Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the governments of the Western countries have been arrested by more than 12 superhacks of yachts of Russian oligarchs. Their total cost exceeds $ 4 billion, reports Bloomberg News.
However, according to officials, the arrested yachts are at the expense of taxpayers. The service of some of them reaches $ 10 million per year. An amount of 10-15% of their cost is spent annually on the service of super-hide. The governments of the United States and Italy will pay more than $ 50 million per year for the Russian super -sites arrested by them.
The absurdity of the situation was complained by the adviser to the President of the United States Joe Biden on national security Jake Sullivan. “Do you know what is the most crazy? When we arrest the yacht, we have to pay for its maintenance. People are paid on behalf of the United States government for supervision of Russian super -sites,” he said.
This situation is not everywhere. The authorities of Spain and France ordered Russian billionaires to pay the maintenance of yachts detained in these countries, allowing them to use accounts that also fell under sanctions and were frozen.
Experts argue that it is not known how long the story will last with Russian yachts. In order to decide the fate of these courts, years can take years. Some countries can decide to confiscate and sell them. The US authorities promised to do this through the procedure for collecting assets, during which law enforcement officers would prove that they were purchased for criminal money.
But prove the possession of these yachts is not always easy. Most often they are registered in offshore. Former federal prosecutor Stefan Kassella compared the Russians – Owners of Super -Yiht with drug lords. “Narcodels do not own anything. Their friends own everyone. So they will dispute this in court for a long time,” he said.