Russian Oligarch Yachts; Ukrainian Solution

Yes they are blanket restrictions:

https://www.npr.org/2022/03/02/1084...rcraft-from-u-s-airspace-has-gone-into-effect

Eugene Shvidler has dual UK/US citizenship according to his Wikipedia page. That could explain why he can still move about.

Read in another report that he is NOT on the no fly list.

The takeaway from all this - presuming we get through the current crisis intact - is any future agreements with other countries will be exponentially harder strike. Countries will redouble their efforts to go nuclear and will never give them up once they do....like the DPRK.[/QUOTE]

The devil is always in the details or in this case the language. My reading indicates that it was the intention of the US and the UK to offer a security guarantee but a guarantee amounts to a treaty obligation and that in the US would require congressional approval. In the world of 1993/4 Mr. Clinton was not going to get that so the word 'guarantee' was changed to 'assurance'. Now 'assurance' in diplomatic talk means 'we will do what we can under the circumstances to fulfill this promise. but it is not an obligation to do anything in particular'. And requires no approvals. It is also true that the distinction between the two words , important in English, does not occur in Russian or Ukrainian, They mean the same. The Ukrainians failed to comprehend this subtle but vital change. I think that both the US and the UK and the EU are now responding in the spirit of the 'assurance'. Mr. Kuchma, the Ukrainian president who signed in Budapest claimed that he failed to understand this change until Mr. Mitterrand of France pointed it out to him in 1995. He quotes Mr. Mitterrand as saying 'you were deceived' I think this is unfair, I think Mr. Clinton was sincere in his desire to protect the Ukraine and got what he could get at the time. I also think Mr. Kuchma is being a bit ingenuous given that the US had the instruction that the 'lesser' meaning in English was to be understood in Russian and Ukrainian written right into the document. Unfortunate in hindsight.

Mr. Shvidler is an American citizen at least since 1994.

Or Dubai FC

I'm not convinced that the "world-wide Anglo-American knee-jerk response," as you put it, will be enough to stop the ego-fed-ambitions of the low-life that's ordered this Ukrainian invasion. I hope that you are right and we have the luxury of looking back on what you suspect will be unintended consequences. I'll take your rough seas (unintended consequences) over what Putin appears to be offering.

Another seizure:

https://www.reuters.com/world/italy-seizes-yacht-owned-by-russian-oligarch-mordashov-source-2022-03-04/

I do believe the boating industry will be hurt. There are builders trying to sell unfinished boats today. There are brokers trying to sell megayachts. There are builders and yards that will go out of business. We'll be impacted elsewhere as well. We've depended on major investment by Oligarchs. However, I'm with Leeky, which is earth shattering itself, that I'm more than willing to accept the financial consequences. What I'm not willing to accept is the invasion of Ukraine.

Should we have turned down some of this dirty money before? Morally, perhaps we should have, but we often should and it's not just Russian Oligarchs whose means of making money is questionable. However, this is far beyond. We're talking an attack on a sovereign nation and we and the world at large must not allow such and much use all means we have to penalize those involved and that includes the boats and homes of Oligarchs who are an intimate part of the team.

I would not mind if the herd would be much thinner this and all the next seasons. I used to have my last yachts moored in Port Hercules, Monaco for several years, because my late wife and my 2 daughters liked Port Hercules very much. But when the oligarchs took over that place, it was no more joy and only a pain in the neck.

My at that time rather little 54 meter boat (compared to the Russian yachts) was moored between to larger Russian owned yachts in Port Hercules. One was Ecstasea, at that time owned by Mr. A. Those guys have no behaviour, are noisy, rude and very unpolite and have no education. My wife and my daughters were harrased by them and the outside deck areas were almost unusable, when in harbour. We could even watch them beat up their wives / girl friends.

We finally left Port Hercules for Antibes but even there, that place was soon taken over by those O's from R. Now we are in Palma harbour and Port Adriano, Mallorca but also here, the majority of the bigger boats are Russian owned.

Port Adriano is still a very nice Place, as the big Russian monsters do not fit in that rather little harbour but Palma harbour, we are only using for mooring the boats when not on board. The problem with the bad behaviour of those Russians is, that their bad behaviour is direct proportional to the size of their boat. The bigger, the worse. But my crews like Palma harbour as a base, as their land based appartements are in walking distance from the jetties and the shopping area is around the corner.

