oligarch, whose value is estimated at 65 million
Sylvie Claire / March 5, 2022
Italy announced Friday that it has seized the yacht of a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin and targeted by European Union sanctions after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Italian police have just seized the Lady M, a yacht worth 65 million euros belonging to Alexei Mordachov, stationed in Imperia (Liguria, northwestern Italy), in accordance with recent EU sanctions, announced on his Twitter account the press advisor to the head of the Italian government Mario Draghi, Ferdinando Giugliano.
Steel magnate Alexei Mordachov is the owner of the Severstal steel group. He is one of the Russian oligarchs placed by the EU on a blacklist of personalities considered close to the Russian president. These personalities have been sanctioned by a freeze on their assets and a ban on their stay in the EU. In a statement issued Monday evening, Mr. Mordachov wanted to distance himself from the Russian authorities. I have absolutely nothing to do with the current geopolitical tensions and I do not understand why the EU has imposed sanctions on me, he said. Here he is, below, arriving at the headquarters of Arcelor in Luxembourg, in 2006.
According to Italian media, another yacht, the Lena, owned by Gennady Timchenko, a billionaire co-founder of Gunvor, a commodities trading company, was seized in Sanremo (northwest). The first yacht detained as a result of these sanctions in the EU is the Amore Vero, seized on Thursday in the French port of La Ciotat (southeast). The mega-yacht belongs to a company linked to the head of the Russian oil giant Rosneft. Symbols of the massive enrichment of Russia's top political and economic leaders, yachts are among the assets they hold abroad targeted by Western sanctions.