Igor Sechin’s superyacht has a helipad that converts into a swimming pool. Viktor Rashnikov’s seven-deck vessel comes with six pools for its 28 guests. Dmitry Pumpyansky’s boat’s onboard jacuzzi is a hit with everyone from Kendall Jenner to Lewis Hamilton - or at least it was, before the Russian steel magnate’s beloved boat was seized in Gibraltar as part of a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse amongst oligarchs’ mega-yachts since the start of the Ukraine war.
Yachts of those linked to Vladimir Putin are being confiscated by authorities in (mostly European) ports across the world but for some of those marina-hopping to avoid sanctions are finding it harder to lay low than others. Businessman Dmitry Kamenshchik’s mega-boat is the height of three London buses end-to-end and comes with an onboard hospital and dive school, and a boat docked in Italy that’s reportedly owned by Putin himself is the size of two apartment blocks, with local captains saying it’s the biggest they’ve ever seen - and that’s by superyacht standards.
