What happens to Russia's almost $10 billion yacht fleet after the invasion of Ukraine
The Russian superyacht fleet is the second largest in the world, second only to the American one. His position was not affected even by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, after which many of the ships of Russian billionaires were detained due to sanctions, and others had to be evacuated to safe jurisdictions. We found out what happened to 83 yachts of politically exposed persons and businessmen, and also found the owners of 20 previously unknown vessels. About the new yachts of Dmitry Medvedev, Gennady Timchenko, Viktor Medvedchuk and many others - in the “Layout” investigation.
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By the beginning of 2023, 2,008 superyachts—sea vessels longer than 40 meters—were launched in the world. Almost a quarter of them (23.6%) are owned by US citizens. Russians are in second place among owners of such vessels, accounting for 8.1% of all superyachts.
According to Vorstka’s calculations, by the beginning of 2022, Russian billionaires, officials and politically exposed persons owned at least 83 publicly known yachts with a total value of $9 billion 765 million. After 22 months - by mid-October 2023 - the Russians could use only 59 of them - the rest of the vessels were either arrested and frozen, or sold.
In March 2022 - a month after the start of the war in Ukraine - the 72-meter yacht Axioma of the owner of the Pipe Metallurgical Company Dmitry Pumpyansky was detained in Gibraltar. By that time, this was not the first time that a ship owned by a Russian was detained abroad. But the billionaire, who came under Western sanctions after February 24, 2022, became the first Russian whose yacht was confiscated and then completely resold . An unknown buyer paid $37.5 million for the luxury vessel. To date, this is the only case of resale of a yacht seized under sanctions.
The basis for the detention of Pumpyansky’s yacht was a lawsuit from the JP Morgan bank, with which the billionaire had a loan agreement. The bank then said that sanctions against Pumpyansky meant a violation of the terms of the loan, since after that JP Morgan was unable to accept payment from the oligarch in US dollars - at that time Pumpyansky owed the bank $20 million.
The 72-meter yacht Axioma, which belonged to the owner of the Pipe Metallurgical Company Dmitry Pumpyansky. Photo: screenshot from Charter Index promotional video.
Now states that are hunting for the property of sanctioned persons have two options for action against Russian sea vessels: freezing with blocking and arrest, lawyer and partner of BGP Litigation Sergei Glandin explained to VERSTKA.
Freezing and blocking is when a legal entity or individual is included in the sanctions list, and all other subjects of business relations subject to specific legislation are prohibited from conducting financial and economic relations with him. “And if they have something: some rights or collateral belonging to sanctioned persons, then they must freeze it all and report to the regulator. That is, it does not cease to be the person’s money, property or property, but now he will not be able to do anything with it without obtaining a special license,” says Glandin.
To seize property, an appropriate judicial act is required - usually the investigation or the prosecutor's office asks the court to seize the yacht on the grounds that it was used to violate the sanctions regime . The owner also cannot use the vessel under these measures, but still remains its owner.
But there is another measure - confiscation of the asset, explains Ilya Shumanov, CEO of Transparency International Russia. “This is a seizure, that is, deprivation of property rights. It means expropriation, when an asset is confiscated and no compensation is given for it,” Shumanov noted in a conversation with Vorstka. Only after this the seized asset can be sold to a new owner.
In total, since the beginning of the war, European and American authorities managed to get to 21 yachts of Russian billionaires - they were frozen and arrested. To date, 17 vessels remain in this status, since three yachts were illegally removed from the ports after being detained (two yachts of the same name Aldabra, owned by Uralchem, Dmitry Mazepin, and Irina VU, Alisher Usmanov), and Pumpyansky’s yacht was sold at auction.
Sail away from sanctions
To avoid arrest, many Russians began to move their yachts from European waters to safer jurisdictions: Turkey, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea and Southeast Asia. There are currently six Russian superyachts in the United Arab Emirates alone. These are the ships of State Duma deputy Andrei Skoch, co-founder of the Eurochem company Andrei Melnichenko, owner of Norilsk Nickel Vladimir Potanin, shareholder of the developer PJSC LSR Group Andrei Molchanov, shareholder of Evraz Alexander Abramov and co-owner of the United Metallurgical Company Anatoly Sedykh.
