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The ship, valued at 500 million euros, arrived in the Catalan capital on February 25 to undergo maintenance work
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The Russian oligarch tries to prevent the sanctions imposed by the European Union from affecting his yacht, the most expensive custom-made in history
My Solaris, the superyacht of Russian tycoon Roman Abramovic valued at 500 million euros, heads towards the eastern Mediterranean after setting sail from the Port of Barcelona last Tuesday afternoon, a few hours before the UK announced that it was freezing his assets in the country.
The ship, 140 meters long – as big as Buckingham Palace – and which has a crew of 60 people, was sailing late yesterday along the coast of Sicily.
Among the possible destinations that the ship, which was built in 2021 at the German Lloyd Werft shipyard in Bremerhaven, could have, would be The Maldives -through the Suez Canal- or Montenegro, where many of the mega yachts go of the oligarchs close to the Kremlin to prevent them from being confiscated.
Abramovic, who owns Chelsea and owns most of the steel giant Evraz PLC, is one of them. His heritage, according to Forbes, is more than 11,000 million euros.
Everything indicated yesterday that My Solaris, which is the most expensive custom-built yacht in the world, was headed for the second country, Montenegro, one of the favorite summer destinations for the richest Russian businessmen.
The megayacht, which sailed yesterday at an average speed of 12.6 knots, was at the MB92 shipyard in the Port of Barcelona, where this type of boat, the most luxurious in the world, undergo maintenance and refit work. This shipyard, which has the capacity to house 25 large boats, has a staff of 170 employees, but employs another thousand more people, who carry out all kinds of work on the yachts (painting, carpentry…).
A spokesman for MB92 yesterday avoided making any kind of statement about the work to which Abramovic’s megayacht was subjected, which docked in the port of Barcelona on February 25, according to data offered by the Marine Traffic portal.
Despite the fact that it was docked in Spain, Abramovich’s ship would not have been requisitioned, since the European Union sanctions imposed on Vladimir Putin’s most trusted business elite only calls for freezing assets, a task that in Spain falls on the Ministry of Economy. For now, the Ministry pointed out that it was only going to prevent these goods from being sold or transferred. The United Kingdom went further this Thursday by preventing Abramovich and six other Russian oligarchs from carrying out commercial or financial transactions with British individuals or entities. All the capital of the Russian billionaire is paralyzed, as well as the sale of the football club, announced by Abramovich himself last week.
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While My Solaris is looking for a safer destination, there are two mega yachts owned by two oligarchs that were still docked in the Port of Barcelona yesterday. It is the ‘Aurora’, owned by Andrey Molchanov, a construction tycoon and the real estate business that has held various public positions under the umbrella of Putin.
And of ‘Valerie’, by Sergey Chemezov, an old friend of the Russian autocrat since they both worked for the KGB in East Germany. Today, Chemezov is at the head of the public conglomerate Rostec, one of the key players in the Russian military-industrial complex.
www.elperiodico.com
Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.