| Name: | MERIDIAN A / Valerie |
| Length: | 85 m (279 ft) |
| Guests: | 17 in 9 cabins |
| Crew: | 27 in 13 cabins |
| Builder: | Lurssen |
| Designer: | Espen Oeino |
| Interior Designer: | Reymond Langton |
| Year: | 2011 |
| Speed: | 17 knots |
| Engines: | MTU |
| Volume: | 2.755 ton |
| IMO: | 1010624 |
| Price: | $140 million |
| Annual Running Cost: | US$ 10 – 15 million |
| Owner: | Sergey Chemezov |
| Captain: | Pls send info! |
The yacht MERIDIAN A was built by Lurssen as Valerie and delivered to her owner in 2011. The MERIDIAN A boat is designed by Espen Oeino.
MERIDIAN A has a length of 85 meters (279ft). She has a draft of 3.8 meters and realizes a cruising speed of 14 knots. She is powered by two MTU engines. Her top speed is 17 knots. Her range is 6,000nm.
Reymond Langton Design is responsible for her interior. The luxury yacht can accommodate 17 guests in 8 suites. She has a crew of 27.
M/Y MERIDIAN A can often be found in Barcelona (update since 2021 she is detained in Barcelona). In July 2014 she was in Antibes, France.
We were told the yacht is owned by Rinat Akhemetov. But she is actually owned by Sergey Chemezov, CEO of ROSTEC.
(Akhemetov is the owner of the yacht LUMINANCE).
Sergey Chemezov, is the CEO of ROSTEC. He is a close ally of President Putin, and active in his inner circle. They served in the KGB together.
Chemezov was born in 1952. He is married to Yekaterina Ignatova. He has four children, including his eldest son Stanislav (from his first marriage). Stanislav Chemezov is active at AvtoVaz.
Chemezov received many Russian Awards, including Order For Merit to the Fatherland and National Order of the Legion of Honour.
His net worth is probably around $1 billion. His assets include shares in Rostec, Russian car manufacturer Kazam, and a real estate portfolio.
In the so-called Pandora Papers it was disclosed that the yacht is registered to a BVI company named Delima Services Limited. This company is registered in the name of Anastasia Ignatova, Chemezov’s step-daughter.
Rostec is a Moscow-based company investing in defense and high-tech industries. Investments include the United Aircraft Corporation (which builds civil and military aircraft), Russian Helicopters and Kalashnikov Concern, builder of weapons. Rostec also owns stakes in car manufacturers KAMAZ and AVTOVAZ.
In March 2022 the yacht was seized by Spanish authorities in Barcelona.
The 85-metre superyacht originally known as Valerie—later renamed Meridian A—has been at the center of a complex ownership dispute and sanctions controversy since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The yacht, valued at around 140 million USD, was detained in Barcelona in March 2022 as part of the EU’s sanctions enforcement efforts.
According to court and corporate records, the vessel had been linked to Sergei Chemezov, one of Vladimir Putin’s long-time allies and the head of the state-owned defense conglomerate Rostec. Although Chemezov’s name never appeared in official ownership documents, the yacht was associated with offshore companies and family members, including his step-daughter Anastasia Ignatova, through whom the asset was allegedly controlled.
During legal efforts to challenge the seizure and lift sanctions, more information surfaced about the structure of ownership behind Valerie. Those proceedings exposed the network of offshore entities used to hold the yacht and other assets, shedding light on how Russia’s elite attempt to protect wealth from international restrictions.
In recent years, ownership of the yacht was reported to have been transferred to Russian businessman Albert Avdolyan, known for his investments in telecommunications and energy. The change of name to Meridian A coincided with this transition, though questions remain about when and under what circumstances the transfer took place.
The story of Valerie / Meridian A illustrates how luxury assets tied to powerful figures can become entangled in global sanctions regimes, and how legal actions intended to challenge those measures sometimes reveal more than they conceal.
