The yacht also has a swimming pool of 25 meters, large enough to hold another superyacht.
Dilbar was launched in 2016 for a reported $648 million. Five years later, its purported owner, the Kremlin aligned Russian oligarch Alisher Ustanov, was already unhappy and sent the vessel to a German Shipyard last fall for a retrofit, reportedly costing another few hundred million dollars.
She was found there in drydock when the United States of America and the European Union placed economic sanctions on Usmanov, a metals magnate who was an early investor in Facebook, in response to the invasion in Ukraine.
“We are joining our European allies in finding and seizing your yachts. Your luxury apartments. your private jets,” President Joe Biden stated during Tuesday’s State of the Union speech to the oligarchs. “We are coming to your ill-gotten gains.”
However, seizing these massive boats can be difficult. Russian billionaires have been able to protect their wealth and assets in the West for decades.
Numerous media outlets reported Wednesday that Dilbar was being held by German authorities. A spokeswoman from Hamburg’s state economy ministry said that no such action has been taken yet as it was unable to prove ownership of the yacht. It is named after Usmanov’s mom.
Dilbar is registered in the Cayman Islands to a holding company in Malta. These are two secretive banking havens in which the wealth of the global super-rich are often stored.
It is not uncommon for the industry to be open about who has what, even though it caters to a select group of billionaires and hundred-millionaires who can afford to purchase, crew, and maintain superyachts.
The AP compiled a list 56 superyachts with U.K.-based Yacht Valuation Firm . These luxury vessels are generally over 24m (79ft) in length. They were believed to be owned a handful of Kremlin-aligned oligarchs and have a combined market value of more than $5.4 Billion.
To plot the yachts’ last known positions, the AP used two online services – VesselFinder & MarineTraffic – as relayed to them by their onboard tracking beacons.
Many are still anchored near or at the Mediterranean’s sun-splashed beaches in the Caribbean and Mediterranean, but more than a dozen were already underway or had arrived in remote ports in smaller countries such as the Maldives or Montenegro. This could be beyond the reach Western sanctions. Three of them are moored at Dubai, where many Russians own vacation homes.
Three more had also gone dark, their transponders last audible just outside of the Bosporus in Turkey, gateway to the Black Sea as well as the ports of Sochi (Russia) and Novorossiysk (Russia).
Graceful is a Russian-flagged superyacht that was built in Germany and left Hamburg on February 7, two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine. It is currently moored at Kaliningrad in Russia’s Baltic port, far from the Western sanctions that were imposed on him this week.
Despite weeks of warnings about Putin’s imminent invasion, some Russian oligarchs have apparently not been given the memo to move their superyachts.
French authorities took the superyacht Amore Vero from La Ciotat, a Mediterranean resort. It is believed that the boat belongs to Igor Sechin who is a Putin ally and runs Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil company. Rosneft has been under U.S. sanctions since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
In a statement, the French Finance Ministry stated that customs officers boarded the 289-foot Amore Vero and found its crew was planning to leave immediately. However, planned repairs were not completed. The boat, valued at $120 million, is registered to Sechin as its primary shareholder.
The 132-foot superyacht Lena was seized by the Italian financial police at the port of San Remo on Saturday. It is currently flagged in British Virgin Islands. The boat was seized by Gennady Timothyenko, an oligarch who is close to Putin and one of those sanctioned under the European Union. Timchenko, who has an estimated net worth $16.2 billion, is the founder and CEO of Volga Group. The Volga Group specializes in investments in infrastructure, energy, and transport assets.
The 213-foot Lady M was also seized by the Italians while it was moored in Imperia, a Riviera port town. A tweet announced the seizure of the Lady M on Friday by Mario Draghi, the spokesperson for the Italian Prime Minister. He stated that the $27 million vessel belonged to Alexei Mordashov (Russia’s richest man, with a fortune estimated at $30 billion), and was seized by the Italians.
Mordashov’s larger yacht, the 464-foot Nord was safe at anchor in the Seychelles on Friday. The Seychelles is a tropical island chain in India Ocean that is not under U.S. or EU sanctions. Nord is one of the most valuable superyachts in the world, with a market value estimated at $500 million.
Italy has taken 143 million euros ($156million) worth of luxury yachts and villas from some of its most beautiful destinations, including Sardinia and the Ligurian coast, Lake Como, since Friday.
