This is actually the third superyacht seized in Spain but this one, Cresent, is a really large one, one of the largest in the world.
Spanish authorities have impounded a third superyacht believed to belong to a Russian oligarch, a seizure that is part of a global crackdown on those seen to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Crescent, a yacht registered in the Cayman Islands, had requested to depart the Spanish Port of Tarragona on March 4, authorities said, but it did not set sail. The 443-foot yacht has an estimated value of about $600 million, according to SuperyachtFan, a website tracking luxury yachts, which cited its owner as an “unknown billionaire.”…
The Crescent is supersized even by global elite benchmarks — few of the world’s biggest yachts measure more than 400 feet. It was built by the German shipyard Lürssen, which constructs many of the largest yachts, and reportedly features a retractable helicopter hangar and a big glass-bottomed pool.
Cresent is that it’s a sister ship to a slightly larger vessel called Scheherazade:
The Crescent, valued by the SuperYachtFan website at $600 million, appears to be the sister ship of the slightly larger, slightly more expensive Scheherazade, a 459-foot superyacht that U.S. officials said could be associated with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Both were built at the same German shipyard, Lurssen, where the Crescent was given the project name “Thunder,” while the Scheherazade, put into service about two years later, was called “Lightning.” Both share the same interior and exterior designers and have been managed by a Monaco company, Imperial Yachts, which caters to Russian oligarchs.
The two yachts also share another, unusual characteristic: Photos of the Crescent taken on March 13 by a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, Alex Finley, in the Spanish port where it was impounded appear to show that the Crescent conceals its nameplate while in port, just like the Scheherazade.
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the Scheherazade is significant because it has been connected to Vladimir Putin. But if US or EU authorities can prove he owns it he may not own it for much longer because the superyacht is currently sitting in an Italian dry dock.
Meanwhile, NPR reported Wednesday that another Russian superyacht was stuck in Norway because it had run out of fuel.
A Russian-owned superyacht can’t leave a dock in Norway — not because of sanctions, but because no one in the port will sell it fuel. The Ragnar is owned by Russian oligarch Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, a former KGB agent who has long been linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We find the discrimination against us, extremely unjust,” the yacht’s captain, Robert Lankester, wrote in a message decrying the ship’s predicament. He noted that Strzhalkovsky is not currently on a European or U.K. sanctions list. And, he said, the yacht’s crew is not Russian.
The Norwegian news site that ran the original story on Ragnar spoke to some of the fuel companies refusing to sell them fuel. Steve Holmlund of Holmlund oil service told them “I have nothing left for the Russians’ conduct in Ukraine. Why should we help them? They can row home. Or use sails.”
Finally, here’s another report from SuperYachtNews about the seizure of the Crescent.
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