Transport Secretary Grant Shapps ordered the detention of the ship in Canary Wharf in London, making it the first superyacht ever to be seized in U.K. waters.
The ownership of the vessel, known as Phi, "was deliberately well hidden," according to the National Crime Agency, whose "combating kleptocracy cell" worked with colleagues from the Border Force Maritime Intelligence Bureau to determine its owner.
Investigators identified the yacht's Russian owner and passed that information on to Shapps to order the detention. While the vessel's owner is not currently subject to U.K. sanctions, the agency said current rules still allow authorities to detain a ship whose proprietor has connections to Russia.
The NCA did not disclose who the owner was on Tuesday.
Shapps called the seizure "a clear and stark warning to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and his cronies" as the U.K. and other Western governments continue to step up sanctions to try to put pressure on the Kremlin over its month-old invasion of Ukraine.
"Detaining the Phi, proves, yet again, that we can, and will, take the strongest possible action against those seeking to benefit from Russian connections," he said.
The 59-meter ship, registered to a company based in the Caribbean islands of St. Kitts and Nevis, used Maltese flags to hide its origins, the NCA said after serving the detention notice on the ship Tuesday morning.
The yacht — the third biggest from Dutch shipbuilder Royal Huisman boasting an "infinite wine cellar" and a swimming pool — is the latest of several Russian-owned yachts to be seized across Europe. Italian authorities confiscated businessman Andrey Melnichenko's £444 million boat on March 11.
The government also announced the launch of the new "kleptocracy" cell in the NCA to investigate sanctions evasion in late February as part of the push to tackle money laundering through London's financial system by Russian oligarchs in response to their country's invasion of Ukraine.
But the move prompted skepticism from some attorneys. The agency already has an International Corruption Unit that investigates money laundering stemming from the corruption of foreign officials.
The NCA's Andy Devine said in Tuesday's statement that the seizure justified the move.
"We surged officers to establish the combating kleptocracy cell," he said, "and the results are already bearing fruit."
Since the war began, officials in the U.K., U.S. and Europe have steadily added to sanctions against the Kremlin.
HM Treasury froze the assets of another 59 oligarchs and Russian companies in February in a bid to inflict further damage to the Russian economy.
Europe, the U.K. and the U.S. have acted to cut off Russian banks from Western funding. Britain has slapped sanctions on lenders, including VTB Bank, whose U.K. subsidiary has been dropped from London Stock Exchange listings, Gazprombank and state-owned Russian Agricultural Bank.
--Additional reporting by Najiyya Budaly and Richard Crump. Editing by Joe Millis.
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