Superyacht linked to sanctioned Russian oligarch is auctioned in Gibraltar

Superyacht linked to sanctioned Russian oligarch is auctioned in Gibraltar
The Axioma superyacht belonging to Russian oligarch Dmitrievich Pumpyansky, who’s on the EU’s list of sanctioned Russians, is seen docked at a port, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Gibraltar, in March 2022. (Reuters/File)
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Updated 23 August 2022

Superyacht linked to sanctioned Russian oligarch is auctioned in Gibraltar

Superyacht linked to sanctioned Russian oligarch is auctioned in Gibraltar
  • The Axioma was impounded by the Gibraltar authorities in March
  • There was an “unexpected late surge by prospective buyers” around the world for the vessel

MADRID: A $75-million superyacht linked to a sanctioned Russian steel billionaire was auctioned on Tuesday in Gibraltar, court sources said, in what is understood to be the first sale of its kind since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
The Axioma was impounded by the Gibraltar authorities in March after US bank JP Morgan said its alleged owner Dmitry Pumpyansky had reneged on the terms of a $20 million loan.
The 72.5-meter vessel was auctioned by the Gibraltar Admiralty Court through a system of closed bids to be sent electronically by midday on Tuesday, a court spokesman said.
There was an “unexpected late surge by prospective buyers” around the world for the vessel, Nigel Hollyer, broker to the Admiralty Marshal of the Supreme Court of Gibraltar who led the auction, told the Guardian newspaper last week.
The boat sleeps 12 people in six cabins and boasts a swimming pool, a spa, 3D cinema and water sports equipment.
According to court papers seen by Reuters, JP Morgan lent 20.5 million euros to British Virgin Islands-listed Pyrene Investments Ltd. which was owned by Furdberg Holding Ltd. Furdberg’s owner was Pumpyansky, who acted as guarantor for the loan.
The papers said Pyrene Investments defaulted on the loan terms after Pumpyansky on March 4 transferred his shares in Furdberg to a third party and was then sanctioned, blocking the repayment of the loan.
The 58-year-old, who has an estimated fortune of $2 billion according to Forbes magazine, was sanctioned by Britain and the European Union shortly after the invasion of Ukraine.
Pumpyansky was until March the owner and chairman of steel pipe manufacturer OAO TMK, a supplier to Russian energy company Gazprom. The company said he had since withdrawn from the firm.
The Axioma is the first seized luxury yacht known to be auctioned since the West imposed sanctions on powerful Russians following the February invasion of Ukraine.

WATERSHED
Sources close to the process told Reuters JP Morgan would only claim the 20.5 million euros owed and that any further proceeds from the sale would be up to the court to disburse.
Scores of yachts and houses linked to Russian oligarchs have been seized by world governments since the invasion. British and American authorities have said they would seek to send the proceeds of sold assets to Ukraine.
A Gibraltar government source said the money would likely be frozen rather than handed to anyone other than the oligarch.
A spokesman for JP Morgan declined to comment.
James Jaffa, a lawyer for British firm Jaffa & Co. which specializes in yachts and who had represented the Axioma before it was seized, said the vessel was likely to sell for “way below” 20 million euros.
After the auction, he said, the ship broker, crew wages, the shipyard and maintenance would need to be paid ahead of the bank.
A successful sale would, nonetheless, be a “benchmark” for other banks looking to recoup losses by auctioning the repossessed property and other assets of sanctioned oligarchs.
“Axioma will be a watershed moment for assets that have bank financing against them because all the other banks will realize that the asset can be sold and that they can get some or all of their money back,” he said.
He stressed, however, that assets without financial claims against them which were seized by governments because of sanctions alone would be harder to sell.


Russia says use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine would harm the population

Russia says use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine would harm the population
Updated 11 sec ago

Russia says use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine would harm the population

Russia says use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine would harm the population
Russia’s defense ministry said on Friday that the use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine would harm Ukrainian troops, the wider population and negatively affect the country’s agriculture sector, the Interfax news agency reported.
Russia reacted furiously to plans outlined by Britain earlier this week to send shells containing depleted uranium to Ukraine.
London says they are a conventional form of ammunition, while President Vladimir Putin said the move showed NATO members were sending weapons with a “nuclear component” to Kyiv.