(source: Kyiv Independent)
We received this message:
Subject: Request for Factual Correction of a Publication on SuperYachtFan.com
Dear Sir, Madam,
We write to you in our capacity as legal counsel for Mrs. Anastasia Ignatova. On 8 April 2022, Mrs. Ignatova had been subjected to sanctions by the European Union as “stepdaughter of Sergei Chemezov” in connection with her supposed ownership of yacht “Valerie” (currently renamed as “Meridian A Yacht” (the “Yacht”). Mrs. Ignatova contests her designation under the EU sanctions in legal1 and administrative proceedings presently pending in front of the EU courts and the Council of the European Union (the “Council”).
Mrs. Anastasia Ignatova’s designation by the EU sanctions has been most recently maintained by the Council on 14 March 20262, in particular in reliance on a publication entitled “MERIDIAN A Yacht” by SuperYachtFan.com (the “Publication”), and available at https://www.superyachtfan.com/yacht/valerie/, which contains a discussion of the ownership of the Yacht and appears to erroneously attribute present ownership to Mr. Sergey Chemezov, our client’s step-father.
While the Publication correctly states that “in recent years, ownership of the yacht was reported to have been transferred to Russian businessman Albert Avdolyan”, it nevertheless refers to Mr. Chemezov as its owner in at least three instances – in the title of the Publication,
in the summary table containing the characteristics of the Yacht, as well as in the section entitled “Who is the Owner of the Yacht MERIDIAN A?”3. The Publication also states that the Yacht is “linked to” Mr. Chemezov through “offshore companies and family members,
including his step-daughter Anastasia Ignatova”.
These statements are wrong and we would accordingly ask you to remove them.
In particular, as your Publication expressly acknowledges, Mr. Chemezov has never owned the Yacht. As such, there is no actual basis for Mr. Chemezov to be described as the owner of the Yacht, actual or otherwise, and we assume the reference must have been made out of error. Also, at no point was the Yacht “linked” to Mr. Chemezov.
As your Publication correctly states, our client was a previous owner of the Yacht (through her ownership of the BVI company Delima Services Limited (“Delima”)), and we can share with you a recent extract from the Equasis database, which as you will be aware is the most comprehensive internationally recognised vessel database developed by the European Commission and managed by the European Maritime Safety Agency4 (see Annex).
The Yacht was ordered at the Lürssen wharf in 2009 by Mr. Boris Kogan, a Ukrainian businessman and prominent figure in the maritime industry featuring in a number of publications on your site, including a detailed personal profile describing him, in particular, as
the owner of other luxury yachts.5 Mr. Kogan owned the Yacht in particular through Linkpoint Services Ltd (“Linkpoint”), a BVI company and appointed Kaalbye Shipping as the ship manager and commercial manager from its launch in 2011. As the profile of Mr. Kogan on
your site recounts, Kaalbye Shipping is a highly regarded marine transportation and vessel management company established by Mr. Kogan.
Mr. Kogan was the godfather and a close personal friend of our client and her mother.
Upon Mr. Kogan’s death on 5 October 2017, and in accordance with the terms of his will, the Yacht was inherited by our client, Mrs. Anastasia Ignatova, who became the owner of Linkpoint and with it, the Yacht. Mrs. Ignatova, who had already enjoyed visiting the Yacht
during her godfather’s lifetime, continued using it for some time but quickly found it impractical to run and therefore decided to sell it. In 2019, she initially engaged IYC, who duly started marketing it on 4 April 2019.6 No sale having substantiated, another broker, Dynamiq Sales & Charter, was engaged in July 2020.7 In parallel, the ownership structure of the Yacht was streamlined in preparation for a sale, with the Yacht transferred from Linkpoint to Delima.
On 23 July 2021, Mrs. Ignatova sold the Yacht (by way of sale of shares in Delima) to Mr. Albert Avdolyan. Mr. Albert Avdolyan is a Russian businessmen with business interests in the energy sector, especially coal and LNG and a member of Forbes’ List with a reported
wealth of USD 7.1 billion.
As far as we are aware, the Yacht remains legally and beneficially owned by Mr. Avdolyan through Delima (currently renamed Sulberg Services Limited) to present day, as recorded in the annexed Equasis Report.
