Igor Sechin: the epitome of power in Putin’s Russia
Igor Sechin knows better than most that the course of true love never did run smooth. Amore Vero, a yacht linked to the head of the state oil company Rosneft, once bore the name St Princess Olga, apparently in honour of Olga Rozhkova, his second wife.
After the couple split, around 2017, according to independent Russian media, the boat was renamed.
Sechin, a close ally of Vladimir Putin who has been described as the second most important person in Russia, never publicly claimed ownership of the Amore Vero. However, a reporter at Moscow-based Novaya Gazeta traced a series of pictures on Rozhkova’s Instagram that matched the 86-metre vessel and its movements through the world’s most glamorous ports. The boat accommodates up to 14 guests in eight staterooms, plus a private owner’s deck and a swimming pool that turns into a helipad.
Sechin was sanctioned by the EU on Monday, but he has not been blacklisted by the UK. Now the French government has confirmed it thinks he is the main shareholder of the offshore company that owned the Amore Vero. It was seized this week by customs in a night-time raid on a dockyard near Marseille.
The $120m ($90m) Amore Vero and others like it have become symbols of a crackdown on the super-wealthy elite around Putin after the invasion of Ukraine prompted a wave of sanctions as the US, EU and UK try to isolate Russia’s economy.
As chief executive of Rosneft, Sechin commands a central place in that economy. The oil it supplies to the world is one of Putin’s key geopolitical tools, and taxes on the company brought in 1.8tn roubles for the Russian government in 2020 alone. That cash would have been enough to fund about 40% of the annual military budget.
Perhaps more than anyone else, Sechin is
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