Kremlin: Important to identify object found next to Nord Stream pipeline

Kremlin: Important to identify object found next to Nord Stream pipeline
Updated 48 min 30 sec ago

Kremlin: Important to identify object found next to Nord Stream pipeline

Kremlin: Important to identify object found next to Nord Stream pipeline
  • Spokesperson: Ongoing investigation into blasts that struck the pipelines last September must be conducted with full transparency

MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Friday said it was important to identify an object discovered next to one of the Nord Stream pipelines, and said the ongoing investigation into blasts that struck the pipelines last September must be conducted with full transparency.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also told reporters it was a positive sign that Denmark had invited the Russian-controlled operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to help salvage an unidentified object found close to the Baltic Sea pipelines.
“It’s certainly positive news when the owner of the pipeline is invited to take part in very important phases of the investigation,” Peskov said.
Last week, Danish authorities said a tubular object, protruding around 40 cm (16 inches) from the seabed and 10 cm in diameter, had been found during an inspection of the last remaining intact Nord Stream pipeline by its operator, Nord Stream 2 AG.
“It is critically important to determine what kind of object it is, whether it is related to this terrorist act — apparently it is — and to continue this investigation. And this investigation must be transparent,” Peskov added.
Three of the four pipelines of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas links were hit in a still-unexplained explosion last September.
Russia has, without evidence, blamed Britain and the United States for the blasts, while European investigators have not said who they believe was responsible.


Myanmar arrests about 150 Rohingya fleeing to Malaysia

Myanmar arrests about 150 Rohingya fleeing to Malaysia
Updated 24 March 2023

Myanmar arrests about 150 Rohingya fleeing to Malaysia

Myanmar arrests about 150 Rohingya fleeing to Malaysia
  • Group of men, women and children was arrested in Thanbyuzayat township in southern Myanmar
  • Myanmar is facing genocide accusations at the United Nation’s top court following the mass exodus

YANGON: Myanmar authorities have arrested around 150 Rohingya suspected of trying to flee to Malaysia, an official said on Friday.
The group of men, women and children was arrested in Thanbyuzayat township in southern Myanmar, the official said, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The official did not specify why the group had been arrested, but the Muslim minority faces restrictions on traveling within Myanmar, where rights groups say they live in apartheid-like conditions.
“They were hiding nearby in hilly forest between two villages... We started arresting them since late last night after we got a tip-off,” the security source said.
According to initial reports, the group had traveled by boat from western Rakhine state and planned to travel on to Thailand and then Malaysia by road, the official said.
A number of non-Rohingya suspected of trafficking the group were also arrested, and police were looking for around 30 more people, according to the source.
A military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017 sent hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing into neighboring Bangladesh with harrowing stories of murder, rape and arson.
Myanmar is facing genocide accusations at the United Nation’s top court following the mass exodus.
Widely viewed in Myanmar as interlopers from Bangladesh, Rohingya are denied citizenship — along with access to health care and education — and require permission to travel.
The arrests come days after the junta said it would begin welcoming back members of the minority living in Bangladesh as soon as next month in a pilot repatriation program.
The plan would see Myanmar “repatriate about 1,500 displaced persons,” state media on Friday quoted a senior border affairs official as saying.
The border official did not give a specific timetable and added Myanmar had “not received any response yet” to the plan.
The returning Rohingya would be placed in a “transit camp for a short period” before being resettled in 15 villages, the official said.
“For their safety and security, we have police stations near the 15 villages,” it added.
Thousands of Rohingya risk their lives each year making perilous journeys from camps in Bangladesh and Myanmar to reach Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia.
Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, who has dismissed the Rohingya identity as “imaginary,” was head of the armed forces during the 2017 crackdown.


457 arrested, 441 police injured in France unrest: minister

457 arrested, 441 police injured in France unrest: minister
Updated 3 min 4 sec ago

457 arrested, 441 police injured in France unrest: minister

457 arrested, 441 police injured in France unrest: minister
  • There had been 903 fires lit in the streets of Paris during by far the most violent day of protests since they began in January
  • British King Charles III’s visit to France has been postponed amid mass strikes

PARIS: A total of 457 people were arrested and 441 security forces injured on Thursday during nationwide protests against French President Emmanuel Macron’s pensions reform, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

Speaking to the CNews channel on Friday morning, Darmanin also said that there had been 903 fires lit in the streets of Paris during by far the most violent day of protests since they began in January.

“There were a lot of demonstrations and some of them turned violent, notably in Paris,” Darmanin added, saying the toll was “difficult” while praising the police for protecting the more than million people who marched around France.

