The hunting season for Russian billionaire yachts has officially begun and French authorities have captured their first whale.
On Thursday, French authorities confirmed they seized a 280ft yacht belonging to Igor Sechin, the CEO of Russian state oil company Rosneft. The yacht is called “Amore Vero”, which translates to “True Love” in Italian.
Here is the photo of Igor’s yacht taken yesterday at a shipyard in La Ciotat, near Marseille, presumably just after it was seized:
(Photo by NICOLAS TUCAT/AFP via Getty Images)
Igor’s yacht was being repaired at the shipyard. By the time the French authorities intervened, the crew were said to be “arranging to have it sailed as a matter of urgency”.
The yacht arrived in France for repairs on January 3 and was not due to leave until mid-April.
According to a handful of yacht tracking sites, Amore Vero is valued between $100 million and $150 million. Annual operating costs are at least $10 million.
Amore Vero is actually not the original name of the yacht. When Igor first took possession of it in 2013, the ship was called the St Princess Olga. At the time, he was married to a woman named Olga. After their divorce in 2017, he renamed the yacht Amore Vero.
Rosneft’s stock has fallen 60% since mid-February, when Ukraine was invaded by Russia and sanctions began to ease.
