putins yacht hamburg

• EILMELDUNG — __proto_headline__

Hastige Abreise aus Hamburger Hafen Rätselraten um Putins Jacht

• Zur Merkliste hinzufügen
• Link kopieren
• Weitere Optionen zum Teilen

Superjacht »Graceful«

82 Meter lang, rund 2800 Tonnen schwer, Maximalgeschwindigkeit 18 Knoten, geschätzte Baukosten: 87 Millionen Euro: Die Luxusjacht »Graceful« ist seit Jahren ein beliebtes Gesprächsthema  von Nautik-Nerds. Was nicht zuletzt an ihrem wahrscheinlichen Besitzer liegen dürfte: Sie wird Russlands Präsident Wladimir Putin zugeschrieben.

Und der wollte sein weiß glänzendes, mehrstöckiges Schiff offenbar umbauen lassen. Zwei Balkone sollten angebracht, das Unterboot gereinigt – und die Motoren sollten anscheinend überholt werden. So zumindest berichteten   es am Montagabend die »Kieler Nachrichten« – inklusive Beweisfoto der Jacht neben der Korvette »Emden« auf dem Werftgelände von Bohm+Voss.

Kurz nachdem der Bericht erschienen war, stach die »Graceful« in See. Kurs: ostwärts. Momentan befindet sie sich laut dem Portal marinetraffic.com  nördlich der Insel Rügen.

Die »Bild«-Zeitung schreibt   von einer »fluchtartigen« Abreise, offenbar aus Angst, die Jacht könne in Folge des Ukrainekonflikts festgesetzt werden.

Offizielle Informationen zu dem Fall waren zunächst nicht zu erhalten. Blohm+Voss hat bisher auf eine Anfrage des SPIEGEL nicht reagiert.

Mehr lesen über

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Documents show Putin’s order to move superyacht before Ukraine invasion

Russian president ordered urgent removal of Graceful from Hamburg shipyard, investigation claims

Vladimir Putin moved his $100m (£75m) superyacht from a German shipyard to Russia just weeks before he ordered the invasion of Ukraine, according to secret documents released in a new investigation.

A Russian anti-corruption organisation set up by the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny claims emails show that the Russian president ordered the urgent moving of the 82-metre superyacht, called Graceful, from a shipyard in Hamburg, where it was undergoing a $32m refit, by 1 February 2022.

Photos show the ship being towed out of Hamburg on 7 February en route to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, after the shipyard missed the 1 February deadline.

Just 15 days later – on 22 February – Putin ordered the full-blown invasion of Ukraine. After the invasion, the US, UK and EU imposed sanctions on Russian-owned assets overseas, and dozens of oligarch-owned superyachts were seized across the world.

The US government’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) lists the Graceful as “blocked property in which President Vladimir Putin has an interest”.

The Graceful, also codenamed Kosatka, or Killer Whale, which features a 15-metre indoor swimming pool that can be converted into a dancefloor, is just one of several superyachts linked to Putin.

An email sent to Hamburg’s Blohm+Voss shipyard on 19 January 2022 said: “The owner wants the Graceful to be brought to the Russian Federation on February 1st … Please mobilise an uninterrupted crew – 2 shifts.” It continued: “Please accelerate all works which may interfere with Graceful sailing out on 01 February.”

The emails said the owner wanted to remove the boat to the Russian Federation to complete the works. “The owner is not happy with the retrofit. He is dissatisfied with the delays in the construction process,” the email from SCF Group, Russia’s largest shipping company, said. The work had been expected to take more than a year.

The emails are disclosed in a report by Russian investigative journalist Maria Pevchikh, who leads an anti-corruption foundation set up by Navalny.

after newsletter promotion

“Half of the country is forced to raise money for underwear and socks for mobilised soldiers, and to make trench candles, while the person who unleashed this war spends 3bn roubles just on repairs and purchases for his yacht,” her report states .

