Russian Gunboat Diplomacy in Cape Town

The clock is ticking on the scheduled arrival in Cape Town of the private ‘yacht’ of sanctioned Russian steel tycoon, Alexey Mordashov. Ticking insofar as any vessel must provide the Transnet National Port Authority with 72 hours’ notice of its intention to berth and the 141-metre superyacht, Nord, is due to arrive in the Mother City on 9 November. Renowned the world over as the Tavern of the Seas, Cape Town has served as haven of shelter and replenishment for sailors since Bartholomew Dias in 1488. In recent years, Cape Town’s Victoria and Alfred marina has welcomed superyachts owned by American software billionaires to gulf oil sheikhs and yes, Russian oligarchs. The difference this time is that the owner of the yacht ‘Nord’ is a close ally and benefactor of Vladimir Putin and as such, is complicit in the atrocities and war crimes committed under Putin’s leadership.