At least five superyachts owned by Russian billionaires were anchored or cruising on Wednesday in Maldives, an Indian Ocean island nation that does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, ship tracking data showed.
The vessels’ arrival in the archipelago off the coast of Sri Lanka follows the imposition of severe Western sanctions on Russia in reprisal for its Feb.
24 invasion of Ukraine. The Clio superyacht, owned by Oleg Deripaska, the founder of aluminum giant Rusal, who was sanctioned by the United States in 2018, anchored off the capital Male on Wednesday, according to shipping database MarineTraffic. Read more: Who’s on Canada’s list of sanctions against Russia and who’s not The Titan, owned by Alexander Abramov, a co-founder of steel producer Evraz, arrived on Feb.
28. Three further yachts owned by Russian billionaires were seen cruising in Maldives waters on Wednesday, the data showed. They include the 88-metre (288 ft) Nirvana owned by Russia’s richest man, Vladimir Potanin.