Almost every third yacht in Montenegro is owned by a russian

In Montenegro, out of 363 yachts, more than a hundred belong to russians. Shipowners include russian officials and oligarchs.

The Montenegrin authorities have published a list of yachts entered into the Register of the Administration of Maritime Safety and Port Management.

Of the 363 yachts in the country, almost a third belong to russians. Among the ship owners is Ivan Sibirov, former director of Stroytransneftegaz, one of Gazprom’s largest contractors. Sibirov has an 18-meter motor yacht “Anastasia”.

This year, Montenegro closed the “golden passport” program, which had been operating in the country since 2019. The first owner of such a passport was a russian. In October 2021, the authorities of Montenegro published a document containing 166 positive decisions regarding the granting of citizenship of this country in exchange for investments.

Most of the recipients of “golden passports” are russians. For example, we are talking about the former head of “Rosturism” Oleg Safonov, partner of oligarch Roman Abramovich Andrey Horodilov, etc. Members of the customers’ families received Montenegrin citizenship.

After the large-scale invasion of russian federation into Ukraine, the authorities of Montenegro began to freeze the real estate of citizens of the russian federation.

Back in August of last year, the President’s Office announced that they expect Montenegro to strengthen sanctions against russian federation and close ports for russian vessels.