Russian oligarch’s yacht stuck in Norway as suppliers refuse to refuel
A 223-foot (68-metre) luxury yacht owned by a former KGB agent and longtime acquaintance of Vladimir Putin is currently stranded at a Norwegian port after locals’ persistent refusal to sell it fuel.
The vessel, called Ragnar, an old norse word meaning “warrior”, is owned by Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, and its crew has been told by Norwegian fuel suppliers in the northern port of Narvik to “row home” or “raise the sails”. They say they will not refuel it because of the owner’s links to the Russian president.
Its captain Rob Lankester, who says he is a British former Royal Marine, has accused Norwegian authorities of discrimination, saying the yacht’s owner is not on the sanctions list and that neither he, nor his 15-man crew, is Russian. Neither he says, is the yacht Russian, as it is registered in Malta, sailing under the Maltese flag. “But no one will listen to us,” he said.
Lankester added that he and his crew “just want to go home”. He has accused Norway of operating double standards as Russian fishing boats, which he said account for 20% of the economy in northern Norway, are “able to buy fuel and operate unhindered in Norwegian ports and waters”. Russia landed $150m in fish in Norway in 2021 according to publication Intrafish.
Lankester told the Norwegian broadcaster NRK, which was allowed on to the yacht: “We are a western crew of 16 people on board. We have nothing to do with the owner of the boat.”
In a written complaint addressed to authorities on 15 March, and seen by the Guardian, he wrote: “As a western crew we are disappointed in the double standards that certain factors of Norway have inflicted on the yacht and crew. This yacht and its ultimate beneficial owner are on no European or UK sanction list so we find the
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