But in addition to the evacuation of the yachts itself, problems with their maintenance also appeared - after the introduction of sanctions, the European companies responsible for their maintenance began to refuse to fulfill their obligations. This applies to bunkering with fuel, vessel insurance, providing access to mapping services, as well as preventive maintenance. Therefore, some yacht owners chose to re-register their vessels in Russia.
The most famous case is the transfer of the 142-meter superyacht Nord of Severstal co-owner Alexey Mordashov to the Russian flag. According to classified Russian customs statistics available to Vorstka, Nord received registration in Russia on May 27 last year. The new owner of the vessel, instead of the offshore Opus Enterprises Limited from the British Virgin Islands, became Yurkon LLC, which for some time before was owned by Marina Mordashova, the wife of a billionaire. At the same time, the yacht’s entry into Russian waters allowed us to evaluate this asset in a new way. If in March 2022 Forbes indicated that the yacht was worth at least $300 million, then during customs clearance the owner himself valued it at $370 million.
Apparently, businessman Alexey Sagal did the same thing. His holding company Stavropol Agrosoyuz imported the Harmony yacht into Russia worth 468.5 million rubles ($7.4 million) in June 2022. This 55-meter vessel was built in 2001 at the Dutch shipyard Amels. Import through customs was processed under a purchase and sale agreement from an unknown Milldon Investment Ltd from the British Virgin Islands. It was not previously known that Sagal owned any yachts.
But yachts were imported into Russia on the basis of purchase and sale agreements before. For example, in April 2021, this was done by Sergei Kogogin, the general director of KamAZ, controlled by the state corporation Rostec. His company Yacht Pro, which he owns through Fresh Wind LLC, arranged the import of the 41-meter Legenda yacht. This vessel cost 510.6 million rubles ($6.7 million) and was built at the Italian shipyard Mondomarine in 2009.
In the same 2021, the 27-meter vessel Karina from the Italian company Azimut-Benetti was delivered to Russia under a purchase and sale agreement. The owner of the yacht for 434 million rubles ($6 million) was Aquatechnika LLC. The main owner of this company, Anton Dolotin, is the head of the Russian representative office of Azimut-Benetti, he owns 90% of the company . But from 2009 to 2020, 40% of the company was owned by Georgy Chumburidze, whom the VChK-OGPU telegram channel called Alisher Usmanov’s “drop.”
The yacht Galactica Plus was built at the Dutch shipyard Heesen Yachts, which was owned by Lukoil co-founder Vagit Alekperov before the war. Photo: Heesen Yachts.
And a year earlier, a yacht worth 366 million rubles ($4.8 million), according to customs data, was purchased by 65-year-old Moscow resident Mikhail Sergeev. The ship in question was the Galactica Plus, built in 2012 at the Dutch shipyard Heesen Yachts, which was owned by Lukoil co-founder Vagit Alekperov before the war. The recipient also turned out to be directly connected with the oil company. According to data leaks from the Federal Tax Service, Sergeev worked at Lukoil back in the 2000s. He still uses mail on the company’s domain, and in the phone books of other users he is signed as “Mikhail Dmitrievich Garage of the President of Lukoil.” The yacht itself was renamed soon after import; now it sails in Russian waters under the name Space.
But even despite the war and the increased difficulties with owning yachts through foreign companies, Russians still prefer that their maritime transport be registered in foreign jurisdictions. If owners need to use the vessel in Russian waters, they have to arrange temporary importation under a bareboat charter agreement . In essence, they charter yachts from their own companies, the captain of the yacht explained to VERSTKA on condition of anonymity. This is due to the fact that Russian citizens cannot sail on the internal waters of the state on boats registered abroad.
“The procedure is complicated and confusing. This is done by specially trained people. And after the customs import procedure is formalized, the boat can sail on our waters,” says the interlocutor of “Verstka”.
But these difficulties do not seem to frighten wealthy Russians: as customs statistics show, every year the “temporary import” of at least 30 yachts worth $3 million or more is issued into the country. In addition, in addition to the difficulties in registration, this procedure also has its advantages in the form of the opportunity to partially or completely exempt the declarant from customs duties and taxes.
