F1: Mazepins steal back boat Italy illegally seized

After Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year, global leaders around the world wanted to find a way to pressure president Putin and halt his attacks – all of which have failed miserably.

Since March, Russian private yachts that dock in ports around the world risk being seized and sold off in an attempt to encourage the country’s rich and powerful to pressure Putin into ending his assaults. So far, the illegal seizures have failed miserably.

Mazepin, has had his family’s luxury liner seized in Italy, but they took it back right under the Italians noses.

The Guardian reports:

“The vessel, said to be worth between €700,000 ($743,000) and €1m, was docked at Olbia port and seized in March when Mazepin was named on the sanctions list in the weeks following the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“It remained there until June, when the yacht disappeared hours before it was officially confirmed as belonging to Mazepin.”

Presumably, they were able to confirm the ship as belonging to the Mazepins as “Nikita Woz Ere” was scrawled on the dock after the ship vanished. But, what happened to the ship next?

According to police in Italy, Dmitry Mazepin hired a foreign company, which then appointed a Sardinian captain to sail the yacht out of Italy. Once it left Italian waters, the ship reportedly made a stopover at the small port of Biserta in Tunisia. After that, its whereabouts become unknown.

The vessel is apparently now in Tunisian waters, immune from international sanctions, and no longer under threat of being auctioned off to ease Ukraine’s financial woes.

When the war is over the Mazepins are going to sue the heck out of Italy, F1 and the Haas F1 team for all the illegal things that were done to them – they had zero to do with Putin’s war.