Putin’s largest superyacht, the $700m Scheherazade, has been impounded in the Italian port of Marina di Carrara, where it was undergoing repairs. He is also named by the US as the owner of a smaller superyacht called Olympia, valued at $22m.

• Vladimir Putin
• Alexei Navalny

More on this story

West condemns ‘undemocratic’ Russian election as results show Putin landslide

Putin’s vote share nears outer limits but still the only way is up

From patriotic films to youth festivals: the £1bn push to get vote out for Putin

Sending troops to Ukraine would risk provoking nuclear war, Putin tells Nato

Kremlin quiet as Tucker Carlson Russia visit creates Putin interview rumours

Zelenskiy tells Davos chiefs: ‘Strengthen our economy, we will strengthen your security’

Zelenskiy and Putin each vow to press on to victory in Ukraine war

Vladimir Putin to run for Russian president again in March 2024

Putin to make rare trip abroad to discuss Israel-Hamas war with UAE and Saudi Arabia

Most viewed.

Vladimir Putin’s Superyacht Graceful Has A New Name: “Killer Whale”

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

Vladimir Putin's yacht Kosatka, formerly named Graceful, off the coast of Estonia on September 25.

The Russian president’s superyacht was spotted off the coast of Estonia, escorted by a Russian Coast Guard vessel.

Vladimir Putin’s second-largest superyacht is on the move. More than seven months after hastily departing Germany for the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, the Russian president’s $119 million, 267-foot Graceful was spotted off the coast of Estonia—with a new name.

Photos seen by Forbes that were taken on September 25 by Carl Groll, a contributing photographer for TheYachtPhoto.com, reveal that Graceful has a new name: Kosatka , Russian for “killer whale.” Forbes, which was tipped off by TheYachtPhoto.com’s managing director and longtime yacht watcher Peter Seyfferth, compared photos of Graceful available on yacht industry websites with the photo of Kosatka that appear to confirm the match.

The yacht was traveling northbound in the Baltic sea to the west of the Estonian island of Saaremaa; the pictures show it being escorted by an armed Russian Coast Guard vessel, possibly en route to St. Petersburg. It’s unclear when Graceful changed its name to Kosatka or when it departed Kaliningrad, a Russian territory sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland: the yacht’s transponder has been turned off since at least August 30, according to ship tracking service MarineTraffic, when it was still in Kaliningrad. A spokesperson for the Russian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kosatka —then named Graceful —departed the German port of Hamburg on February 7, seventeen days before Russian troops invaded Ukraine. It left for Russia after a five-month refit at the shipyards of Blohm+Voss, the company that built the yacht in 2014. The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Graceful —along with three other yachts linked to Putin—on June 2.

Kosatka moored at the port of Sochi, Russia in July 2015, when it was still named Graceful and before its refit in 2022.

Registered in Russia, Kosatka features an indoor swimming pool that turns into a theater and a dance floor, a helipad and suites for up to 12 guests. The ship also boasts pool towel storage cabinets that double as vodka bars and an owner's suite with a wine cave that can store up to 400 bottles; the yacht was delivered to "her closely-collaborating owner" in 2014, according to Lürssen, which owns Blohm+Voss.

According to a BBC News investigation published in March, the yacht is currently owned by Moscow-based JSC Argument, which the U.S. Treasury sanctioned along with its sole shareholder, Andrei Gasilov, on June 2. The BBC investigation found that JSC Argument had in the past agreed to a loan from one of the management companies involved in the construction of "Putin's Palace,” an opulent, 190,000-square-foot estate near the resort town of Gelendzhik on the Black Sea coast. JSC Argument did not respond to phone calls for comment from the BBC.

According to yacht valuation experts VesselsValue and reporting from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Graceful was previously owned by British Virgin Islands-based Olneil Assets Corp. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned a company in the Cayman Islands with a similar name—O’Neill Assets Corporation—on June 2, for "having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, Vladimir Putin."