Among the ships that have undergone customs clearance in Russia in recent years, Vorstka discovered previously unknown yachts associated with Dmitry Medvedev, Putin’s friend Gennady Timchenko and even former Ukrainian Defense Minister Pavel Lebedev. The total cost of 20 previously non-public yachts exceeds 10 billion rubles.
Dmitry Medvedev and GV for 420 million rubles
On June 18, 2023, the temporary import of a yacht with the laconic name GV was processed through the Novorossiysk customs post. This is a vessel with a length of more than 29 meters of the MCY 96 model line from the Italian shipyard Monte Carlo Yachts, designed for long sea voyages. The yacht, built in 2017 and usually flying the flag of the island nation of Palau, entered Russian waters for the first time.
The sender of the GV, which was valued at 421.5 million rubles ($5 million) upon registration, was hidden behind an unknown offshore company, Unicorn Holdings Group Inc. from Seychelles. After passing through customs, the yacht did not remain in the Black Sea, but went to inland waters: the ship passed through the Sea of Azov, along the Don through Rostov, entered the Volga bed and further along the river went north. The final destination of the route was the elite village of Ekaterinovka near the city of Konakovo in the Tver region. The yacht stayed in the local harbor for several days, after which it began cruising along the Volga.
Throughout the entire route, the vessel was probably driven by 39-year-old Konakovo resident Anatoly Naumov, who was designated by customs as the recipient of the GV. However, Naumov is the captain of the yacht, and not the final owner. In the phone books of other users, his number is written as follows: “Anatoly Captain” and “Anatoly Kater”. But among the tags there are also more interesting ones that lead to the real owner of the vessel: “Tolya Fotinia” and “Dmitry M”.
“Photinia” is Dmitry Medvedev’s yacht, named after his wife Svetlana, whom Alexey Navalny spoke about in the investigation “He’s Not Dimon to You.” Formally, the owner of “Photinia” is the company “Investment Commonwealth”, which previously belonged to the Cypriot offshore of Medvedev’s classmate Ilya Eliseev, and after February 24, 2022, it was re-registered to Eliseev’s Russian structures. It is from this very “Investment Commonwealth” that Naumov received his salary at least in 2019 and 2021, as follows from leaks of the Federal Tax Service database.
But in order to finally make sure that the GV was purchased specifically for Dmitry Medvedev, and not for anyone else, Vorstka called Naumov under the guise of a customs inspector . The correspondent, under the pretext of checking information, named the data entered into the database when importing the yacht, and became convinced that Naumov was really involved in its registration.
“The vessel is also marked “special regime” for Dmitry Anatolyevich in order to avoid additional checks. Is this all still relevant?” asked the correspondent, suggesting that the yacht of a high-ranking official should somehow be marked in government databases.
"Yes. Our brokers did this, but in general, yes. “We’ll have to check with them,” Naumov replied.
Gennady Timchenko, Orion and Victoria for 2 billion 718 million rubles
In addition to the yacht Lena, worth $8 million, named after his wife and frozen in 2022 in Italy, Putin’s close friend Gennady Timchenko, as Vorstka found out, may own at least two more yachts - the 39-meter Orion and the 71-meter Victoria.
"Orion" is a vessel of the 40 Alloy line from the Italian shipyard Sanlorenzo, launched in 2009. To date, this model line includes 43 yachts. When registering the vessel at Russian customs in 2021, its cost was estimated at 283 million rubles (3 million 639 thousand dollars).
Victoria, which according to customs data costs about 2 billion 435 million rubles ($29.5 million), was created under the order of an offshore company from the British Virgin Islands, Julesburg Corp. The hull of the yacht was prepared at Sevmash, but it was finally assembled in 2014 in Italy. According to media reports , the owner of the offshore was the general director of the state-owned Development Corporation JSC Sergei Maslov i . Back in 2016 Ura. ru pointed to business contacts between Maslov and Timchenko: in 2013, Volga Group, one of Timchenko’s Cypriot subsidiaries, acquired the Aquanika company, the founder of which was Maslov’s Luxembourg company. However, now the connection between both “Victoria” and “Orion” with Gennady Timchenko has become much more obvious.