There is, as such, no legal or factual basis for Delima to be stated in your Publication as being (in the present tense) “registered in the name of Anastasia Ignatova”. Likewise, there is no basis for allegations according to which the Yacht was controlled at any stage through our client by Mr. Chemezov, or a fortiori, that it was owned or linked to Mr. Chemezov, a fact your Publication appears to acknowledge. Moreover, as follows from the Publication, and as corroborated by Equasis records, the Yacht is legally and beneficially owned by Mr Avdolyan since 23 July 2021, who would therefore be the correct person to be identified as its owner. Noting that according to your mission statement, SuperYachtFan “is deeply engaged in investigative journalism, dedicating extensive resources to unravel the complex ownership
structures of yachts”9 and abiding by these principles, we, therefore, request that you:
correct the statement according to which Delima is currently registered in the name of our client;
delete all references to Mr. Chemezov as the owner (current or past) of the Yacht, as well as assertions that the Yacht is “linked” to him;
correctly describe any details of the ownership history of the Yacht that you find worthwhile setting out, consistently with Equasis records; and
identify Mr. Avdolyan as the current owner of the Yacht.
We also request that you remove other references to Mr. Chemezov from the Publications as such references would no longer be relevant, in light of the corrections requested.
As a separate point, we also kindly ask you to uniformly refer to March 2022 as the time when the Yacht was arrested by the Spanish authorities, as on one occasion the Article currently states that “since 2021 she is detained in Barcelona”. We also note that the tab
“Owner” appears to be linked to the page dedicated to Rinat Akmetov, which would need to be replaced with a link to Mr. Avdolyan’s page.
We note that your site is stated to be GDPR compliant and would also on that basis request that you correct the incorrect data published about our client.
Please let us know if you would like to discuss this request with us. We would be happy to provide further documentary evidence, to the extent available to us.
We would also appreciate an acknowledgment of receipt of this letter and your response at your earliest convenience, in any case not later than ten (10) calendar days upon receipt of this letter. We expressly reserve the right to pursue all available legal remedies
otherwise.
Her value is $140 million. Her annual running costs are around $10 million. The price of a yacht can vary greatly depending on a number of factors, including the size, age, and level of luxury of the yacht, as well as the cost price of materials and technology used in its construction.
Lürssen Yachts is a luxury yacht builder based in Bremen, Germany. The company was founded in 1875 and is known for building custom-made motor yachts, with sizes ranging from 50 to 180 meters in length. Lurssen yachts are known for their high-quality craftsmanship, attention to detail, and use of advanced technology. The company has a reputation for building some of the world’s largest and most complex yachts, and has a long history of working with top yacht designers and naval architects to create innovative and unique yacht designs. The most notable projects include Azzam, Dilbar, NORD, and Scheherazade.
Espen Øino is a Norwegian yacht designer who is known for designing some of the world’s largest and most luxurious yachts. He is the founder and principal designer of Espen Øino International, a yacht design firm based in Monaco. Espen Øino has designed over 200 yachts, including many of the world’s largest and most technologically advanced yachts. Oeino is considered to be one of the world’s leading design studios for large luxury motor yachts. Notable projects include Flying Fox, Crescent, and Octopus.
When using the information from this article, please remember to give credit to SuperYachtFan. Our team works hard to provide accurate and engaging content for our readers, and we appreciate your support!
Dear Journalist/Reporter, SuperYachtFan is willing to extend a special offer to support your journalistic endeavors and research in the maritime luxury segment. Upon receipt of verification that you have published an article – with adequate credits to SuperYachtFan – on an ‘established medium’, we would be pleased to provide you with complimentary access to our meticulously compiled Yacht Owners Database. Please note, this offer is subject to certain conditions, more details regarding the same can be provided upon your interest.
The boat is not available for yacht charter. In 2019 the yacht was listed for sale.
Our yacht owners database has more info about yachts, the value of yachts, yacht owners, their source of wealth, and net worth.
Info about the yacht’s Owner, more Photos and Video, her current Location, and the latest News.
The yacht’s interior is designed by Reymond Langton.
These yacht’s tenders were built by Royal Denship. More Yacht Tenders
SuperYachtFan Yacht Owners Database Q2-2026
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