Oligarch’s $200m superyacht to be sold at auction for Ukraine

A superyacht owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk is reportedly to be sold at auction after it was seized in Croatia earlier this year.

Medvedchuk is the leader of Ukraine’s most prominent pro-Russia party and a close ally of Putin.

A Croatian court has ruled that the $200m (£164m) superyacht Royal Romance should be transferred to the Ukrainian Asset Recovery and Management Agency (Arma) — a special branch of the Ukrainian government — which will “preserve the economic value by selling it at auction.” This means the funds would be used directly to help the Ukrainian people.

Medvedchuk was arrested in Ukraine in April, although has since returned to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange. His 92-metre yacht was seized off the Croatian coast as part of the Western sanctions on the assets of oligarchs associated with the Putin regime.

While numerous yachts have been seized as part of the ongoing sanctions, this is the first time that a yacht will have been sold to directly benefit Ukraine.

In August, the seized £63m superyacht Axioma, once owned by sanctioned steel billionaire Dmitry Pumpyansky, was sold at auction in Gibraltar to an undisclosed buyer for $37.5m. It was the first public auction of a seized Russian asset since Putin invaded Ukraine in February.

Royal Romance was designed by naval architecture firm De Voogt, and constructed in 2015 by Feadship.

It is said to have amenities including a gym, cinema room, spa, and capacity for 14 guests and 22 crew members, as well as a four-metre wide swimming pool that boasts a “flowing waterfall cascading over the stern”.

The Croatian newspaper Jutarnji list reports that police raided the yacht in November, on behalf of the FBI. The outlet reports the search warrant named Medvedchuk and his wife, Oksana Marchenko, in connection with alleged money laundering.

In November, MIN reported that a petition calling for a seized superyacht to be used to house refugees had received more than 28,000 signatures.

Frenchman, Philippe Bonneau, started the petition on change.org to ‘transform’ the 80m Amore Vero ‘into a free reception hotel for Ukrainian refugees awaiting permanent rehousing in France’.