According to the customs database, Orion, at least until 2017, and Victoria, until 2020, belonged to the Panamanian offshore Ronita Group Corp. It was this company that transferred them to the management of the Russian operator - JSC Paer . In 2021, both yachts changed both the owner and the operator - in Russia they began to be registered at JSC Fazar-invest, and the shipper began to be listed as an offshore company from the Marshall Islands, Bars Marine. But what’s even more interesting is that both “Paer” and “Fazar-Invest” turned out to be connected with each other: “Paer” was founded by Muscovite Evgeniy Vorobyov, he is also the founder of JSC “Trustholding”, which is headed by Mikhail Semyonov, who is also the general director of “Fazar-Invest”. Semenov is also known as a top manager in Timchenko’s companies.
Fleet of Gennady Timchenko
But this is not the only connection between Russian operators and Timchenko. “Paer” is headed by Vladimir Reztsov. His father heads Helitrans, which was owned by Waterfront Holdings Services from the British Virgin Islands. According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), this offshore is controlled by Timchenko through a number of companies.
Another Timchenko ship
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In addition to the Orion and Victoria, Fazar-Invest operates another remarkable vessel - the VIP motor ship Shtandart, worth about 1.2 billion rubles. The Investigation Management Center wrote that initially it was Timchenko who wanted to build the ship for himself, but after the loss of $4.6 billion due to sanctions in 2014, the expensive asset was sold. The buyers were billionaires Iskander Makhmudov and Andrey Bokarev - now their company Loton owns 60% of the Tanais company, which owned the ship.
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Victor Medvedchuk and Amore Mio for 886 million rubles
On the night of September 22, 2022, Russia and Ukraine carried out the largest prisoner exchange at that time. Kyiv managed to return 215 military personnel, 200 of which were exchanged for only one person. This person was “Vladimir Putin’s godfather,” Viktor Medvedchuk, who was accused in Ukraine of treason.
Four months after his release, Medvedchuk went on the air of propaganda RT and said that he was creating a new political movement in Russia, which would “debunk the fact that Ukraine is monolithic in its views and in its alleged support for Zelensky and his criminal regime.” Journalists suggested: if Putin’s godfather has a new political project, then there must also be a financial resource. As a result, it turned out that Medvedchuk’s fuel business in Russia was replenished with two networks of new gas stations, which had already begun to make a profit .
And six months later, Renaissance JSC, which, according to the audit report dated February 24, 2021, belonged to Medvedchuk’s wife Oksana Marchenko, issued a “temporary import” to Russia of a completely new yacht Amore Mio. This vessel is a Pershing 9X model, which the manufacturer, the Italian Ferretti Group, calls a “fighter”, launched in 2023. When passing customs on July 26, 2023, it was valued at 886 million rubles (9 million 627 thousand dollars).
Former Minister of Defense of Ukraine Pavel Lebedev and White Pearl for 293 million rubles
In May 2016, in the Krasnodar village of Kostromskaya, with a population of less than 1.8 thousand people, Rukkola LLC was registered, specializing in the activities of marine passenger transport. The company showed no signs of life for six years, until October 2022. That month it changed its name to “Voyage”, and eight months later it formalized the import under a contract of sale of the White Pearl yacht worth at least 292.8 million rubles ($3.5 million). This vessel, model Azimut 116, was built in 2009 at the shipyard of the Italian company Azimut-Benetti. The yacht is almost 31 meters long and can accommodate up to 12 people.
The sole owner and general director of Voyage from the day the company was founded was Vladimir Gutarin. This is the nephew of former Ukrainian Defense Minister Pavel Lebedev , who fled the country to Russia after Euromaidan along with then-President Viktor Yanukovych.
Lebedev's connection with Gutarin
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Vladimir Gutarin is the son of Galina Gutarina: they are registered in the same apartment in the village of Novomikhailovsky, Krasnodar Territory. The latest “Crimea. Realia" and "Notes" were called Pavel Lebedev's sister. In addition, in the phone books of other users, Gutarin is written as “Vladimir Lebedev’s Nephew.”
Despite his appointment as head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in 2012, Lebedev purposefully did not build a political career and did not go through all the levels of the military hierarchy . His main activity was business: from 1999 to 2002, he was the financial director of Crimean Titan, a chemical enterprise that until 2019 belonged to the Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash; by 2012, he became the owner of the Inter Car Group, which included the Crimean group of companies Parangon, which was engaged in construction.