Police had warned that anarchist groups were expected to infiltrate the Paris march and young men wearing hoods and facemasks were seen smashing windows and setting fire to uncollected rubbish in the latter stages of the demonstration.

Darmanin, a rightwing hard-liner in Macron’s centrist government, dismissed calls from protesters to withdraw the pensions reform which cleared parliament last week in controversial circumstances.

“I don’t think we should withdraw this law because of violence,” he said. “If so, that means there’s no state. We should accept a democratic, social debate, but not a violent debate.”

Elsewhere on Thursday, the entrance to Bordeaux city hall was set on fire during clashes in the southwestern wine-exporting hub.

“I have difficulty in understanding and accepting this sort of vandalism,” the mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, told RTL radio on Friday.

“Why would you make a target of our communal building, of all people of Bordeaux? I can only condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”

A state visit by Britain’s King Charles III has been postponed amid mass strikes and protests in France, according to a statement issued by the French President’s office.
The king had been scheduled to arrive in France on Sunday on his first state visit as monarch, before heading to Germany on Wednesday.
The Elysee palace in France said in a statement that the French and British governments made the decision together after a call between Macron and Charles on Friday morning.


China threatens consequences over US warship’s actions

China threatens consequences over US warship’s actions
Updated 24 March 2023

China threatens consequences over US warship’s actions

China threatens consequences over US warship’s actions
  • USS Milius guided-missile destroyer sails near the Paracel Islands on Thursday, and again on Friday
  • The Paracel Islands are occupied by China but also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam

BANGKOK: China threatened “serious consequences” Friday after the US Navy sailed a destroyer around the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea for the second day in a row, in a move Beijing claimed was a violation of its sovereignty and security.
The warning comes amid growing tensions between China and the United States in the region, as Washington pushes back at Beijing’s growingly assertive posture in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway it claims virtually in its entirety.
On Thursday, after the US sailed the USS Milius guided-missile destroyer near the Paracel Islands, China said its navy and air force had forced the American vessel away, a claim the US military denied.
The US on Friday sailed the ship again in the vicinity of the islands, which are occupied by China but also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam, as part of what it called a “freedom of navigation operation” challenging requirements from all three nations requiring either advance notification or permission before a military vessel sails by.
“Unlawful and sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea pose a serious threat to the freedom of the seas, including the freedoms of navigation and overflight, free trade and unimpeded commerce, and freedom of economic opportunity for South China Sea littoral nations,” said US 7th Fleet spokesman Lieutenant junior grade Luka Bakic in an emailed statement.
“The United States challenges excessive maritime claims around the world regardless of the identity of the claimant,” Bakic added.
China’s Ministry of National Defense responded by accusing the US of “undermining the peace and stability of the South China Sea” with its actions.
“The act of the US military seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security, severely breached international laws, and is more ironclad evidence of the US pursuing navigation hegemony and militarizing the South China Sea,” ministry spokesman Tan Kefei said. “We solemnly request that the US. immediately stop such actions of provocation, otherwise it will bear the serious consequences of unexpected incidents caused by this.”
He said China would take “all necessary measures” to ensure its security but did not elaborate.
Like its statement on the Thursday incident, China again said it drove the American ship away from the islands, which are in the South China Sea a few hundred kilometers (miles) off the coast of Vietnam and the Chinese province of Hainan.
Both sides said their actions were justified under international law.
Bakic told The Associated Press that the ship “was not driven away” and “continued on to conduct routine maritime security operations in international waters” after concluding its mission near the Paracel Islands.
“The operation reflects our commitment to uphold freedom of navigation and lawful uses of the sea for all nations,” he said. “The United States will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, as Milius did today.”
The US has no South China Sea claims itself, but has deployed Naval and Air Force assets for decades to patrol the strategic waterway, through which around $5 trillion in global trade transits each year and which holds highly valuable fish stocks and undersea mineral resources.
A United Nations-backed arbitration tribunal ruled in 2016 that the historical claim from China on the waters had no legal basis under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Seas, and Washington maintains that freedom of navigation and overflight of the waterway are in the American national interest.
US forces currently operate in the South China Sea daily, and have been present for more than a century. China regularly responds angrily, accusing the US of meddling in Asian affairs and impinging upon its sovereignty.
China’s claims have frequently brought it into conflict with other nations in the region as well, and Filipino diplomats were expected to unleash a slew of protests on Friday over China’s recent targeting of a Philippine coast guard ship with a powerful military laser and other aggressive behavior.