Besides Kosatka , Putin has been linked to at least five more yachts: the $507 million, 459-foot Scheherazade , which is technically owned by oil & gas billionaire Eduard Khudainatov but is believed to be held on behalf of Putin ; the $22 million, 187-foot Olympia ; the $18 million, 177-foot Chayka , which means “seagull” in Russian; the $17 million, 151-foot Shellest; and the 105-foot Nega. Olympia and Kosatka , then named Graceful , were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury on June 2 as “blocked property in which President Vladimir Putin has an interest” while Shellest and Nega were targeted as “two additional yachts linked to Putin.” Altogether, Putin’s fleet of yachts is worth at least $680 million, according to VesselsValue.

Except for Scheherazade , which was frozen by Italian authorities in the port of Marina di Carrara on May 6 and recently re-registered to Malaysia, and Olympia , which is registered in the Cayman Islands, the other yachts are all registered in Russia. All of the other yachts, except for Scheherazade , also appear to be in Russia now: Olympia was last tracked in Lake Ladoga, near St. Petersburg, on July 31, 2021; Chayka was last tracked in the Black Sea port of Sochi on March 29, 2021; Shellest was last tracked off the coast of Gelendzhik on September 13; and Nega was last tracked in Lake Ladoga on August 14.

The links between the six yachts and the leader of the Kremlin are complex. According to the U.S. Justice Department, Eduard Khudainatov— a former CEO of Russia’s state-owned oil company Rosneft and a longtime associate of Igor Sechin, Rosneft’s current boss and Putin’s right-hand man —acted as a “clean, unsanctioned straw owner” for Scheherazade , owning it through Marshall Islands-based Bielor Assets Ltd. A spokesperson for Khudainatov did not respond to a request for comment regarding Scheherazade when Forbes reached out in June.

Olympia is owned by Cayman Islands-based Ironstone Marine Investments, which was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury on June 2. According to the U.S. Treasury, Shellest and Nega are owned by the Russia-based Non-Profit Partnership Revival of Maritime Traditions and its subsidiary LLC Gelios; both entities were sanctioned on June 2. Putin’s ties to Chayka are clearer: the yacht is owned directly by the Russian government, according to VesselsValue.

An investigation by OCCRP published in June shed light on the murky relationship between Putin and his yachts. The firms that own Shellest and Nega are tied to "LLCInvest," a network of interconnected companies and nonprofits that holds a collective $4.5 billion in assets, including Putin's palatial complex on the Black Sea. The group is also linked to another yacht, the $9 million, 121-foot Aldoga , owned by a firm held by Svetlana Krivonogikh, rumored to be the mother of one of Putin's daughters.

The investigation also revealed how Putin appears to use the yachts: Shellest makes frequent trips between Gelendzhik—the site of “Putin’s Palace”—and Sochi, while Nega travels between several homes owned by LLCInvest companies, including a villa known as the “Fisherman’s Hut” on Lake Ladoga and Villa Sellgren, a mansion on the shores of the Gulf of Finland. OCCRP reached out to more than 100 LLC Invest email addresses and made phone calls to five representatives of LLC Invest companies for comment; none of the emails received replies to the questions and four of the people called did not respond, while a fifth claimed he did not know who owned the companies.

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

• Nautic Shows
• America’s Cup
• Classic Yachts
• Motor Yachts
• Sailing Yachts
• Superyachts
• Yachts News
• Destinations
• Yacht Clubs
• Boat Racing
• Meta Yachts

The Graceful yacht belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin abruptly left Hamburg harbor before repairs were completed.

The relocation of the $100 million yacht from German waters to Kaliningrad, part of Russian territory, came amid fears that the West would impose sanctions if Russia invaded Ukraine.

The United States and the United Kingdom have warned of sanctions on Russian elites, and President Joe Biden has threatened to personally sanction Putin if Russia decides to attack Ukraine.

