Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich's $600 million superyacht was targeted by a failed graffiti stunt while docked in Barcelona

• A man tried to graffiti Roman Abramovich's $600 million superyacht, Crónica Global reported.
• The man hired a boat and tried to vandalize the yacht when it was docked in Barcelona, per the report.

A man tried to graffiti Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich's $600 million superyacht when it was docked in Barcelona, police confirmed to Spanish news site Crónica Global.

The West has imposed steep sanctions on Russian elites and oligarchs in the weeks since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, freezing their assets and in some cases limiting travel. Their superyachts and private jets – the most high-profile displays of their wealth – have been hit by government sanctions and activist action. A superyacht that belongs to a Russian oligarch and former KGB agent has been stuck in Norway for over a month because fuel suppliers are refusing to do business with its owner, even though he hasn't been sanctioned.

Abramovich, who owns top-ranking Chelsea Football Club and is worth around $13.9 billion, has close ties to the Kremlin. His 460-foot vessel, Solaris, left the Port of Barcelona a few days after the graffiti attempt and he has since been sanctioned by the UK.

According to Barcelona-based Crónica Global, a Lithuanian man hired a boat in the port on March 3 and asked the captain and sailor to direct it towards Solaris.

When his intention to graffiti it with spray paint became clear, the captain and the sailor protested, leading the man to try to take control of the boat, Crónica Global reported. After managing to overpower the man, the captain and sailor docked the boat back at the port and contacted port police and the Civil Guard, the publication reported.

The man said that he opposed Russia's invasion of Ukraine, per Crónica Global.

A Civil Guard spokesperson confirmed to Crónica Global that an incident occurred in the port on March 3 involving a passenger who wanted to graffiti a boat. The spokesperson said that there had been no arrests because charges hadn't been pressed. The Civil Guard didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

The Solaris, which has been docked in a shipyard for repairs since late 2021, left Barcelona on March 8 and headed east. As of Thursday morning it was located just south of Greece, while Eclipse, another superyacht owned by Abramovich, was just south of Italy, per MarineTraffic data.

Abramovich's $65 million private jet, meanwhile, flew back to Moscow on Tuesday after traveling to Istanbul and Tel Aviv over the weekend. Abramovich himself was spotted at an airport in Israel on Tuesday.