After nearly four years immobilized, a megayacht, Crescent, owned by "Russia's richest tycoon", is on the move.
The $600 million yacht was seized by Spanish authorities in 2022 in Port Tarraco, Tarragona, by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility, and Urban Agenda, amidst a sweeping European sanctions campaign against assets tied to Russian oligarchs. Right after, the U.S. FBI performed a raid and an onboard inspection, and the yacht has remained stagnant ever since.
Crescent is believed to belong to Igor Sechin, who is the CEO of Russian oil giant Rosneft and a close ally of Vladimir Putin. He has been on the EU and U.S. sanctions list since 2014 and was targeted in 2022 for his role in supporting Russia's war.
In late July, Luxury Launches reported that the yacht left Tarragona for another port in Barcelona, where the yacht will undergo service work until September.
The unexpected relocation of the Crescent has sparked questions about what changed in the legal and political landscape, allowing the yacht to move. It also serves as a reminder for taxpayer-funded upkeep of the yacht, as maintaining the yacht in ports requires taxpayer money for berthing, security, and shipyard work.
Luxury yachts have continued to draw scrutiny. Not only do citizens need to pay for luxury yachts to park in ports, but they also need to face the brunt of environmental harm brought on by these mega vessels. Chris Armstrong for The Guardian explained that owning a mega yacht is morally indefensible for starters because doing so "is the most polluting activity a single person can possibly engage in."
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Estimates suggest that a typical megayacht can emit thousands of tons of CO2 annually, with some emitting more than some small countries. Armstrong continued to explain that "the bulk of these emissions happen whether or not a yacht actually travels anywhere." As such, simply the upkeep of megayachts, which the Crescent has required for the past four years, still emits planet-harming pollution.
The question of why the yacht can relocate still remains unclear, especially when it is linked to security issues due to ties to the Russian war.
Many have called for governments to ban megayachts or bar them from entering ports. Enormous environmental inequalities have come as a result of billionaires owning megayachts, spurring many to urge governments to take more stringent measures to ban the vessels.
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