The superyacht Nord is recorded on the Marine Department’s website as having arrived in Hong Kong on Wednesday (Oct 5) afternoon and anchored at Western Quarantine and Immigration Anchorage at 4.14pm, under the agency of Lodestone Yachts.

Eagle-eyed netizens spotted the ship appearing in Hong Kong waters on an online vessel traffic monitoring website and took to the web to share their find. A ferry commuter then confirmed the yacht as being anchored off Hong Kong as he took a photo of the luxury vessel from the ferry on his morning commute and posted it to Twitter.

The 464-foot luxury pleasure craft allegedly belongs to Russian billionaire oligarch Alexei Mordashov and is worth over US$500 million, according to Forbes. Mordashov is the main shareholder and chairperson of Severstal, Russia's largest steel and mining company.

According to the Marine Department's website, all visiting yachts must fill in a three-page form to apply for permission to navigate in the waters of Hong Kong, including the specification of berthing location.

It is understood that the department approves applications as long as the vessels comply with a set of requirements, including having appointed a SAR legal agent and possessing safety and pollution prevention certificates, while sanctions on the yacht's owner are not among the considerations.

Duration of permission is usually granted on a monthly basis or shorter, but a visiting yacht cannot stay in Hong Kong waters for more than 182 consecutive days.

While the Marine Department oversees the yacht, people on board must also go through clearance by the Immigration Department upon arrival and prior to the department from the SAR waters.

The yacht has to stop at one of the three immigration anchorages -- Eastern, Western and Tuen Mun -- for examination by officers, during which the yacht's master has to provide a name list of crew and passengers on board, together with their travel documents.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the mega-yacht Nord was sailed to the Seychelles before heading to the Russian port of Vladivostok in order to avoid being seized by Western powers.

In March of 2022, Nord remained under the ownership of Alexei Mordashov and was registered in the Cayman Islands at a value of US$300 million.

Western sanctions put the multi-million-dollar mega yacht at threat of being seized, and the craft left the Seychelles on March 12, having refueled with US$465,000 of fuel and sailing full-tilt to Vladivostok, where she arrived on April 11. The vessel allegedly turned off its mandatory location responders and sailed the 6,701 nautical miles in stealth mode.

The craft took one more jaunt through the Sea of Japan, calling on the Port of Busan in South Korea before heading back to Vladivostok, where it was recorded as being anchored on June 6, 2022.

The multi-million-dollar yacht features a gym, elevator, swimming pool, movie theatre, tender garage, swimming platform, air conditioning, BBQ, beach club, spa room, sauna, underwater lights, and beauty salon.

There are also two helicopter landing pads; one is on the yacht's bow, and the other is on the top deck. The one on the top deck can be covered by a hangar that is built into the main mast.

Sanctioned Mordashov was mentioned in the Panama Papers and FinCEN files leaks – a company associated with Mordashov paid for several of Vladimir Putin's pet projects and gave generously to close Putin associates.

He is under sanctions due to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. According to the EU, Rossiya Bank, in which Mordashov owns a financial stake, is the "personal bank" of the senior officials who benefitted from the annexation of Crimea.