He was the first luxury vessel that Spain retained when the European Union, in March 2022, decided to approve its first package of sanctions against Russia for having militarily invaded Ukrainian territory.
The ownership of the yacht was not linked to a natural person, but it was decided to immobilize the boat (located in Barcelona) because It was suspected that it belonged to a company that was simply trying to hide that the owner was a .
The luxury vessel Valerie, flagged in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, has 85 meters in length and is found valued at nothing more and nothing less than 121 million euros.
Specifically, the Spanish authorities detained the yacht due to its connection with Sergei Chemezov, a person who has headed Rostec since 2007a Russian state corporation that acts as a defense and high-tech conglomerate.
Chemezov is part of the Russian elite and has the complete trust of Russian President Vladimir Putin.. Otherwise, it would be unthinkable that he could remain in such a strategically important position of responsibility for 18 years.
Although it has not been documented anywhere that Chemezov is the owner of the superyacht, The formal owner of the boat was his stepdaughter, Anastasia Ignatova.
An investigation by the Ukrainian media has revealed that shortly after the yacht Valerie was immobilized in Barcelona, some lawyers representing a company offshore They went to Spanish justice to try to recover the boat.
Finally, this movement has confirmed that Sergei Chemezov has both that superyacht and possibly other assets abroad in the name of shell companies to hide their true ownership, a common practice among Russian oligarchs to protect themselves from international sanctions.
