The Amore Vero, a luxury megayacht belonging to long-time ally of Vladimir Putin and the boss of Rosneft Mr Sechin, is seized in the French port of La Ciotat and Dilbar, a £437m yacht owned by Mr Usmanov, is taken by German authorities.
France has seized the vessel of Igor Sechin, a long-time ally of Vladimir Putin and the boss of Rosneft, one of the largest oil companies in Russia.
The Amore Vero, a luxury megayacht built in 2013, was seized by French authorities on Thursday morning in the dockyard of La Ciotat, a port on the Mediterranean coast, according to Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.
The yacht is valued at £86m according to VesselsValue, a tracking service, and is registered to a company whose main shareholder is Mr Sechin, French officials said.
Mr Sechin is regarded as one of the most powerful people in Russia, acting as deputy prime minister under Mr Putin from 2008 to 2012, and maintains strong connections to the country’s intelligence agencies.
On Tuesday, the EU sanctioned Mr Sechin, who has been chairman of Rosneft since 2004, alongside financier Alisher Usmanov, a former co-owner of Arsenal football club, in response to Russia’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine last week.
Mr Usmanov also had his £437m yacht, the largest in the world by gross tonnage, seized on Wednesday in a Hamburg shipyard by German authorities.