• Yacht Graceful

RELATED ARTICLES

Megayacht a cost italy 18 million euros and it will still cost, sergei naumenko, owner of phi, unsuccessful in appeal against yacht’s detention, nancy walton’s $300 million megayacht ‘kaos’ seeks safe haven in monaco after vandalism threats, millionaire’s abandoned, capsized 007 superyacht finally refloated, draft law proposes banning internal combustion charter boats in balearic islands from 2030.

Subscribe to our newsletter

To be updated with all the latest news, offers and special announcements.

LATEST ARTICLES

Unleashing potential: emirates team new zealand’s two-boat training session, jimmy spithill addressing controversies at sailgp in lyttelton, editor picks, canadian beau lake introduces the tahoe ’14 and lugano ’14 electric runabouts, underwater adventure and exploration with deepflight’s super falcon 3s, driving performance on land and on water: 41′ amg carbon edition, popular posts, young designer of the year 2022: ioana valentina corcodel reveals 65m ophelia concept, mirabaud sailing video of the century: celebrating 2 decades of passion, superyacht the flying fox seized in the dominican republic, popular category.

• Regatta 808
• America's Cup 384
• Motor Yachts 263
• Boating 215
• Superyachts 183
• Sailing 177
• Yachts News 174
• Sailing Yachts 162

Vladimir Putin’s superyacht the Graceful leaves Germany before sanctions can bite

Vladimir Putin’s private yacht has been spotted sailing towards Russia from a Hamburg shipyard, triggering speculation that it was trying to avoid being impounded by sanctions which would follow a potential invasion of Ukraine .

The Kieler Nachrichten newspaper on Sunday had published a photo of the 82-metre luxury yacht moored alongside the German navy corvette Emden. Since then the yacht has sailed into the Baltic.

Putin’s Graceful had been undergoing refurbishment at the Blohm+Voss shipyard since September where it had been fitted with two new large balconies and had its hull cleaned and its engines overhauled, the report said. Neither Blohm+Voss, which built the battleship Bismarck , nor its parent company, Lürssen, could be reached for comment.

On Monday the Graceful was photographed heading

Related articles

Targeting super yachts owned by Russian oligarchs could hit a nerve in Moscow

Poor transparency around ownership of assets can cause challenges, experts say.

Social Sharing

With sanctions levied and financial assets seized, Russian oligarchs have been scrambling to get their super yachts out of Western ports in search of safer harbours. 

One yacht, said to belong to Russian President Vladimir Putin himself, abruptly left port in Hamburg, Germany, just weeks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine prompted wide-reaching sanctions. Others were not so quick to leave European ports. 

Authorities in La Ciotat, on France's Mediterranean coast, seized a yacht they say is linked to sanctioned Russian oligarch Igor Sechin, the CEO of state oil company Rosneft. He was Russia's deputy prime minister from 2008 to 2012.

• Canada slaps sanctions on Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich
• Analysis With Russia pressing on and Ukraine digging in, how will Putin's war actually end?

Industry watchers say oligarchs everywhere are trying to keep their yachts from being taken.

​​"There's a few yachts that we are watching at the moment in the Atlantic," said Sam Tucker, head of super yachts at the firm VesselsValue, which tracks and estimates the value of these giant luxury yachts. 

"I'm expecting some of them to start doing U-turns in the middle of the ocean," he told CBC Radio's Day 6 .

Western countries have imposed a punishing package of sanctions and export control restrictions on Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine. Russia's biggest banks were hit, as was the country's central bank. Major state-owned companies and some of the country's wealthiest individuals have seen overseas assets frozen.

The investment bank JP Morgan Chase believes Russia's economy will shrink 35 per cent in the second quarter of 2022 and seven per cent for the entire year.

White House spokesperson Jen Psaki says the suite of sanctions is meant to make every aspect of life difficult on Putin and the oligarchs who protect him.

