Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 15
By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:
Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping CJSC really has an intention to buy the “Maxim Gorky” motor ship from the Moscow River Shipping Company, the Azerbaijani company told Trend Jan. 15.
“There is such an intention. However, a decision has not been made,” said the company.
The details of the talks are not specified, and it is known only that the Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping CJSC is one of the contenders for the acquisition of the motor ship.
Earlier, the Kommersant newspaper reported citing sources in the market and Director General of the Moscow River Shipping Company Konstantin Anisimov that the motor ship has been used only as a restaurant since 2014 due to the high cost of its operation, and the Russian company intends to sell it for about 20 million rubles.
Anisimov said that along with the Azerbaijani company, Russia's Nizhny Novgorod Administration also intends to buy the motor ship.
According to him, “Maxim Gorky” is a “landmark ship” for the city because it was built at local shipyards, and the 150th birth anniversary of the Russian writer, Maxim Gorky, is marked in 2018.
The interest of Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping CJSC may be related to the fact that the company celebrates its own 160th anniversary in 2018, and a museum can be created on the ship, explained Anisimov.
The motor ship was built in 1934 for the government of the USSR. The motor ship is called “Stalin’s yacht” as Soviet officials and party leaders - Lavrentiy Beria, Lazar Kaganovich, Grigory Ordzhonikidze, Vyacheslav Molotov, Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev - had vacations on it in different years.
The ship's length is 69 meters and its width is 13 meters. In 2003, its engines, navigation equipment and mechanisms were replaced, the hull was repaired and the restoration of internal premises was carried out.