As part of the sanctions imposed by the European Union after the invasion of Ukraine, France, which had already immobilized a mega yacht, the Amore Vero, owned by a company linked to the boss of the Russian oil giant Rosneft, Igor Setchine, March 3 has just seized two new boats.
One of the yachts was moored in the Old Port of Cannes and the other is in a shipyard in Antibes, according to information from Liberation.
Baptized “La Petite Ourse”, the boat in Cannes is 17 meters long and its value is estimated at 20 million euros. With its 26 meters long, its big brother, “La Grande Ourse was undergoing maintenance work. It is estimated at 70 million euros, according to the government source.
“One of the most influential people in Russia”
These yachts are owned by the company Orangerie marine limited registered on the island of Malta. But behind this entity we find the oligarch Alexei Kuzmitchev “a large shareholder of the conglomerate of Alfa Group, which includes the bank Alfa Bank, one of the largest taxpayers in Russia”, according to the European Union which has it placed on the list of those targeted by sanctions on March 15. The 59-year-old “is considered one of Russia’s most influential people with well-established ties to the Russian president: Vladimir Putin’s eldest daughter, Maria, ran a charity project, Alfa-Endo, which was financed by Alfa Bank”, underlined the EU in
Several European countries, such as Spain, Italy and France, but also Great Britain have seized yachts belonging to the wealthiest Russians under European sanctions. On Tuesday, Russian oligarch Dimitri Pumpianski’s yacht was seized in the British enclave of Gibraltar.
Recently Bruno Le Maire had made it known that the amount of fixed assets of the oligarchs amounted to 850 million euros. The immobilization of goods means that their owners can no longer “use them, resell them or monetize them”, specified the Minister of the Economy.