$500M Russian Superyacht Makes Mystery Hormuz Blockade Run
The Daily Beast • • world
Key Points:
- A $500 million Russian-flagged superyacht named Nord, owned by Russia’s richest man Alexei Mordashov, passed through the Strait of Hormuz without incident despite the passage being closed to commercial ships.
- The 465-foot vessel left Dubai and is currently docked in Oman, with neither Iran nor the U.S. interfering with its transit.
- Iran considered the yacht a civilian vessel from a friendly country and allowed peaceful passage, while the U.S. raised no objections since the yacht did not call at Iranian ports or have connections to Iran.
- The Strait of Hormuz has been closed for weeks due to heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran, but it remains unclear how the superyacht obtained permission to travel through the restricted waterway.
- Russia, a longtime ally of Iran, has reportedly been providing intelligence to Iran on U.S. military targets, adding complexity to the geopolitical context of the yacht’s passage.
