#YachtWatch Update: A Christmas Gift Idea
Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, whichever offends you least. Rant! will be taking a break over the holidays. But I’m not completely abandoning you! Next week, I’ll post Class 20, in which we’ll investigate another influence operation in Italy. Get yourself prepared by reviewing Class 8: A Little Penne Alla Vodka (still one of my favorite AI-generated images I made when playing around with Midjourney).
I’ll see you in the new year!
A friendly reminder that Rant! is a reader-supported publication. Thank you for making this newsletter possible!
ALEX’S WEEKLY RANT
I know how difficult it is to find just the perfect gift for that special someone in your life (i.e. me). So, this year, I’ve made it easy for you.
Folks: The formerly sanctioned Russian yacht Alfa Nero is now available for charter!
A quick recap of the Alfa Nero saga: The government of Antigua and Barbuda seized the $120 million Alfa Nero in 2022 at the behest of the US government, at the height of the yacht-seizing craze. The 267-foot yacht was believed to be owned by Andrey Guryev, a Russian fertilizer magnate worth somewhere in the range of $9 billion.
Guryev insisted the vessel wasn’t his. Soon enough, the yacht was running up bills of $30,000 a week for things like upkeep, docking fees, and electricity, all of which the government of Antigua and Barbuda had to cover since they had seized the boat. Eventually, the government was like, fuck these bills; we’re gonna sell this mother fucker. They set up an auction to unload the albatross, at which point Guryev’s daughter, Yulia, suddenly remembered the yacht was actually hers, setting off a cascade of legal battles. Despite the continuation of that litigation, the Antiguan government, last summer, went ahead and sold Alfa Nero (directly, not through an auction) for $40 million to a Turkish billionaire whose identity is still unknown.
If you want more background, see these past Rants:
That unknown Turkish billionaire is a kindly billionaire, willing to share his new acquisition with the plebs.
Well, plebs who can afford a yacht charter that starts at $812,500 a week (low season) and goes up to $875,000 a week (high season) for winter in the Caribbean. Prefer a summer cruise in the Mediterranean? Just switch those dollar signs to euros, because Alfa Nero is listed at €812,500 to €875,000 per week for the Med.
Pocket change, right?
Well, that’s just the cost of hiring the boat and paying the food and wages for the crew. Fuel, food and beverages for guests, docking fees, and tips for crew will be an additional cost. I did a little back of the envelope math. It costs about €500,000 to fill the yacht’s 295,000-liter tank, but I’m assuming it comes already full, so the budget needs to include topping off, plus fuel for the yacht’s generators, for jet skis and other toys, and for the yacht’s tenders, of which there are three, because duh, of course the yacht has three tenders.
The charter company says these additional expenses usually total around 25 to 30 percent of the base charter fee, so that’s an additional 262,500 dollars or euros. Although, as the charter company notes, “[C]harter guests who intend to regularly dine on caviar and vintage wine can expect to pay more,” adding, “No request is too large or detail too small on a yacht charter though it is wise to keep in mind the shipping costs should you request an expensive bottle of champagne to be transported to you whilst you are residing in a secluded bay of the Caribbean.”
So, I think you should budget higher when purchasing this Christmas gift for me.
The yacht can accommodate up to 12 guests in six cabins, but I refuse to share, so that’s 10 guests and me. The yacht has a pool with a current (because apparently that’s a thing?) and that converts into a helicopter pad, so don’t plan to fly in and land when I’m in the pool.
Also, did you remember to budget for the helicopter?
Meanwhile, the legal battles in Antigua continue, with Guryev’s daughter suing the Antiguan government for selling off the yacht. A legal decision from the High Court is expected in February 2025, so I recommend we schedule our charter sooner rather than later.
A quick mini-Rant! about Kari Lake
This week’s Rant!, as the last Rant! of the year, was supposed to be fun and light-hearted, so I am really angry that Trump named Kari Lake to run the Voice of America, and now I have to include this mini-Rant!
Dictatorship 101
Step One: Control Communications
Kari Lake is a liar. She promotes conspiracy theories, insists Trump won the election in 2020, refused to admit she lost her election in Arizona… in short, she is a liar.
And now, that liar is set to lead Voice of America, which was created in 1942 to counter information operations from authoritarian regimes. Now, Lake, who has done everything to lower trust in facts and truth and actual journalism, will run it, turning it into a propaganda machine for Trump, as he works to become an authoritarian leader. History is funny.
I imagine Lake will follow the lead of Margarita Simonyan, whom I wrote about here, and fashion herself as Trump’s lead propagandist (she has already done so, in many ways).
It’s another assault on truth and facts, part of Trump’s plan to let bad information (that is, only information that serves the leader) spread with impunity, as I wrote about here.
And there endeth both the Rant! and mini-Rant!
I wish everyone a wonderful holiday season. I’ll see you in the new year!
THE WEEK’S LINKS
A roundup of things you should be reading
TRUMP AND TRUTH
Running Spies Is Not a Game for Amateurs (New York Times)
Trump Chooses Kari Lake to Lead Voice of America (New York Times)
RUSSIA
The Wagner-style mercenaries plotting unrest in Romania (FT)
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?
