Good morning. A quick #YachtWatch summary after the events of yesterday. We are now at 9 yachts detained (I think I counted right this time), with Italy and Spain in the lead with 3 each. Here's the list:
ITALY:
LENA (Timchenko)
LADY M (Mordashov)
SAILING YACHT A (Melnichenko) 1/
Spain:
VALERIE (Chemezov)
CRESCENT (maybe SECHIN? still unclear)
LADY ANASTASIA (Mikheev)
France:
AMORE VERO (Sechin)
Germany:
DILBAR (Usmanov)
Croatia:
ROYAL ROMANCE (Medvedchuk) 2/
At the top of the oligarch leaderboard is IGOR SECHIN, who has had two yachts detained (if it is confirmed CRESCENT is his). Congratulations, Igor!
Let's check in with some of our favorite yachts that are on the move... 3/
SOLARIS (Abramovich) is in the Greek Islands. We should know soon if she is turning toward Turkey, as some reports suggested, or continuing south toward Suez. 4/
ECLIPSE, Abramovich's other yacht [insert eye roll gif], is just off of Agrigento, Sicily (but likely outside the 12 mile range).
Still no ping from:
GALACTICA SUPER NOVA (stupid fucking name) (Alekperov) (last ping 15 days ago) 5/
No ping (cont'd):
YACHT A (Melnichenko) (last ping 6 days ago)
OCEAN VICTORY (Rashnikov) (15 days)
NORD (Mordashov) (5 days)
HERMITAGE (Sedykh) (6 days)
MADAME GU (Skoch) (11 days)
ALFA NERO (Guriev) (13 days) 6/
Others are clustered around the Seychelles, the Maldives, Dubai, the Caribbean, or on the move. A few still sit in Europe. Maybe we will have more detained today?
And that's today's wrap up of where things float. 7/
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SOLARIS recently left Montenegro (where it had gone likely to refuel). Not sure where she is heading now. Montenegro had announced it would follow EU sanctions, so Solaris kinda had to go. 2/
Abramovich’s other yacht [insert eye roll emoji] Eclipse is in the Mediterranean, just north of Algeria. Is it me or does she look to be hugging the North Africa coast more than the Spanish coast? Anyway… 3/
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/