A superyacht owned by a Russian billionaire businessman has been seized by Italian police in the same week as he was targeted by EU sanctions in the wake of the war in Ukraine.

As the Guardian reports, mining magnate Alexei Mordashov’s 65m yacht Lady M was impounded in the port of Imperia, a city on Italy’s Ligurian Sea coast.

Two other Russian oligarchs also had yachts seized in Imperia and La Ciotat, between Nice and Toulon in France, as the European Union moved to freeze assets in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which began in 24 February.

Lady M — which visited Belfast and Cumbria in 2017 — was delivered in 2013 by US yacht builder Palmer Johnson and is valued by Forbes magazine at some $27 million.

The Guardian has more on the story HERE.