Shapps wrote on Twitter on Saturday: “We will not stand by and watch those who have won millions. [Russian president Vladimir] “Putin’s protection lives its life peacefully as innocent blood is shed.” The aircraft will remain at the airport, while officials will further investigate whether it falls under recent sanctions legislation banning all aircraft linked to Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. The DfT said it would not comment on the ownership of the aircraft as it investigated. The department has already detained two aircraft belonging to billionaire oil tycoon Eugene Shvidler, a business associate of Roman Abramovich who has been sanctioned. Svidler is a former boss and shareholder in Abramovich’s steel company, Evraz, and is estimated to be worth 2 1.2 billion. New laws were enacted after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Russian airlines and private jets have been banned from landing in the United Kingdom, along with the exclusion of any aircraft owned, operated or chartered by anyone linked to Russia. Other rules mean that other forms of transportation believed to be linked to the Putin regime could be seized. On Tuesday morning, a 38 38 million superyacht, Phi, was seized in the Canary Wharf in east London. He had arrived in the capital for the World Superyacht Awards. Saps appeared with a TV crew shortly after police boarded the boat. It later emerged that it belonged to Vitaly Vasilievich Kochetkov, who is not on the UK sanctions list. The ship was registered in Saint Kitts and Nevis, but was sailing under the Maltese flag. A government source told the FT: “This yacht detention is the result of weeks of investigations, covering the world, by the National Crime Agency and other agencies. The ownership of many of these ships and private jets is buried in hull companies or shielded by fake owners. “It’s the equivalent of the Russian matryoshka doll oligarch – where each layer hides another and then another.”
