An estimated $200 million superyacht owned by an oligarch close to Vladimir Putin will soon be up for auction after it was seized in Croatia, the British newspaper reports. The Guardian.
According to our British colleagues, the Ukrainian government has announced that a Croatian court has decided that Viktor Medvedchuk’s yacht Royal Romance will soon be handed over to the Ukrainian Asset Recovery and Management Agency. He said he would “preserve the economic value by selling it at auction.”
If this sale goes through, it would be the first to support the Ukrainian people since the establishment of Western sanctions on the assets of hundreds of Russian oligarchs. A measure taken in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February.
The owner of the ship near Putin
The Ukrainian Asset Recovery and Management Agency, attached to the government of Volodymyr Zelensky, is responsible for “searching, finding and managing assets derived from corruption.” Several of his agents left for Croatia and confirmed that they had inspected the yacht “belonging to relatives of a deputy and leader of a banned political party in Ukraine.”
Croatian police raided the ship last month at the request of US authorities, according to the Croatian daily. jutarnji list. A search granted by the Croatian justice and which took place on November 19.
Viktor Medvedchuk, a former Ukrainian deputy and businessman close to the Kremlin master, was arrested last April by Ukrainian special services and then handed over to Russia during a prisoner exchange last September.
Last September, a 72.5-meter superyacht seized from Russian oligarch Dmitry Pumpyansky was auctioned for $37.5 million to an unidentified buyer.
Source: BFM TV
