Good morning, Oligarch #YachtWatch fans! I thought it would be a good idea to start the week off with a summary of where things float at the moment.
1. Four yachts were "frozen" last week. NB: not "seized" because it's not like the government took control and can sell them. 1/
It's just that no one can access or use the yachts. So for now, they are just sitting there taking up space. Those four yachts are:
*Dilbar (Usmanov, Germany). Reportedly, the crew has been dismissed and all work on the yacht has stopped.
*Amore Vero (Sechin, France) 2/
*Lady M (Mordashov, Italy) (Note: Mordashov's other yacht, Nord, was last seen in the Seychelles)
*Lena (Timchenko, Italy) 3/
Other yachts belonging to individuals who are already sanctioned, include:
*Valerie (Chemezov, Barcelona, Spain)
*Tango (Vekselberg, Palma de Mallorca, Spain)
*Nord (Mordashov, last seen in Seychelles)
*Clio (Deripaska, heading toward Maldives?)
4/
*Sea Rhapsody (Kostin, Seychelles)
*Rahil (Arkady Rotenberg, last seen in Turkey in November)
*Dream (Frolov, last seen in Croatia)
*Royal Romance (Medvedchuk, last seen in Croatia)
*Madame Gu (Skoch, last seen in Dubai) 5/
Here's a pic of Barcelona's shipyard, with four Russian yachts currently in it. 1. Aurora (Molchanov), currently under scaffolding 2. Palladium (Prokhorov), currently under scaffolding 3. Valerie (Chemezov, sanctioned) 4. Solaris (Abramovich) (my precious) 6/
Abramovich's other yacht [insert eye roll gif], Eclipse, is on the move. She left St. Martin March 4 and is now in the North Atlantic. Unclear if she is heading toward Gibraltar or more north. Maybe Murmansk? We'll keep watching.
And that's our wrap up of where things float! 7/
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SOLARIS is still in Barcelona. I went down to the port today. No movement. Just a giant fucking boat at the dock in the shipyard. It's hard to capture the size, but this thing is massive. 1/
Reminder: SOLARIS is 140m (461 ft.) long. So, longer than a football field. But who's measuring? (the oligarchs are definitely measuring). 2/
Hey, #YachtWatch fans! I've got a "how it started, how it's going" for you.
Remember Galactica Super Nova (still a stupid fucking name), believed to be owned by Russian oligarch Vagit Alekperov, president of Lukoil?
Welp... She's gone. 1/
Looks like she left Barcelona yesterday. She is believed to be heading to Montenegro. Notably, Montenegro is not a member of the EU. Montenegro is also on the way to the Bosphorus and the Black Sea. Just saying. 2/
Montenegro recently built a new port to attract mega yachts.
Montenegro might want to keep in mind, however, that its accession to the EU is currently scheduled for 2025. Just saying. 3/
Hey @GOP: The reason Putin did not invade Ukraine while Trump was president was because he didn't have to. Trump was ready to hand Ukraine over to him on a silver platter, which would have saved Putin a lot of money and bloodshed. 1/
Why go to war when the US president will help achieve your goal without it? Remember that Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian intel agent, worked directly with Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager. Kilimnik handed him a Ukraine Peace Plan with plans to install a pro-Russia gov. 2/
The disinformation campaign to oust Ambassador Yovanovich from Kyiv, to push the nonsense that Burisma and Hunter Biden had gotten up to no good, the extortion attempt on Zelensky to feed that narrative and open an investigation against Biden or no weapons for Ukraine... 3/
As many of you know, I have designated myself The Yacht Watcher and have done some Twitter tours of the mega yachts of oligarchs and other billionaires in Barcelona's port.
A little background on MY SOLARIS. This wee little dinghy is 140m (461 ft) in length. That's actually pretty small as mega yachts go. For comparison, Abramovich's OTHER mega yacht [insert eye roll gif], ECLIPSE, is 162.5m (533 ft). 3/
I’m not an expert in Putin psychology, but I’m well versed in recent Russian influence operations, and none of those were/are done in a vacuum. My guess is those successes are playing into his calculus and he truly believes the West is so polarized and corrupt, he will win 1/
He has made Russia a major factor in European energy security. He has bought (coerced?) a lot of goodwill from many European and US politicians and media influencers. In fact, many of our own politicians and “media” companies learned tactics from watching Russia 2/
So far, we’ve seen incredible unity from the West. Will it hold once this thing kicks into high gear? Will Johnson really be able to withstand the blowback once London (already reeling from Brexit) loses money and business due to sanctions? 3/
New from @zachsdorfman
Russia has been providing indirect support to right-wing groups in the US. Those of us who follow this long suspected it. I also have a hunch we will eventually uncover more direct connections. See next tweet 1/ news.yahoo.com/us-intelligenc…
.@john_sipher, @AshaRangappa_, and I wrote about this way back before the 2020 election, with some specific examples of Russia providing material support to right-wing groups in Europe. Why wouldn't they attempt the same thing in the US? 2/ justsecurity.org/69024/why-the-…