"What we're talking about here is seizing their assets, seizing their yachts and making it harder for them to send their children to go to colleges and universities in the West," Psaki said in a briefing this week. "These are significant steps that will impact the people who are closely around President Putin."

<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Putin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Putin</a>´s Yacht "The Gracefull" inbound Kaliningrad from Hamburg in anticipation of future sanctions due to the conflict in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ukraine?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ukraine</a>. <a href="https://t.co/qdhAUhCH1m">pic.twitter.com/qdhAUhCH1m</a> &mdash; @GDarkconrad

Symbolic target

The yachts themselves are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but experts in Russian sanctions say this isn't just about the dollar value.

"They don't have much value compared to the total net worth of an oligarch," said Bill Browder, a long-time advocate for stiff sanctions against Russian oligarchs, in an email to CBC Radio. 

But they are "a highly symbolic attack on something coveted by the oligarchs."

These ultra-luxurious ships became a status symbol for the oligarchs as they amassed fortunes in the 1990s and early 2000s.

"There is a bit of oneupmanship," Tucker told Day 6 . He says the biggest and most expensive ships are cloaked in secrecy. They have extreme privacy and security features, including bulletproof glass, and some require crew to sign non-disclosure agreements.

But Tucker says the biggest security and privacy feature of all is the opaque ownership structure of the yachts. He says precious little information about who actually owns these ships is available.

"[Only] basic information is disclosed — for example, the registered owner — which is often a shell company or a 'special interest vehicle' registered in Monaco, Malta, [or the] Cayman Islands," he said.

Untying those knots is a notorious problem, but one usually confined to taxation issues.

"One thing that I think may come out of this whole situation is the increased call for transparency and transparent ownership," said Tucker.

Yachts on the move

So far, only four super yachts have been seized, including a 213-foot yacht owned by Alexei Mordashov in Imperia, Italy.

While authorities sift through the byzantine paper trail of ownership, other oligarchs have scrambled their crews to get the yachts to somewhere safe.

"One of the things I've been trying to figure out is, where do they go [next]?" asked Alex Finley, a former CIA officer living in Barcelona, in an interview with  As It Happens host Gillian Findlay .

This week, Finley tweeted photos tracking a ship said to be owned by Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire who owns the Chelsea Football Club.

• Anxious Russians flee by the hundreds each day into neighbouring Finland

"A lot of these yachts that we've been looking at are heading towards the Maldives or the Seychelles. A few are in Montenegro, but they look like they're probably going to be on the move," Finley said in the interview .

Here you can see the sterns of both Aurora and Valerie, and in the other pic, the empty slip where Solaris used to be (which is the size of the empty hole in my heart). 7/ <a href="https://t.co/Luvj5vyWXp">pic.twitter.com/Luvj5vyWXp</a> &mdash; @alexzfinley

Neither the Maldives nor the Seychelles signed onto the sanctions, so the ships are probably safe from seizure there. Another major hub is Dubai.

"I think we're going to see Dubai as a big hotspot for these yachts," said Tucker. "It has hot weather all year round and … Russians can fly to Dubai without going through the EU airspace."

Tucker agrees that targeting the yachts is a symbolic move.

"It's really sending the message that they aren't untouchable. We've closed the skies on both sides of the Atlantic so their private jets can't operate, and now we're going after their super yachts," he said.

"I'd be feeling quite vulnerable if I was an oligarch right now."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Senior Business reporter for CBC News. A former host of On the Money and World Report on CBC Radio, Peter Armstrong has been a foreign correspondent and parliamentary reporter for CBC. Subscribe to Peter's newsletter here: cbc.ca/mindyourbusiness Twitter: @armstrongcbc

Interview with Sam Tucker produced by Rachel Levy-Mclaughlin

Related Stories

• U.K. imposes sanctions on Chelsea's Russian billionaire owner Roman Abramovich

Add some “good” to your morning and evening.

Your weekly look at what’s happening in the worlds of economics, business and finance. Senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong untangles what it means for you, in your inbox Monday mornings.

