The world’s largest private sailing yacht, worth around 530 million euros, has been confiscated in Trieste, northeast Italy, after the wealthy owner was added to the European Union’s sanctions list following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Thanks to this measure, the oligarch Andrei Melnichenko becomes a target.
The billionaire is the majority shareholder of EuroChem, the Chemical and Mineral Company, which he has transformed into Russia’s largest fertilizer producer, and the Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK), the world’s largest coal producer.
Riviera residents are accustomed to seeing his mega-sailing yacht anchored in front of Cape d’Antibes. 12,700 tons and three masts taller than Big Ben seemed to crush the rocky peak.
Andrey Melnichenko, ranked 95th in the Forbes list of the richest people in the world, already owned a motor yacht of the same name, no less futuristic in contours. It was designed by French designer Philippe Starck. The 119-meter boat, equipped with a Rolls-Royce engine, was valued at $250 million. This one on Saturday morning was sailing at 17 knots towards the Maldives, according to the specialized website Marine Traffic, where its owner probably hopes to keep it “warm”. For the oligarchs, the Indian Ocean archipelago is now a safe haven. The Maldives does not have an extradition treaty with the US. Several superyachts belonging to the Russians have already taken refuge there.