A 223-foot (68-metre) luxury yacht owned by a former KGB agent and longtime acquaintance of Vladimir Putin, which is currently stranded at a Norwegian port, carries the Maltese flag.

Norwegian authorities are refusing to sell fuel to the vessel, and its crew has been told by Norwegian fuel suppliers in the northern port of Narvik to “row home” or “raise the sails”, the Guardian reports.

Its captain Rob Lankester, who says he is a British former Royal Marine, has accused Norwegian authorities of discrimination, saying the yacht’s owner is not on the sanctions list and that neither he, nor his 15-man crew, is Russian. Neither he says, is the yacht Russian, as it is registered in Malta, sailing under the Maltese flag. “But no one will listen to us,” he said.

See full report here

Photo: Ragnar at the quay in Narvik, north Norway. Photograph: NTB Scanpix/Alamy