Turkey opted out of the Western sanctions regime after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Ankara specifically opposed measures against Russian billionaires, while it takes Russian energy imports from them and coddles them as tourists. That’s why today a Russian yacht in Bodrum benefits from NATO territory, yet cannot be seized, unlike the vessels we have seen detained in Spain, France, Gibraltar and Fiji. Abramovich immediately after invasion moved his Eclipse to Marmaris and Solaris to Bodrum and Turkey has continuously protected him against sanctions.

Vёrstka now reports on Telegram that the superyachts of at least six sanctioned or sanctions-adjacent billionaires are converging within a day’s sail of Putin’s Victoria. The Russian elites are fleeing the war by summering together in the only Mediterranean jurisdiction with superyacht facilities on their side. Renamed vessels, reflagged registrations are how Turkish marinas are sponging up the berthing fees: Deripaska’s Altair arrived as new, although it had sailed these waters in 2022 as Clio, while Makhmudov’s Predator returns.

This week the Ukrainian SBU struck two Russian shadow fleet tankers in daytime attacks off the Russian coast near Novorossiysk and Sochi, with multiple drones ramming the hulls. That is the water the Victoria just vacated in a hurry. Ukraine has been hitting civilian-flagged vessels tied to the war economy, in Russian home waters, in daylight. The stationary 71-meter superyacht of Putin’s family is a lumbering, undefended, maximally symbolic target.

Turkey’s support of Russia has thus doubled. In 2022 it was legal protection against Western seizure. In 2026 it is also physical protection.