The London court called the arrest of the Russian yacht for $ 50 million legal

The yacht Phi was detained in March 2022. Naumenko, who filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Transport, denied his connection with Putin and noted that he was not under sanctions, so the arrest of the vessel was unjustified. FT named another businessman as the owner of the yacht Phi Yacht

A court in London upheld the decision to arrest the yacht Phi, which was appealed by the developer Sergei Naumenko, reports Bloomberg .

The businessman, who is not under sanctions, filed a lawsuit against the British Ministry of Transport in May demanding that the arrest be lifted from the yacht and pay damages. Naumenko noted that he was not involved in political activities and had no ties with President Vladimir Putin. According to Naumenko, London arrested the yacht in order to "seem cool."

The court ruled that the country's authorities have the right to "wide discretion" in making decisions that contribute to the achievement of the "government's foreign policy objectives."

Naumenko, through a lawyer, said that he was going to appeal the verdict.

The cost of the 58-meter Phi yacht is estimated at £38 million ($49 million at the exchange rate of the Central Bank of Russia at the time of publication).

The yacht was detained at the port near Canary Wharf in London in March 2022. The then head of the British Ministry of Transport, Grant Shapps, said that this was done as part of measures "against those who want to benefit from ties with the Putin regime." The minister described the ship's owner as an "oligarch" and a friend of the Russian president.

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The Financial Times named the owner of the yacht not Naumenko, but Vitaly Kochetkov, the founder of the telecom operator in the Urals Federal District Motiv (legal entity Yekaterinburg-2000 LLC). According to the newspaper, he owned it through Portsmouth Maritime, registered in St. Kitts and Nevis, which controlled Hexagon Yachting Limited (Malta). The ship was supposed to go to this European country in March 2022, but these plans were violated by the arrest of the yacht.