Advertisement

U.S. Officials Say Superyacht Could be Putin’s

They say they have indications that the $700 million, 459-foot yacht, which is in dry dock in Italy, is associated with the Russian president, backing an earlier claim by a former crew member.

• Share full article

By Julian E. Barnes ,  Michael Forsythe ,  David D. Kirkpatrick and Jason Horowitz

• March 11, 2022

WASHINGTON — American officials are examining the ownership of a $700 million superyacht currently in a dry dock at an Italian seacoast town, and believe it could be associated with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, according to multiple people briefed on the information.

United States intelligence agencies have made no final conclusions about the ownership of the superyacht — called the Scheherazade — but American officials said they had found initial indications that it was linked to Mr. Putin. The information from the U.S. officials came after The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Italian authorities were looking into the 459-foot long vessel’s ownership and that a former crew member said it was for the use of Mr. Putin.

People briefed on the intelligence would not describe what information they had that indicated the superyacht is associated with Mr. Putin. If American officials know whether or how often Mr. Putin uses the yacht, the people briefed on the information would not share it.

American officials said Mr. Putin kept little of his wealth in his own name. Instead he uses homes and boats nominally owned by Russian oligarchs. Still, it is possible that through various shell companies, Mr. Putin could have more direct control of the Scheherazade.

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic Mr. Putin has also spent large amounts of time in the Russian resort city of Sochi on the Black Sea, U.S. officials said. The Scheherazade made trips to Sochi in the summers of 2020 and 2021.

Both the Treasury Department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis and the Navy’s Office of Naval Intelligence are investigating the ownership of superyachts associated with Russian oligarchs. A spokesman for the Navy and a spokeswoman for the Treasury both declined to comment.

The Justice Department has set up a task force to go after the assets of sanctioned Russian oligarchs. In a discussion with reporters on Friday, a Justice Department official said the task force would be investigating individuals who help sanctioned Russian officials or oligarchs hide their assets. Those individuals could face charges related to sanctions violations or international money laundering charges.

In addition, under recently published Commerce Department rule changes, if more than 25 percent of a plane or a yacht is made of U.S.-manufactured airplane or marine parts, it cannot go to Russia.

If a yacht is in a foreign country and meets the definition of a U.S.-origin or U.S.-made product, it would need a license to go to Russia. To actually seize a yacht, the United States would need to coordinate with a cooperative foreign government — Italy, in the case of the Scheherazade — to prevent the ship from moving to Russian waters.

Some superyachts moved out of European waters as the invasion of Ukraine began and the West began imposing sanctions allowing asset seizures. The Scheherazade is undergoing repairs in Marina di Carrara, a port in Tuscany, and as of earlier this week was in dry dock, unable to get underway.

Guy Bennett-Pearce, the Scheherazade’s captain, said earlier this week that Mr. Putin was not the owner of the superyacht and that the Russian president had not set foot on it.

He declined to give the name of the owner, saying on Monday only that it was not anyone facing sanctions. Captain Bennett-Pearce did not answer his phone on Friday or respond to a text message.

Last week, Italian authorities boarded the Scheherazade and examined certification documents, seeking to learn more about the vessel’s ownership. Captain Bennett-Pearce said earlier this week that he would provide the Italian police with documents that divulged the yacht’s owner.

Italian authorities said they were taking a deep look at the Scheherazade. Under a process that may take as long as a couple of weeks, Italy’s financial police will gather evidence and present it to a government committee, which will then decide whether ownership or use of the ship is connected to someone on the sanctions list.

That connection could be outright ownership of a significant portion of the ship, or evidence that a friend, underling or associate lent his or her name to hide the sanctioned person’s ownership, or that funds used to buy the ship came from illegal profits. If the committee finds that the evidence meets the threshold, the financial police can impound the Scheherazade.