But normally, when we arrive at Palma by car from the Airport, we leave the harbour within a few hours or my helicopter picks us up directly at the airport and we land outside the harbour on the shadow and transfer to the boat by tender.

But even being outside on the hook, those guys are annoying You with their noisy water toys, flooding the bathing platform with intentionally generated waves with their tenders and behave rude and obscene, especially when drunken. And they are drunken most of the time. Last season, a drunken Russian parasailor landed on my yacht and asked for a drink. I had him picked up by the Guardia Civil. And I can assure You, my skipper was not very friendly with him. And remember my happening with the Russian Crew member blending me with his illegal Laser pointer in Palma Harbour a few years ago.

So, I would not mind, if we see much less of them in the next years or better for ever. The sooner they kick Mr. P out of office, the sooner they can use their expensive toys again but it will take a very, very long time until we trust them again and even much longer until I make business with them again!!!!!.

The biggest problem with arresting Russian owned Megayachts is their Camouflaging and Deluding, as far as their ownership is concerned. The German Federal customs investigation had a pretty hard time to prove the official ownership of Dilbar, Luna and Solandge. Up to six different companies were involved on several of them. Everyone knew who the owners were but for an justiciable arrestment, you need to prove the ownership.

Your Government has now to step on the feet of those Russia friendly countries on Your side of the pond. They must know, they can only be friend or foe and not both. If everything's falling apart, they might have to eat their bananas themselves and drink their own coffe. Last nights attack on the nuclear powerplant has really crossed a red line.

Lets hope, somebody will bring Mr. P timely to reason or if this is impossible, which I am afraid of, kicks him out of office. I am looking forward for several very large yachts coming on the market well below value very soon and some builds in progress will need a new owner. My special friends in the Netherlands come into my mind in this respect. Too bad, the present owner of Octopus is not Russian .

A fellow captain recently reported that Eclipse was denied bunkers in St. Maarten, and is now cruising west across the Atlantic.

We see behavior like this everyday in sfl. I feel people who have not earned their way to success but got a shortcut from dad or powerful leaders act this way. If they had gone through the painful, decades long process of building a company or growing one they couldn't act as they do. It would not be tolerated and their business would suffer. These oligarchs are artificially put in power and their behavior must be tolerated cause they have putins backing.
Trust fund babies aren't much different just on a smaller scale. We are all somewhat to blame for their behavior. The all mighty dollar affects our moral decision making and allows them to continue their antics. If we all disowned them they'd shape up quickly. No different then a toddler having a temper tantrum. Mom determines that child's behavior by her actions at that moment.

A question about the new-build market: are the (sometimes not-so) free world billionaires prepared to fill the Russian billionaire shoes?

Yachts built for Russian clients since 2000:

Oceanco: at least 6 out of 26

Feadship: at least 10 out of 89

Luerssen: at least 18 out of 52

A & R: at least 7 out of 24

Amels: they build too many yachts to keep count but from the top of my head they built the Beatles-themed yachts and Solemar for Russian clients.

These are only the major players. I'm not taking into account B+V because they were absorbed or Lloyd Werft and Nobiskrug because they're currently facing financial difficulties. Both As, Palladium, Luna, etc. were ordered by well-known Russian businessmen.

And I have no idea of how many yachts were built by the likes of Benetti, Azimut or Sunseeker for them.

Bottom point is: yacht builders, both big and small, will have some rough seas ahead of them.

I think the bigger impact and the bigger losers will not be in the yachting industry but aircraft industry. Apparently there are about 500 foreign owned leased commercial passenger jets in Russia, none of them flying anywhere beyond Russia’s borders. That’s a lot of capital held hostage.

They've announced they're terminating leases... but no mention of how they'll get the planes back.

https://www.airguide.info/contracts-for-515-aircraft-leased-to-russian-airlines-will-be-terminated/

While the builders you mention are those most likely to have customers on the list with sanctions, smaller builders also have Russian customers who are cancelling or trying to do so as their means and methods of payments are shut down. There are also Russians in the US and elsewhere who are where they are to be away from Putin and his regime, and have some local investments and funds but still have some investments in Russia and are facing financial challenges.

I've split the posts discussing the current fuel pricing trend (and the subsequent consequences) into another thread, since they are more far-reaching and not solely tied to the Russia/Ukraine situation discussed here.