After Euromaidan, Lebedev moved to Crimea and, as Novaya Gazeta wrote , went back into business. For example, he owns the Parangon group of companies and companies associated with the Sevastopol Aquamarine Hotel, on whose territory the only water park in the city operates.
Radik Shaimiev and Golden Head for 744 million rubles
Since at least 2018, the 39-meter i yacht Golden Head has regularly entered Russian waters. This ship, built in Turkey in 1999, costs at least 744 million rubles (8 million 760 thousand dollars)
Over the past six years, it has been cleared at customs six times. Each time the sender was the Cypriot Leen Investments Limited. It is unknown who the ultimate beneficiary of this offshore, and at the same time the yacht, is; since 2018 it has belonged to the Seychelles Colorado Business Ltd. But the recipients of the yacht in Russia are not hiding so much.
In 2018, the vessel was registered with Sudotechservice LLC, in 2019 and 2020 - with STS LLC. Since mid-2020, the general director of STS, a 70-year-old resident of Crimea, Sergei Zhogov, has become the permanent recipient of the yacht. Both Sudotechservice and STS were fully or partially owned by the Akar company, which was associated with the son of the first president of Tatarstan, Mintimer Shaimiev, Radik Shaimiev. Information about who now controls Akar is hidden in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, but the scale of the company’s activities in Crimea suggests that it is still working in the interests of the “Shaimiev clan.”
"Akar" and the Crimean coast
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The Akar company has existed since the 90s. At that time, it was a “commercial superstructure” of the official representative office of the Republic of Tatarstan in Crimea, the Notes publication wrote . Akar was founded by three companies - Inter-Invest, Cypriot Emberg Ventures Limited and NIRA-export. More than 69% of the latter is owned by Radik Shaimiev.
Akar was engaged in supplying Tatneft oil products to Crimea. It is believed that it was on account of these supplies that in 2002 the company received a long-term lease for 49 years on the Tesseli dacha and a park with an area of 28 hectares . This was the beginning of the expansion of the elites of Tatarstan to the southern coast of Crimea. Soon, a closed area with private cottages appeared on the Tesseli land.
In 2015, cottages and land in Tesseli began to be re-registered to other companies and people. In particular, one Akara house became the property of Elina Safarova, the daughter of Asgat Safarov, chief of staff of the head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, the other - Minnikhanov’s assistant Ravil Muratov i . The land plots, in turn, began to be owned by the Restor and Trice companies. Both of them were founded by a professional nominee, Sergei Kucheryavenko, with whom more than 200 legal entities are associated.
Apparently, the owners of Golden Head also prefer to spend time in the waters off the coast of Crimea - all rare images of the yacht were taken by spotters near Sevastopol. Including a photo showing a group of men vacationing on a ship, taken near Cape Fiolent. The distance from there by sea to Foros is about 25 km. The photo itself is dated August 12, 2015 - five days before Rustam Minnikhanov’s official visit to Crimea.
Alexander Tkachev and “Severina” for 353 million rubles
Former governor of the Krasnodar Territory and ex-head of the Ministry of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev has long been known as a yacht lover. In the 2000s, the official used the 42-meter vessel Renegade: in 2004, Vladimir Putin, Valentina Matvienko and German Gref even boarded it - the yacht took them from Anapa to Gelendzhik to a State Council meeting held there on the development of the resort industry. Later, the ship was sold for about $25 million and another yacht, the 24-meter Destiny, began to be associated with Tkachev. In 2005, the official personally petitioned Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov about the possibility of Destiny entering neutral waters beyond the state maritime border, Yuga.ru wrote , but there was no more significant evidence of Tkachev’s connection with the yacht. Now, in 2023, another expensive vessel is being registered, essentially, to the family company of the former minister.
We are talking about Yug-Businesspartner LLC, owned by Andrey Skok, who is called the asset manager and “wallet” of Tkachev . On June 27, this company brought the 47-meter yacht Severina through customs. The ship was assembled in 2008 at the Ukrainian shipyard "Liman", now it flies under the Russian flag and is valued at 353 million rubles. In June, judging by the customs declaration, the yacht returned from repairs, which were carried out in Turkey. However, she did not stay in Russian waters for long - on October 26, the ship again transmitted a signal from the Turkish city of Tavshanli.