The United States and its allies have yet to sanction most of the Russians listed on the Forbes List of Billionaires. However, their superyachts continue to cruise the oceans of the world.
The history of oligarch yachts can be traced back to the turbulent decade following the 1991 fall of Soviet Union. State oil and metals industries were liquidated at rock bottom prices to politically connected Russian bankers and businessmen who provided loans in return for shares.
Russia’s new riche bought luxury yachts that were similar in size and cost to those owned by Silicon Valley billionaires, heads and royalty. It is a key indicator of status in Moscow or St. Petersburg and its size is important.
William Browder, a U.S-born and London-based financier, said that “no self-respecting Russian Oligarch would be sans a superyacht.” He worked for many years in Moscow before becoming one the most vocal critics of the Putin regime. It’s part and parcel of being an oligarch. It’s not a requirement.
Their fortunes grew, and there was an arms race among the Oligarchs. The richest of them built personal fleets of more expensive boats.
Roman Abramovich, a Russian metals and petroleum magnate, is believed to have purchased or constructed at least seven of the largest yachts in the world. Some of these yachts were later sold to other oligarchs.
Abramovich introduced the Bermuda-flagged Eclipse in 2010. It was 533 feet long and was the longest superyacht. The features include a wood-burning fireplace and a swimming pool that can be transformed into a dance floor. Eclipse has its own helicopter hangar, and an underwater bay that is said to hold a mini-sub.
Dennis Cauiser, an analyst for VesselsFinder, stated that superyachts often have secret security measures worthy to be used by Bond villains. These include underwater escape hatches and bulletproof windows.
Cauiser stated that Eclipse is equipped with all kinds of special features, including self-defense systems and missile launchers. It has a secret submarine evacuation zone and other such things.
Azzam, a yacht owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, quickly eclipsed Eclipse. It claimed the title for longest yacht at the time it was launched in 2013. Three years later, Usmanov launched Dilbar. This yacht replaced a smaller one with the same name. Dilbar, the new yacht is the largest by volume.
Abramovich, whose fortune can be estimated at $12.4billion, launched Solaris last year. Although it is not as long or as large as Eclipse, the $600m Bermuda-flagged boat may be even more luxurious. Solaris is eight stories tall and has wide teak-covered decks that can accommodate a large number of partygoers.
No boat can be the top dog for very long. There are at least 20 superyachts currently under construction in Northern European shipyards. One of these superyachts was built for Jeff Bezos, an American billionaire.
Cauiser stated, “It’s all about ego.” They all want the best, longest, most valuable, newest, and most luxurious.
He said that the increasing U.S. sanctions against Putin-aligned Oligarchs, Russian banks, and Russian banks has sent a chill through industry, with boatbuilders worried about not being paid. Crewing, fuelling and maintaining a superyacht can run upwards to $50 million per year.
Many Russian billionaires have been wiped out by the crash of the ruble, and the collapse of the Moscow stock market. Cauiser stated that he believes some superyachts of oligarchs will soon be quietly listed by brokers at fire sale prices.
An AP journalist saw the 237-foot Stella Maris while docked in Nice, France. It was discovered that Rashid Sardarov is a Russian billionaire oil & gas magnate. Joan Plana Palao (yacht broker) contacted AP Sunday to confirm that his company is a U.S citizen who bought the Stella Maris last week after publication of an earlier version. He refused to reveal the name of the buyer, or the identity of the person who purchased the boat.
The U.S. Treasury Department issued new sanctions on Thursday. It included a press statement highlighting Usmanov’s close ties with Putin and photos of Dilbar as well as Usmanov’s private jet, an Airbus A340 300 passenger liner that measures 209 feet. Treasury stated that Usmanov’s aircraft was estimated to have cost $500 million. It is named Bourkhan after his father.
Usmanov, whose fortune recently fell to around $17 billion, criticised the sanctions.
“I believe such a decision to be unfair” he stated in a statement posted through the website International Fencing Federation. He has been president of this organization since 2008.
Abramovich is not yet sanctioned. British Parliament members have criticised Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, for failing to pursue Abramovich’s assets based in the U.K., including the professional soccer team Chelsea. The oligarch, under increasing pressure, announced that he would sell the $2.5 million team to give the net proceeds “for all the victims of war in Ukraine”.
Location transponders indicated that Solaris was moored in Barcelona on Saturday. Eclipse took off from St. Maarten on Thursday. It is currently underway in the Caribbean Sea. Destination undisclosed.
