[Leica] IMG: Wanted for sequestering - Vlad's pal's yacht

[Douglas Barry]

Jayanand, having been a banker for 40 years, I have to agree about 
Switzerland. Of course, Dubai, in deference to its client base, is 
supporting Russia's latest mass murder, but dirty money is everywhere, 
rinsed into shell companies - and even Leicas :-)

On that photo of Eclipse, I was sorry I hadn't brought something that 
would have given me interchangeable lens options, but in truth the 
little X100S, and use of my feet, covers 99% of holiday photo 
opportunities. The next time we go, thanks to the plague, I'll probably 
hire a large camera bag (a rental car) as my wife is twitchy about using 
public transport, and we'll wander inland, thus giving me the 
justification to bring a larger camera and a few lenses. As I get older, 
I resent having to tote around heavy equipment.

On Eclipse, I see that it is beating a hasty retreat from St. Barths in 
the Caribbean. It has headed across the Atlantic towards the Med where 
it should pass through the Straits of Gibraltar on its way to the Black 
Sea, or, more likely, the Russian controlled port of Tartus in Syria.
https://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=1009613

I can't see the British Navy flexing their well pruned muscles to stop 
it. That said, the yacht is registered in Bermuda - a British Overseas 
Territory - so Britain has a say in what it can do, so it might try 
something, but Putin might just have put one of his subs tracking the 
Eclipse, so there could be an incident. If so, there may be a photo 
opportunity :-)

Douglas



On 11/03/2022 03:02, Jayanand Govindaraj via LUG wrote:
> Dirty money has had a fascination for countries otherwise used to
> sanctimonious muttering for decades and decades and decades. Why point
> fingers at Putin and his oligarchs alone?
>
> Countries like India, Russia and China are huge generators of illegal
> money, while most economically advanced states are the willing, complicit
> beneficiaries. Who is more at fault?
>
> Every oligarch worth his salt nowadays has his fingers in a football/sports
> team or two, a wonderful, obtuse way to hide shady, whitewashed money,
> second only to property. London property markets are driven by stolen
> public money from Russia, India and the Middle East. Every Indian
> undesirable, when rumbled, makes a bee line for London, lives in
> unparalleled luxury, and never gets extradited back to face the music.
> Canada and Australia have been on a hot streak in the property markets
> because of similar flight capital from China. Switzerland, the country
> singularly responsible for keeping most undesirable dictators firmly in
> power over the decades by brazenly hiding their hot money, is now ceding
> its preeminence as the bankers of choice to the corrupt to Singapore, Dubai
> and a host of other island states. All politicians make noises, but nobody
> wants these jurisdictions to quite close down. And so it goes.....
>
> Cheers
> Jayanand
>
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 11, 2022 at 5:05 AM Douglas Barry <imra at iol.ie> wrote:
>
>> I went for a walk down by Dun Laoghaire today and was looking at yachts
>> when I thought of this one.
>> Summer '19, I was in Juan-les-Pins in the south of France and took this
>> photo of the superyacht Eclipse owned by Putin's pal Roman Abramovich,
>> an oligarch who has finally just been sanctioned by the tardy Boris
>> Johnson's government.
>>
>>
>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/DouglasBray/France/Cote+dAzur+2019/Cap+d_Antibes+Eclipse+in+Golfe+Juan.jpg.html
>>
>> The yacht is currently in the Caribbean, but was moored a good bit off
>> Cap d'Antibes where I took the shot, so it looks almost small, but it
>> certainly isn't. It's over 500 feet long, was built by Blohm & Voss who
>> built the Bismarck, and is fitted with a mini submarine for quick
>> escapes, military level radar, missiles, helicopters, and cost a pretty
>> penny. Unfortunately, those pennies appear to have come from a dirty
>> source.
>>
>> I only had my Fuji X100S with me, so a 23mm lens didn't exactly cut the
>> mustard.
>>
>> Douglas
>>
>>
>>
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