"A hole in the water you dump money into."

That is the statement of a friend about his boat. Boats, yachts and ships are very expensive to maintain and in the case of yachts and ships they have a crew.

Some folks are completely fascinated with the confiscation of the Superyachts. Correctly, they worry the yachts could become an expense to the countries of NATO. I will say this Abramovich is the peace negotiator for Russia. There must be a reason, such as, the Russians really want their yachts back.

For that reason, NATO should consider selling the yachts at auction with the proceeds going into a trust for the people of Ukraine. It will help defray some of the costs. Seriously. NATO can do as it please with the behemoths and secure some monies for Urkaine in the process. The Putin oligarchs may want to buy them back in rubles. Fine. We can confiscate them the second time, too.

April 3, 2022
By Sam Tabahriti and Grace Kay

Russian billionaires (click here) have been the target of Western countries' sanctions amid Russia's war in Ukraine but their yacht crews could also inadvertently suffer.

As the detention of their superyachts and properties show, Russian oligarchs are on world leaders' radar due to their ties with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Questions have been raised as to whether sanctions on Russia's financial system could also affect oligarchs' ability to pay their staff.


One of the earliest sanctions imposed on Russia was expulsion from the SWIFT payments system. The action was taken by the US, EU, UK, Canada, and other Western allies.

SWIFT, or the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is a Belgian communications system that was launched in 1973. It serves as a neutral platform for banks to chat about financial transfers, transactions, and trades.

Mitch Thomas, head of product development at a New York-based fintech company, FinLync, told Insider that Russia has got "a number of different routes" they can use to try and navigate around the ban....