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The Strait of Hormuz may be closed to most marine traffic, but last weekend, the Russian mega yacht Nord transited through the waterway, from Dubai to the Port of Almouj in Oman.
The 142-meter-yacht is believed to be owned by Alexey Mordashov, Russia’s richest oligarch, worth $39 billion. The yacht is valued around $300 million. Mordashov is sanctioned by the US, UK, and EU. You may recall, when those sanctions first hit in 2022, Nord was one of the yachts that made a run for Russia, to avoid being detained. Unlike the Amadea yacht, which was seized in Fiji as it was fleeing, and, after a lot of legal maneuvering, was auctioned off, Nord slipped through the sanctions net and found safety in Vladivostok. Soon enough, the yacht was out exploring again, sticking to sanctions-free waters in Asia and the Middle East. It was docked in a port near Dubai when the US-Iran war began and Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz and the US pulled a maritime version of “You can’t fire me, I quit!” by announcing its own naval blockade of the strait.
Except the strait isn’t really closed. Although most cargo vessels are not transiting (in normal times, around 125 to 140 vessels would pass through per day; now it is a trickle of about 9 or 10), I have heard several reports of smaller boats transiting without any problems. Now, Nord isn’t a small boat—it’s longer than an American football field!—but it isn’t a tanker. No Russian oligarch with any self-respect would be caught on a tanker. He might own the tanker, but he won’t be out cruising on it. Gross.
Quick aside: just for kicks, I looked up the size of some of the US Navy ships involved in the blockade. Nord (142 meters) is about 40 percent the length of a US aircraft carrier (333 meters), and almost the same length as an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer (155 m).
On the night of April 24-25, Nord traveled south of Iran’s Larak Island and on to a port near Muscat, Oman. According to media reports, the vessel was allowed through because neither the US nor Iran objected. I have no idea how that communication takes place. Who does the captain ask? Mordashov probably has Putin as one of his favorites in his phone contacts. Did he call in a favor? I’m not convinced there is some big conspiracy here. On the same day, a passenger ferry transited the strait. The Iranians certainly don’t want problems with Russia. And, quite frankly, the US Navy has other priorities in the area.
But are those priorities being met? Because around the same time Nord was sailing to Oman, two other vessels sanctioned by the US also passed through the strait: a tanker called Ocean Jet, which is believed to be involved in the clandestine sale of Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and the vessel Lumina Ocean, which is part of Iran’s “shadow fleet” of petroleum tankers. In fact, according to Lloyd’s List, at least 26 Iranian shadow fleet vessels have passed the US blockade. I thought stopping exactly these types of vessels was the point of the US naval blockade?
More Money to Michael Flynn
Last week, I wrote about how the Department of Justice is now giving our tax dollars to Russian assets in the form of “legal settlements”. And I explained that Michael Flynn, Trump’s first and very short-lived national security advisor would likely get more than the $1.25 million we already heard about.
This week, Lawfare’s Anna Bower reports that the DOJ has agreed to another settlement with Flynn. The amount has not been disclosed.
I wrote in 2017 about how a Russian case officer might have assessed Flynn (and others in Trump’s orbit). I wrote, in part:
A top military figure, with a large ego, who felt slighted by Obama, the intelligence community and the military, Flynn was down. From the heights of JSOC to being fired—wrongly fired, no less, in his view—Flynn at this point would have made any foreign intelligence officer salivate. The man was vulnerable on several levels. His ego had taken a massive, public blow. He also firmly believed he was right, that he knew better than the president how to save the country from Islamic terrorists. Add to the mix that so many other military men had gone on to make millions in the private sector, cashing in on their military careers, their time in war zones, their connections to people both in government and in large defense companies. Flynn launched his own security consulting company and certainly might have thought: Where is mine?
Between payouts from Russia and payouts from Trump’s DOJ to cover the fact that Trump was helped by Russia, Flynn now has his millions. Too bad we’re the ones paying for it, both with our tax dollars and with our national security.
A roundup of things you should be reading
Ukraine Has Picked Up the Torch America Dropped (NYT)
Trump is driving US allies away (Washington Post)
Hungary’s business elite pivots away from Viktor Orbán (FT)
Just Security has launched WHAT JUST HAPPENED? as well as a litigation tracker to help readers keep up with the chaos
Alex Finley is a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, where she served in West Africa and Europe. She writes and teaches about terrorism, disinformation / covert influence, and oligarch yachts. Her writing has appeared in Slate, Reductress, Funny or Die, POLITICO, The Center for Public Integrity, and other publications. She has spoken to the BBC, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, France24, and numerous other media outlets. She was also invited once to speak at Harvard, which she now tells everyone within the first ten seconds of meeting them. She is the author of the Victor Caro series, satirical novels about the CIA. Before joining the CIA, Alex was a journalist, covering Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the Department of Energy. She reported on issues related to national security, intelligence, and homeland security. Did she mention she was invited to speak at Harvard?
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