The superyacht of a former KGB agent Russian oligarch is stranded in Norway: it lives from hunting and fishing because they don't want to refuel it

The crew aboard the superyacht of a Russian oligarch in Norway are fishing and having a barbecue while local businesses refuse to fuel the vessel, which has caused it to be stranded, the ship's captain told The Wall Street Journal.

The vessel, Ragnar, is believed to be owned by Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, a former KGB agent who has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but who has avoided sanctions, the US financial outlet reported.

The Ragnar, valued at $85 million, according to SuperYacht Fan, “has been blocked in the port of Narvik (Norway) for more than a month because fuel suppliers refuse to do business with Strzhalkovsky”, the man who — as the New York Times defined him — went from chasing speculators to making fortunes in the business world.

While Strzhalkovsky is not among the Russian oligarchs affected by Western sanctions, Norwegian fuel suppliers told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK last week that they did not want to help any entity associated with Russia, following the invasion of Ukraine, The Business Insider said.

According to the website Supeyatch Fan, “he was deputy minister of economy and headed a government department to promote tourism before being appointed Managing Director of Norilsk Nickel in 2008.”

“In 2011 he left the company with a millionaire compensation of $100 million. Then he bought the famous Italian winery Scarpa and in 2015 became vice-president of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Cyprus. He is also president of the Dynamo Moscow club.”

The United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union have imposed sanctions on oligarchs considered close to Putin, leading to the seizure of private yachts and jets.

In some countries, people have protested against Russian products and entities that have not been sanctioned. For example, UK dockers refused this month to handle shipments of Russian natural gas, even though UK sanctions allowed the goods to be imported at that time.

“With no one to load the ship and nowhere to go, the crew of the Ragnar have been barbecuing freshly caught cod,” Rob Lancaster, the yacht's captain, told The Wall Street Journal.

“We didn't realize why there was so much trouble with us,” Lancaster told The Journal. “It happened so fast,” he lamented.

Lancaster told NRK last week that all 16 crew members on board were from Western countries and “have nothing to do with the ship's owner.”

“Although the Ragnar is not subject to sanctions, several oligarchs' yachts have been seized in Europe. A $75 million yacht belonging to Russian businessman Dmitry Pumpyansky was seized on Monday after it docked in Gibraltar, the local government told The Business Insider.

This is in addition to the arrest in Spain of a $153 million superyacht linked to arms magnate Sergey Chemezov, the seizure in France of a $120 million boat linked to Putin's trusted man Igor Sechin, and the seizure in Italy of a 578 million dollar boat dollars linked to the oligarch Andrey Melnichenko.

On the other hand, oligarch Roman Abramovich, owner of the Chelsea club in Great Britain, has moved his ships from various ports so that they are not embargoed.

The Solaris has been sailing without destination for more than a week and has updated its situation for the first time since it left port, as shown by vessel tracking data, suggesting that the ship has no immediate intention of docking.

As a ghost ship, the 140-foot ship valued at 600 million dollars, “is currently off the southwest coast of Turkey and is heading west, according to the tracking website Marine Traffic.

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