World’s largest yacht, linked to Russian billionaire, seized by Germany

The shipbuilder behind the world’s largest yacht describes it as “one of the most complex and challenging yachts ever built,” with “entertainment and recreation spaces never before seen on” such a vessel, and an interior of “rare and exclusive luxury materials.”

It has two helipads and the largest yacht pool ever built, and it can accommodate 36 guests and 96 staff. And this week, it was impounded by German authorities for its ties to a Russian oligarch. Germany’s federal police said Tuesday that “through extensive investigations despite offshore concealment,” it found that the yacht is owned by Gulbakhor Ismailova, the sister of Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov. After police confirmed with Brussels that the vessel’s owner was sanctioned, the superyacht — named Dilbar, after Usmanov’s mother, according to the U.S. Treasury Department — was impounded. It is being held in the Port of Hamburg in Germany. Meanwhile, in Fiji, police are reportedly investigating a superyacht, suspected of being owned by Russian oligarch Suleyman Kerimov, which docked in the Pacific island nation this week. The Dilbar, the yacht impounded in Germany, is registered in the Cayman Islands, according to the Treasury Department, and worth between $600 million and $735 million, with an estimated annual running cost of $60 million. At 15,917 tons, it is the world’s largest yacht by internal volume, according to the ship’s maker, Lürssen, which touts its “classic profile with a light ivory hull and bronze accents.”