A superyacht linked to a sanctioned Russian oligarch has sailed through the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.
Nord — a 465-foot yacht worth more than $500 million — left a Dubai marina on Friday afternoon and had arrived in Muscat by Sunday, Reuters reported. It isn’t clear how the vessel, which has ties to steel magnate Alexey Mordashov, managed to secure safe passage, but there are a few coincidences: Iran and Russia have cooperated in both the Ukraine war and Tehran’s latest conflict with the US, and Iran’s foreign minister held talks with President Vladimir Putin — a friend of Mordashov’s — in Saint Petersburg on Monday.
The yacht, one of the largest in the world (with a submarine onboard, too), is not the only fun boat to make it through: The half-dozen cruise liners stranded in Gulf ports when the conflict broke out have all transited the strait safely in recent weeks.