Alexey Sharonov and Taurica for 1 billion 485 million rubles
On March 23, 2023, the customs of Novorossiysk processed the import of the yacht Taurica, built in 2014 at the Dutch shipyard Heesen Yachts. This 40-meter vessel, capable of accommodating 11 guests in five cabins and a crew of seven, costs at least 1 billion 485 million rubles ($19.3 million). The recipient of the luxury yacht under the purchase and sale agreement is Alexey Sharonov.
Sharonov is a non-public person, but obviously very wealthy. The Dossier Center called him one of the possible owners of Concept Oil Services, a Hong Kong oil trader who, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, became one of the ten largest buyers of Russian oil. Back in 2004, Forbes described the peculiarity of Russian oil trading, when often an intermediary trader who buys oil from a producer turns out to be connected with the owner of the company . “Export products are purchased inexpensively by an offshore company and then resold at market prices to real buyers. The difference ends up offshore,” the publication wrote.
From February 24 until the end of 2022, Concept Oil Services purchased $5 billion 88.7 billion worth of oil from Russian companies, while for the entire 2021 this figure was almost 30% lower - $3 billion 656 million i . And at the beginning of 2023, the company unexpectedly stopped purchasing hydrocarbons from Russia: in January it shipped four shipments, and in March one shipment of oil totaling $54.2 million, after which purchases stopped.
Sharonov’s other business indicates that he crossed paths with very influential people, wrote “Important Stories.” For example, he and his offshore company owned the company TD Everest, which by 2021 was packaged into a closed mutual fund of Sergei Kotlyarenko, the asset manager of former Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. And since 2016, Sharonov has owned a stake in Scanex Group of Companies; another shareholder of this company from 2015 to 2019 was Igor Rotenberg, the son of Putin’s friend Arkady Rotenberg.
Gazprom, Angel and Swift for 1 billion 641 million rubles
Gazprom is a huge vertical holding company that has many subsidiaries that provide related services for parent companies. One of these structures is Gazpromneft Shipping. The company’s website states that it owns and operates the Gazprom Neft fleet and also carries out sea transportation of hydrocarbons and petroleum products. The company's fleet is also listed there : three Arctic tankers, eight bunkering tankers, two icebreaking vessels and one LNG bunkering vessel. As it turns out, this is not a complete list: it is missing two yachts built by the Italian shipbuilding group FIPA.
The first, 43 meters long, is called Angel. She was built in 2021 at the AB Yachts shipyard, specializing in sports and high-speed yachts. At the moment, this is the only vessel of the AB 142 model. It is so fast that it is among the 5% of the fastest yachts in the world, writes Boat International magazine. When it last passed through customs in 2022, the yacht was valued at 1 billion 44 million rubles ($16.2 million at that time). But a year before that, in the same customs declaration, the indicated amount was higher: 1 billion 479 million rubles (more than 20 million dollars at that time).
43-meter yacht Angel in the port of Sochi in 2021. Photo source: Airbase.ru forum.
The second yacht is called Swift. This vessel, model AB 116, was also built at the AB Yachts shipyard. The 36-meter-long yacht, launched in 2014, can accommodate up to 16 passengers. When passing through customs in 2022, it cost 597 million rubles ($8.9 million at that time), the year before - 726 million rubles ($10 million).
How are yachts connected to Gazprom?
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At least until the end of 2022, the Swift yacht belonged to an offshore company from the British Virgin Islands, Deneb Properties Inc - it is listed in customs documents as the shipper to Russia. In December 2022, the yacht arrived in Russia from Tringa Holdings Ltd from the same jurisdiction. The same company in 2021 (year of construction) and in 2022 processed the import of the Angel yacht to Russia.
The recipients of the yachts in Russia were one person and one company: Sergey Makarkin and JSC Business Partner. The first one was registered with Swift from Dened Properties in May 2022 and Angel from Tringa Holdings in July 2021. The second will include both yachts from Tringa Holdings in December 2022.