The Italian Sea Group , which owns the shipyard where the Scheherazade is dry-docked, said in a statement on Thursday that based on documents it had and “checks carried out by the relevant authorities,” the Scheherazade “is not attributable to the property of Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

American officials have been stepping up their examination of the superyachts of Russian oligarchs, particularly as the United States and Europe have imposed more sanctions against the wealthy families that support Mr. Putin.

The German-built Scheherazade has been in service since June 2020. The website SuperYachtFan estimated that it cost $700 million. The ship has a full-size gym, two helicopter decks and gold-plated fixtures in the washrooms.

While American intelligence officials have been looking at the Scheherazade, the scrutiny has increased after the publication of the earlier article in The Times.

The Scheherazade appears to have a sister ship, the Crescent , built by the same German manufacturer and put into service in 2018. The Crescent’s project name when it was under construction was “ Thunder. ” The Scheherazade’s was “ Lightning .”

Like the Scheherazade, there is no public information identifying the ship’s owner, other than an offshore shell company. The Crescent last broadcast its position on Nov. 2, when it appeared to be approaching Barcelona, Spain. Satellite images show that as of March 4 it was moored at a marina catering to superyachts near there. Both vessels are registered in the Cayman Islands and both share the same designer .

Katie Benner contributed reporting from Washington, Christoph Koettl from New York, and Gaia Pianigiani from Siena, Italy.

Julian E. Barnes is a national security reporter based in Washington, covering the intelligence agencies. Before joining The Times in 2018, he wrote about security matters for The Wall Street Journal. More about Julian E. Barnes

Michael Forsythe is a reporter on the investigations team. He was previously a correspondent in Hong Kong, covering the intersection of money and politics in China. He has also worked at Bloomberg News and is a United States Navy veteran. More about Michael Forsythe

David D. Kirkpatrick is an investigative reporter based in New York and the author of “Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East.“ In 2020 he shared a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on covert Russian interference in other governments and as the Cairo bureau chief from 2011 to 2015 he led coverage of the Arab Spring uprisings. More about David D. Kirkpatrick

Jason Horowitz is the Rome bureau chief, covering Italy, the Vatican, Greece and other parts of Southern Europe. He previously covered the 2016 presidential campaign, the Obama administration and Congress, with an emphasis on political profiles and features. More about Jason Horowitz

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

News and Analysis

Ahead of the U.S. elections, Russia is intensifying efforts to elevate candidates  who oppose aid for Ukraine and support isolationism, disinformation experts say.

President Vladimir Putin said that claims Russia planned to invade other countries were “nonsense,” but warned them against hosting  warplanes meant for Ukraine.

A large-scale Russian missile and drone attack damaged power plants  and caused blackouts for more than a million Ukrainians in what Ukrainian officials said was one of the war’s largest assaults on energy infrastructure.

Symbolism or Strategy?: Ukrainians say that defending places with little strategic value is worth the cost in casualties and weapons , because the attacking Russians pay an even higher price. American officials aren’t so sure.

Elaborate Tales: As the Ukraine war grinds on, the Kremlin has created increasingly complex fabrications online  to discredit Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, and undermine the country’s support in the West.

Targeting Russia’s Oil Industry: With its army short of ammunition and troops to break the deadlock on the battlefield, Kyiv has increasingly taken the fight beyond the Ukrainian border, attacking oil infrastructure deep in Russian territory .

How We Verify Our Reporting

Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs , videos and radio transmissions  to independently confirm troop movements and other details.

We monitor and authenticate reports on social media, corroborating these with eyewitness accounts and interviews. Read more about our reporting efforts .

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Italy won't say who's paying for the care of a $700 million superyacht tied to Putin

Dustin Jones

The Scheherazade, a 460-foot superyacht, has been held in Italy since May 2022 in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It is believed to have ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Laura Lezza/Getty Images hide caption

The Scheherazade, a 460-foot superyacht, has been held in Italy since May 2022 in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It is believed to have ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Scheherazade superyacht was impounded by the Italian government in May 2022 in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Instead of falling into disrepair, Italy has allowed its owner to maintain and refit the vessel, but it won't disclose who is footing the bill.

