BBC: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A superyacht linked to one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s key allies has sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, despite the ongoing blockade of the critical shipping channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 142m-long (465 feet) Nord luxury boat, linked to sanctioned Russian billionaire Alexey Mordashov, travelled from Dubai to Muscat, Oman over the weekend, one of a few private vessels to transit through the strait in recent months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran has engaged with Russia in high-level talks this week as its standoff with the US over the strait’s re-opening continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Approximately one-fifth of global crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies normally pass through the waterway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mordashov, who has close ties to Putin, is not listed as the formal owner of the luxury boat. However, Nord’s records indicate it was registered to a firm owned by his wife in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nord, estimated to be worth over $500m (\u00a3370m), left Dubai on Friday night and arrived at Al Mouj, a marina in Oman’s capital, on Sunday morning, according to data on the Marine Traffic platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maritime traffic through the Gulf channel is currently at a fraction of pre-war levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The conflict has contributed to a sharp rise in global oil prices, with the global benchmark Brent crude rising to $109 (\u00a380) a barrel on Monday.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Iran has continued restricting shipping through the vital waterway after President Donald Trump announced US forces would impose a blockade on Iranian ports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Russian-flagged Nord managed to clear the strait despite private vessels largely avoiding the waterway since the outbreak of hostilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While long-term peace negotiations stall between the two sides<\/a>, Tehran has this week focused its diplomatic efforts on cementing its relationship with Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted an Iranian delegation in St Petersburg on Monday, where Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi hailed their “strategic relationship”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Putin told Araghchi that the Iranian people were “courageously fighting” for their sovereignty in the face of American and Israeli pressure, Russian state-run news agency Tass reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Araghchi shared photos on X showing him smiling and shaking hands with Putin and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He wrote: “Recent events have evidenced the depth and strength of our strategic partnership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “As our relationship continues to grow, we are grateful for solidarity and welcome Russia’s support for diplomacy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Russian superyacht has a swimming pool, submarine and helipad, according to a profile in the magazine Superyacht Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mordashov has been targeted by western sanctions, including from the UK, US and European Union since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hong Kong<\/a> and the Maldives<\/a> have previously not seized the yacht despite calls from western nations to freeze his assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mordashov is the chairman of Russia’s largest steel and mining company Severstal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With an estimated net worth of about $37bn (\u00a327bn), Mordashov is the richest Russian national listed by the US business magazine Forbes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is not clear if he was on board Nord while it passed through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BBC: A superyacht linked to one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s key allies has sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, despite the ongoing blockade of the critical shipping channel. The 142m-long (465 feet) Nord luxury boat, linked to sanctioned Russian billionaire Alexey Mordashov, travelled from Dubai to Muscat, Oman over the weekend, one of a few private vessels to transit through the strait in recent months. Iran has engaged with Russia in high-level talks this week as its standoff with the US over the strait’s re-opening continues. Approximately one-fifth of global crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies normally… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57110,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57108\/revisions\/57110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}