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For Western governments, seizing the giant ships of billionaires close to Russian President Vladimir Putin could prove a real challenge, as they have had decades to protect their money and assets from attempts to tax or seize them.
The Dilbar superyacht is the largest in the world by volume: it is one and a half football fields long, has two helipads and a 25-meter swimming pool long enough to accommodate another superyacht.
Dilbar saw the light of day in 2016 at a reported cost of more than $648 million. Five years later, her alleged owner, Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, sent the ship to a German port last fall for a modernization that could have cost another $200 million.
Alisher Usmanov is a Kremlin-aligned metals and telecommunications tycoon. Aged 68, he has an estimated net worth of $16.2 billion, and has been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union.
Dilbar poses today in front of a Hamburg shipyard, but a spokeswoman for the Hamburg state economy ministry told The Associated Press that it had not yet been officially seized because ownership of the yacht, even though it bears the name of the yacht, could not be established. Usmanov’s mother.
The difficulties of the West to seize luxurious goods
Beyond the sanctions aimed at drowning the Russian economy, the West has wanted to attack one of the flanks that it considers most fragile: the close environment of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Yet Russian billionaires have been preparing for decades.
Dilbar is registered in the Cayman Islands and registered in the name of a company in Malta, both tax havens where the global super-rich often deposit their wealth.
On Wednesday, Spanish authorities detained a superyacht called the Crescent.
Most of the world’s superyachts don’t exceed 400 feet in length, making the Sy A, Dilbar and Crescent some of the largest in the world.https://t.co/f6oyNz1eWE
— Globalnews.ca (@globalnews) March 17, 2022
Most of the Russians on Forbes’ annual list of billionaires have yet to be sanctioned by the United States and its allies, and continue to sail the world’s oceans with their respective superyachts.
With AP and Reuters
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