Russian Oligarch Yachts; Ukrainian Solution

France has seized a yacht owned by Russian oligarch Igor Sechin, the French finance ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Sechin is the CEO of Russian oil giant Rosneft. The European Union sanctioned Sechin earlier this week, describing him as one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's "most trusted and closest advisors, as well as his personal friend."

The yacht, named "Amore Vero" — or "True Love" in Italian — arrived at the French Mediterranean port of La Ciotat in January. It was scheduled to leave the port on April 1.

He has also served as Deputy Prime Minister. Definitely a key cabinet member over the years, both official and unofficial.

A lot more than I suspect any of these governments are going to be willing to spend. Historically, arrested boats are left with little to no crew to maintain them on a shoestring budget. These boats are currently assets, but will quickly become liabilities to the countries seizing them.

It has been reported that a number of Russian owned yachts are headed for the Maldives in the Indian Ocean as it does not have any extradition or other treaties that might threaten empoundment.

The local government of Hamburg used a nice trick with the yacht Dilbar. The Yacht is not confiscated, she is just not allowed to leave the harbour. Which means, no liabilitiy for the local government and the owner has to pay for everything, including the harbour fee . I love it!

So what happens at 3am when she decides to "make a run for the border" ?
Do they have her blocked in somehow?

She won't be able to make a run for the border. I can see the measurements being taken to arrest her from my office. She just sits on the other side of the Elbe river. Confiscating an asset icludes the transfer of liability, prohibiting the free use of an asset not.

With the economic calamity unfolding in slow motion (but speeding up), at some point in the foreseeable future, we're likely going to find out what kind of control Putin - a career KGB officer - has on the military. Was he smart enough to surround himself with loyalists to the end? Putin waging war in Ukraine is an unspeakable horror. Russia descending into a failed state that is also home to 10K nuclear weapons could very easily be worse. What a mess.

Your description of the Budapest Memorandum is largely accurate. I'm not sure what was offered in 2010. Unfortunately, in both instances, the respective Administrations never even attempted to memorialize these 'promises' in a more binding format, like a formal treaty which of course requires Congressional approval. Absent that ratification process, there's nothing legally binding future administrations to fulfill those promises. IOW, those agreements don't have a half-life that extends past the tenure of the president who negotiated them.

The takeaway from all this - presuming we get through the current crisis intact - is any future agreements with other countries will be exponentially harder strike. Countries will redouble their efforts to go nuclear and will never give them up once they do....like the DPRK.

This world-wide Anglo-American knee-jerk response of these economic sanctions against Russia is going to present the developed world with a classic lesson in the laws of unintended consequences. In a year or so, I suspect many of us will look back on this time and realize just how damaging these reactions will have been to our industry and all our boating lives. Anybody smell a coming "Lehman Moment" in the air??? Buckle Up folks. Rough seas are in the forecast now.

The individual owner sanctions are specific to certain people presumed to be close to Putin or engaged in the military operations against Ukraine. These are NOT blanket sanctions of all Russians.