Oleg Deripaska’s superyacht on the move as sanctions bear down

The Russian aluminium billionaire has lifted anchor of his superyacht off the Maldives and is now near Port Said in Egypt and heading to Gocek in Turkey.

Russian aluminium billionaire Oleg Deripaska moved his €60m superyacht, Clio, from its anchor off the Maldives, in order to avoid it being seized as part of the ongoing sanctions against Russian oligarchs.

Clio, a €60m superyacht tied to Oleg Deripaska, the Russian aluminium billionaire whose connections to Vladimir Putin have put him on sanctions lists, is on the move again after being anchored off the Maldives.

The 239-foot yacht had been in the Indian Ocean for at least two months as scrutiny around Mr Deripaska and other oligarchs close to Russia’s president increased following the February 24 invasion of Ukraine. Clio is now near Port Said in Egypt and heading to Gocek in Turkey, according to vessel data analysed by Bloomberg News. 

Mr Deripaska is best known here as shareholder in the company that runs the global mining and smelter giant Rusal. Rusal operates the huge smelter in Aughinish in the Shannon Estuary. Sanctions on Mr Deripaska has put a question mark over the 500 jobs at Aughinish.       

He has been who has been under US sanctions since 2018, — also sits atop an industrial conglomerate that includes a major provider of military equipment to Russia. The EU  sanctioned him earlier this month for enabling Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Authorities in the US, Italy, France, and Germany are trying to locate the luxury boats and other properties of Russian tycoons.

Aughinish alumina on the Shannon Estuary, Co Limerick. Picture Dan Linehan

Seized

Nearly a dozen yachts have already been seized  Italian authorities confiscated a €530m superyacht owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, while Spain confiscated Viktor Vekselberg’s Tango, as well as the Crescent, believed to belong to Igor Sechin, head of Moscow-based Rosneft Oil. 

Clio, which sleeps 18 and has its own elevator, previously appeared to be on the move around March 20, heading northwest from the Maldives. On March 21, its automatic identification system, or AIS, displayed a message that would have been inputted by the crew indicating there was “armed security” on board. That message isn’t unusual to ward off pirates in the region.

A few days later, the AIS showed Clio was headed to Dubai, before making a U-turn south, displaying it was en route to Mumbai. It then made its way back to Male, the capital of the Maldives, where it had been anchored, ahead of the 4,828Km journey northwest through the Red Sea and Suez Canal toward Port Said.

Scattered

The sanctions have scattered Russian yachts to locales perceived as less likely to seize the pleasure boats, including parts of the Middle East and the Caribbean, according to space-based analytics and data firm Spire Global. Megayachts owned by Russians account for as much as 10% of the global fleet, according to industry watcher The Super Yacht Group.

Fijian authorities were surprised this week by the arrival of the Amadea yacht owned by sanctioned gold tycoon Suleiman Kerimov. 

The Turkish coast seems to be a favoured destination for Russian yachts, including Roman Abramovich’s Solaris. Many vessels owned by sanctioned moguls have gone dark and stopped broadcasting their locations, in contravention to international maritime law. 

• Bloomberg, Irish Examiner