12 May, 2023 16:20

Russian tycoon wants his superyacht back

Sergey Naumenko, who is not under sanctions, is suing the UK for unlawful seizure

Russian property developer Sergey Naumenko has filed a High Court claim against the UK’s Department for Transport (DfT), seeking to free his £38 million ($47.8 million) superyacht ‘Phi,’ which was seized by the department last year as part of Western sanctions.Naumenko is not on the sanctions list and denies any links to the Russian government.

According to the document filed on May 10, the businessman wants the British authorities to release the vessel, which has been moored in London’s Canary Wharf since the end of 2021, and is seeking undisclosed damages.

The seizure of the vessel in March 2022 was announced by the transport secretary at the time, Grant Shapps, who posted a video on TikTok calling the owner “a friend of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” which Naumenko has denied. The ship’s captain reportedly told Bloomberg that Naumenko had “never met Putin.”

The 192-foot Phi features what the builders called an “infinite wine cellar,” as well as a fresh-water swimming pool.

A full hearing to decide the fate of the yacht will take place later in July.

Dozens of superyachts belonging to wealthy Russians have been confiscated across the world as part of Western sanctions. Last August, a$75-million superyacht linked to sanctioned Russian billionaire Dmitry Pumpyansky was auctioned off in Gibraltar. The luxury vessel was sold for the benefit of US investment bank JPMorgan Chase, which claimed that Pumpyansky owed it more than $20 million.

Thetotal valueof Russian superyachts seized by the West is estimated atmore than $4 billion, according to The Guardian.

(The US and EU are stealing and selling personal property that belong to Russians on the pretext they may be friendly to Russia. This is the plan of the Bidan Admin for America First citizens. No law is sacred to them, their ideology is Satanic, their destruction of countries is their goal)

https://www.rt.com/business/576174-russian-tycoon-superyacht-uk-sanctions/

12 May, 2023 18:24

Erdogan scolds rival over ‘Russian interference’ claim

Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu should be ashamed of himself for spreading such rumors, the Turkish leader declared

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu for claiming without evidence that Moscow is interfering in Türkiye’s upcoming elections. Erdogan claimed thatthe West, and not Russia, is “manipulating the elections in Türkiye.”

“[Kilicdaroglu said that] Russia is manipulating the elections in Türkiye. Shame on you!”Erdogan told a crowd of supporters in Istanbul on Friday.

In a Twitter post a day earlier, Kilicdaroglu accused the country’s “Russian friends” of being “behind the montages, conspiracies, deep fakes and tapes that were exposed in this country yesterday.”

“Get your hands off the Turkish state,”Kilicdaroglu warned the supposed Russian meddlers.

Kilicdaroglu was likely referring to the publication of a video showing another presidential candidate, Muharrem Ince, allegedly engaging in an extramarital affair. Ince dropped out of the race on Thursday, blaming followers of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose political movement Ankara claims orchestrated a failed coup in 2016.

There is zero evidence linking Russiawith the publication or production of the tape, and the Kremlin said that it “firmly rejects”Kilicdaroglu’s claims.

"If I say ‘America is manipulating the elections in Türkiye, Germany is manipulating it, France is manipulating it, England is manipulating it', what would you say?" Erdogan continued, addressing his remarks to Kilicdaroglu.

While Erdogan did not attempt to tie the leak of Ince’s sex tape with any of the Western countries he mentioned, his interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, did. “It is clear who produced it,” he told CNN Turk earlier on Friday. “The perpetrator is the Gulen movement and the US.”

Soylu claimed that “America has been interfering in this election from the very beginning,” and produced the tape to force Ince out of the race and move his voters to Kilicdaroglu.

Erdogan did, however, accuseWestern media outlets of trying to shift public opinion in Türkiye against him. (The West went after and is going after any leaders that refused to condemn and sanction Russia. They are still trying to do the same in Hungary. Each attack by the West has a “color revolution” included)

"What do all the magazines say on their covers? 'Erdogan must go.' [Those published] in Germany, France and England say so,” he said at Friday’s rally. "How do you put these words on the covers of these magazines? It's not you, the West! It's my nation that will decide!”

This week’s edition ofThe Economist features the slogans “Erdogan must go” and “save democracy” on its cover, while France’s Le Point and L'Express magazines also featured anti-Erdogan covers.

Türkiye’s presidential and parliamentary elections will take place on Sunday. Recent polling shows Erdogan – a social conservative who steered his country away from integration with the EU – and Kilicdaroglu – a centrist who favors realignment with the West – within single digits of each other.

https://www.rt.com/news/576193-erdogan-russian-interference-election/