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A Russian Empire in the South Pacific?

At our annual Panama Puddle Jump party we meet a great diversity of cruisers, whose sailing backgrounds and personal narratives are as varied as the range of countries they hail from. For example, take Max Ivanov and his family.

Max and his family strike a pose at our recent Panama Puddle Jump party. They plan to check out Russia’s new empire in the South Pacific.

latitude/Andy
© Latitude 38 Media, LLC

If his story is to be believed — and we have no reason to doubt it — Max and family left their home port of St. Petersburg, Russia, a decade ago in a home-built boat, and made it all the way to the Caribbean coast of Colombia before deciding they really needed to upgrade. When we saw Max, his wife Natalia, their two lovely daughters Xenia and Polina, plus Natalia’s mom, Nadezda last month they were about to set sail for the South Pacific aboard Theofania with a very specific target in mind.

Sure, they planned to check out the Marquesas, Tuamotus and Society Islands, as virtually all westbound sailors do. But they were most interested in seeing Suwarrow, a remote atoll in the Cook Islands (administered by New Zealand). Why? First, because it was discovered by a Russian in 1814 who lent it his name. And second, because — according to Max — it was sold last year to Russian politician Anton Bakov, who intends to start a new Russian empire there.

When we were told this news, we naturally thought Max was just trying to get a rise out of us with his seemingly preposterous tale. But upon further investigation we learned that the claims, and accompanying controversy, had been reported in the New Zealand press last fall. The news organization NZN reported that Bakov claims "he bought the bird sanctuary from Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna for tens of millions of dollars." Puna, of course, dismissed the claims as ludicrous, but Bakov was defiant, stating in the Moscow newspaper Izvestia that he bought the island last summer and has since declared himself prime minister.

We certainly hope Max and his family aren’t too disappointed then they find out the claims are a sham (we generally try to avoid assumptions, but in this case we’ll go out on a limb). But if they are, perhaps they can find some other uninhabited South Pacific atoll to claim for Mother Russia. In fact, that might be a better idea anyway, because Max himself could be prime minister. In any case, we wish the Theofania crew the very best of luck.

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