A yacht belonging to Chelsea soccer club owner and sanctioned oligarch Roman Abramovich has docked in the Aegean coastal resort of Bodrum, Turkish media reports said Monday, amid international moves to freeze assets belonging to top Russian businessmen with close links to the Kremlin.
Turkey’s private NTV television said the Bermuda-flagged luxury yacht “Solaris” docked at the port in Turkey — which has not joined sanctions on Russia — after departing Montenegro.
A group of Ukrainians, carrying Ukrainian flags with the words “No War” emblazoned on them, boarded a small motor boat and tried to prevent the yacht from docking, the Sozcu newspaper reports.
Superyacht Solaris, owned by the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, which is under UK sanctions, sails towards the luxury yacht marina Porto Montenegro, near Montenegrin city of Tivat, on the Adriatic coast, March 12, 2022. (SAVO PRELEVIC / AFP)
It is not known if Abramovich was aboard or if the yacht has been moved to Turkey to avoid sanctions.
Last week, the European Union imposed sanctions on Abramovich, as it updated a list of individuals facing asset freeze and travel bans over their role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Abramovich had already been punished in Britain.
NATO-member Turkey has close ties to both Russia and Ukraine. It has criticized Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but has also positioned itself as a neutral party trying to mediate between the two.
It has closed the Turkish Straits connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean to most Russian warships, but has not imposed sanctions on Russia or shut down its airspace to Russian flights.
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Monday, March 21, 2022
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