At least five yachts owned by Russian billionaires were moored or sailing on Wednesday in the Maldives, an Indian Ocean island nation that has no extradition treaty with the United States, vessel tracking data showed.
The arrival of the vessels to the archipelago off the coast of Sri Lanka comes after the imposition of severe Western sanctions on Russia in reprisal for the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
The yacht Clio, owned by Oleg Deripaska, founder of US-sanctioned aluminum giant Rusal, docked in the capital Malé on Wednesday, according to the MarineTraffic database.
The Titan, by Alexander Abramov, co-founder of steelmaker Evraz, arrived on February 28.
Three other yachts belonging to Russian billionaires were seen navigating Maldives waters on Wednesday, the data showed, including the 88-metre Nirvana owned by Russia’s richest man Vladimir Potanin.
Most of the vessels were last seen docked in Middle Eastern ports earlier this year.
A spokesperson for the Maldives government did not respond to a request for comment.
The United States has said it will take strict measures to confiscate properties from sanctioned Russians.
“Next week, we will launch a multilateral transatlantic task force to identify, hunt and freeze the assets of sanctioned Russian companies and oligarchs – their yachts, their mansions and any other ill-gotten gains we may find and freeze under the law,” the House said. Branca in a tweet on Sunday (27).
Source: CNN Brasil
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