It is another derivative of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began in the first quarter of 2022 and one of the measures of the European Union was to impose sanctions and economic embargoes on dozens of leaders linked to the Kremlin. In Spain, the Merchant Navy then immobilized several luxury yachts linked to Russian oligarchs and now their future is in the hands of the Supreme Court magistrates: the court has admitted to processing the appeal of the company that owns the ‘Valerie’, linked by the authorities to Sergey Chemezov, director of the main Russian defense and arms export company. The ruling, which will still take a few months, will decide whether the European accusations regarding the ownership of these yachts are enough to keep them immobilized for years in ports like Barcelona.
The case that has reached the third chamber of the Supreme Court is that of the yacht ‘Valerie’, now baptized ‘Meridian A’. Valued at 140 million dollars and measuring 85 meters in length, this super-luxury vessel has been owned by several companies, some of them ‘offshore‘, always linked to senior officials of Rostec, the Russian state conglomerate in the defense and arms sector that has acquired even more prominence in Moscow’s economy since the beginning of the invasion and war.
First they were companies linked to an executive of the firm and then to Anastasia Ignatova, stepdaughter of Sergey Chemezov, top leader of Rostec and businessman very close to Vladimir Putin. The Merchant Navy, dependent on the Ministry of Transport, took note that both Ignatova and the yacht were included in the sanctions lists that the European Union detailed in 2022 for personalities close to the Kremlin and ordered the immobilization of the vessel in the Port of Barcelona. .
It was not the only luxury yacht linked to Russian oligarchs that was stranded in a Spanish port after the start of the war. “We have to act forcefully with Putin, with his regime and with the oligarchs,” Pedro Sánchez said shortly after. Up to four super-luxury vessels were detained, some temporarily, in ports in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. A fifth yacht, the ‘Tango’, linked to an aluminum magnate close to Putin, was directly seized at the request of the United States. In Barcelona, in addition to the ‘Valerie’, the authorities at the time recorded the presence of other megayachts linked to Andrei Molchanov, Roman Abramovich, the former president of Chelsea, who had to leave the club when the sanctions announcements began, or the magnate Mikhail Dmitrievitch.
The ‘Meridian A’ case linked to Chemezov, as elDiario.es has been able to verify, ended up in court. The company that, on paper, owns the boat, appealed the decision of the Merchant Navy and the subsequent refusal of Transport to lift the trap with one main allegation: that the yacht is not, in reality, property of the director’s stepdaughter. general of Rostec, despite what the European authorities say. The ship’s owners have refused to make evaluations of the process in response to questions from elDiario.es.
The first ruling came from the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid in April of this year. The judges rejected the appeal of the company Sulberg Services Limited, as they had already done two years earlier with its request for precautionary measures to release the ship, and established that “the Spanish administration was obliged to agree to the immobilization of the ship.” At the heart of the legal part of the case are the 2014 European guidelines on the war conflict in Ukraine, updated in 2022 and which include Anastasia Ignatova as the subject of sanctions, including as the owner of the Valerie.
The Sulberg company that has launched the legal battle to remove the ship from the Port of Barcelona denounces that, after several appeals and petitions, the latest updated lists of Russian businessmen under sanction for the situation in Ukraine continue to include Anastasia Ignatova, but that They also reflect that the boat is no longer hers but that the woman “was”, in the past, its owner.
This allegation has already been rejected by the TSJM. The State Attorney’s Office, throughout the process, has explained that it has “serious doubts” about the documentation that has been presented to prove that Chemezov’s stepdaughter sold the yacht. Doubts “as to its veracity and reality” even about the payments since, the Lawyers said, everything had been done “through a Russian financial entity that could have links with the Russian government and the oligarchs of said nation.”
For the State Attorney’s Office it is “absolutely imprecise” to say that, in general, the Administration has admitted that the yacht no longer has any connection with the oligarch. The Supreme Court has agreed to study the case with the aim of determining whether the attribution of ownership by these European resolutions is sufficient or whether Spain should investigate on its own who is behind the yacht to, in practice, proceed to immobilize it.
From ‘Valerie’ to ‘Meridian A’
The Valerie began its particular journey in Barcelona at the luxury yacht shipyards of the MB92 firm, where it was undergoing repairs in February 2022. Shortly after, when it stopped paying the costs of these works, it was transferred to one of the moorings at the small and exclusive Marina Vela dock (although large yachts usually dock at the more luxurious Marina Port Vell).
In October of that same year, the owner changed the name of the ship to Meridian A and tried to remove it from Barcelona, but the authorities prevented it. Since then, the huge yacht stands out among the other Marina Vela vessels.
One of the great unknowns during these years is who bears the cost of the moorings and how much they amount to. Both the port concessionaires and the Ministry of Transport assure that they do not bear the bill. “The mooring costs, like the rest of the subsidiary expenses, correspond to the owner or shipowner of the vessel,” sources from the Ministry of Transport maintain.
That is, it is the owners who pay. And if they did not pay the rent, the docking marina could request a “preventive seizure” of the vessel in court. In fact, last July the yacht Lady Anastasia, with the new name of Vita Nova, moved from Mallorca to the Port of Valencia – with prior authorization from the State – to reduce that bill, according to the Government.
In the case of the Meridian A, Marina Vela alleges that due to data protection she cannot reveal how much she charges for the mooring or which specific company pays the amount. Other ports, such as Port Tarraco in Tarragona, have public rates. Thus it can be deduced that the Crescent yacht, linked to Putin’s former chief of staff, Igor Sanovich Sechin, measuring 135 meters in length and worth 600 million, would have to pay more than 150,000 euros per semester.
On the other hand, regarding the yacht Tango, it is the United States government that must assume the rental of its mooring in Palma, since it is seized and not immobilized. For now he is trying without success to sell it. According to Diario de Mallorcathe bill would exceed 20 million euros.
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