Back in mid-February, billionaire Russian oligarch (and Chelsea Football Club owner), Roman Abromavich, set tongues wagging when he docked his super luxury yacht, the 533-ft Eclipse, at Pier 90, on Manhattan’s West Side. By tonight, it will have cast off to another pier and then back towards billionaire wonderland, from whence it came, according to a secret maritime source. Its NYC stay has cost Abromavich upwards of $2000-a-day by the New York Times’ estimate. For a Russian oligarch used to the best in everything—his $1.5 billion yacht (now the world’s 2nd largest) is touted as possessing no less than a missile defense system, bullet-proof glass and a submarine—that’s pocket change.
The Eclipse is soon leaving port because earlier this week Abromavich’s long term girlfriend Dasha Zhukova—art world player and socialite daughter of oilman and illegal arms dealer, Alexander–gave birth to a baby girl at Roosevelt Hospital. So says a very hush ANIMAL source who’s familiar with the goings on of the city’s super rich. It does the heart good to know that even though the good ol’ US of A has slipped a bit economically lately, Abromavich wanted—and got–only the best global status money could buy for his cosmopolitan offspring. Giving new credence to the old term “Anchor Baby,” American citizenship has been conferred on the little Abromovich (we don’t yet know her name) via the controversial process of “birthright citizenship.” God Bless America. (Photo: Bucky Turco/ANIMALNewYork)