Business Partner JSC was established in May 2022. It is unknown who owns it now. But the company is headed by Dmitry Kine. He was also the general director of Gazpromneft Shipping from 2013 to 2021. Coincidentally, Sergei Makarkin also worked at a Gazprom Neft subsidiary. As follows from the leaks of the Federal Tax Service database, he received a salary from the company at least in 2017, 2018 and 2021. Users of the Fleetphoto portal also point out that Makarkin and the company imported yachts not for personal purposes, but in the interests of Gazprom. There, the owner of both yachts ( 1 , 2 ) is called Business Partner JSC, and the operator is Gazpromneft Shipping.
Advisor to Kostin, Crimean deputy, St. Petersburg authority and other owners of yachts worth hundreds of millions of rubles
— Vasily Titov is a former deputy and now an adviser to the head of VTB Andrey Kostin. Since 2007, he has headed the public council under the FSB.
In June 2021 and June 2023, Titov processed the import of the 23-meter yacht Astrid through customs. This Ferretti 780 model ship from the shipyard of the same name costs more than 281 million rubles (3 million 395 thousand dollars).
— Fedosya Sukhankina is the 72-year-old wife of businessman Mikhail Sukhankin, who in the 90s created several enterprises to provide the Magadan region with fuel and fuels and lubricants. He solely owns the Kolymanefteprodukt company, a monopolist on the oil products market in the Magadan region, and through it controls the gold mining company GDK Berelekh.
It was Kolymanefteproduct that in May 2022 received a 25-meter yacht named Christine. This Princess S78 model vessel was built in the same year at the British shipyard Princess Yachts . The shipper of the yacht under the agreement between residents is the Yacht Trade company of businessman Evgeniy Kochman i . In June 2022, Kochman and Imperial Yachts came under US sanctions.
— Sergey Vasiliev is a reputable entrepreneur from St. Petersburg, an associate of Ilya Traber and Dmitry Skigin. All three of them ran a successful oil business in the 90s, in particular, with the entourage of Vladimir Putin, who at that time worked in the mayor’s office of St. Petersburg.
Vasiliev's company "SVS Company" in May 2021 and June 2023 processed the import of the 37-meter yacht Standarte. The vessel, built in 2007 by the Italian company Tecnomar Yachts, was valued at 404.7 million rubles.
— Sergey Smorodin is the ex-CEO of the Energostream company. In the early 2010s, Energostream was Russia's largest private energy sales holding, which controlled about 10% of the country's electricity. At the end of 2011, Putin accused the company’s management and CEO Yuri Zhelyabsky of illegally withdrawing 25 billion rubles through the company to offshore companies. After the scandal, Smorodin was appointed to replace Zhelyabsky.
In 2021, the Seychelles Bealtika Company Limited arranged the import of the 30-meter Sea Ark yacht, launched in 2012 by the English Princess Yachts, three times. According to leaked offshore documents from Pandora Papers , this offshore company is owned by Smorodin . In Russia, the ship, worth about 315 million rubles ($4.3 million), was received by Vladimir Ladyko, who, judging by the descriptions in phone books, works as a yacht captain.
— Vildan Muratov is a 38-year-old businessman from the Orenburg region and former general director of the Vishnevsky pig breeding complex. Before Muratov, the company was headed by its founder, Viktor Zheleznov. In the summer of 2018, Zheleznov was detained along with the region’s Minister of Agriculture, Mikhail Maslov. According to investigators, an entrepreneur and an official stole about 100 million rubles while receiving subsidies.
In August of this year, LLC “UK - RC “South Ural”, owned by Muratov, imported a 21-meter long yacht called Dream to Russia. The vessel was launched at the Italian shipyard Cranchi Yachts only this year. Its cost is more than 350 million rubles (3 million 649 thousand dollars).
— Mikhail Smolyanov is a member of the parliament of the annexed Crimea. Owns car dealerships through the Avtodel company, which often wins tenders for the supply of cars to local authorities.
In 2021 and 2023, Smolyanov imported the 21-meter yacht Julia through customs. The Squadron model vessel was built by the British company Fairline in 2021. In both cases, upon registration, the cost of the yacht was 2.7 million dollars (202 and 265 million rubles, respectively). Moreover, over the previous seven years - from 2014 to 2020 - Smolyanov declared only 91.3 million rubles.
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Infographic: El
Cover: Dmitry Osinnikov
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