The Financial Times reported on Sunday that the vessel has been held at port in Marina di Carrara, located almost 90 miles northwest of Florence, since it was impounded by authorities in the spring of 2022. For over a year, the Italian government has permitted the owner to continue paying for the ship's staff, its maintenance and refitting of the vessel. But Italy won't identify the owner.

Italy's Finance Ministry said in a May 2022 news release that the superyacht had "significant economic and business links" with "prominent elements of the Russian government" but didn't name the owner of the ship.

Ukraine invasion — explained

Ravaged by russian troops, bucha rises from the ashes.

According to the website SuperYachtFan , the 460-foot superyacht belongs to Russian billionaire Eduard Khudainatov. However, Bloomberg News reported in 2022 that he is a "straw owner" of the superyacht — as well as another ship — and that the Scheherazade actually belongs to Putin.

The Financial Times reported that the Scheherazade has 22 cabins, two helicopter decks and a spa and that it's being refitted by the Italian Sea Group. NPR reached out to the Italian Sea Group for comment but did not hear back before publication.

The United States created Task Force KleptoCapture in the wake of Putin's war against Ukraine, aiming to hold Russian oligarchs accountable for evading sanctions. In its one year of operation, the task force has brought charges to at least 35 individuals and entities, NPR previously reported.

Part of those efforts included seizing luxury items belonging to billionaires with ties to the Kremlin. This includes items like a 348-foot yacht seized in Fiji in May 2022, which is valued at about $300 million and is now sitting in San Diego.

Watch CBS News

Satellite image shows super yacht linked to Putin out of reach of sanctions

By Catherine Herridge , Michael Kaplan, Andrew Bast, Jessica Kegu

March 3, 2022 / 7:30 AM EST / CBS News

As Europe and the U.S. bear down with a raft of aggressive sanctions targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, the super yacht he is believed to own has found safe harbor in a highly militarized port in Russian territorial waters. In new satellite imagery obtained by CBS News, the yacht can be seen docked in a port in Kaliningrad, near Russia's nuclear weapons operations. 

Experts say Putin's luxury vessel has become a symbol not only of his vast hidden wealth, but also of how challenging that money has been to find. 

"He's a KGB agent, so he's crafty. He knows how to hide when he needs to," said John Smith, former director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which administers and enforces all foreign sanctions.

Data from MarineTraffic, a global intelligence group, shows Putin's alleged yacht, the Graceful, left Germany two weeks before the invasion of Ukraine . 

Putin's government salary is said to be about $140,000, but that doesn't begin to explain the mansions, million-dollar watch collection and over-the-top yacht. 

"It would be fair to say he's among the richest men in the world," Smith said. 

Though he sells himself as a man of the people, his wealth is estimated to be more than $100 billion. 

Putin's critics allege he also has a cliffside palace that includes an amphitheater and a personal tunnel to the beach that doubles as a security bunker. 

"Of course, he doesn't acknowledge it as being his own," Smith said. "It doesn't fit with the public persona that he's trying to create to actually acknowledge it." 

Putin relies on his oligarch friends to shield his fortune from sanctions, Smith said. 

"So if he asked them to do something, they do it in terms of hiding assets, squirreling them in different parts of the globe, they will do what he needs," he said. 

Those who have tried to expose Putin's fortune have done so at great personal risk. 

Putin critic Boris Nemtsov was assassinated on a bridge in the shadow of the Kremlin in 2015. Sergei Magnitsky died in 2009 under questionable circumstances in prison after he exposed $230 million in fraud by Putin's friends. Putin publicly condemned Nemtsov's murder and claimed Magnitsky died of a heart attack.  

His most recent No. 1 critic, Alexei Navalny , who helped expose Putin's lavish palace, emerged as a political rival and found himself repeatedly jailed. He nearly died after being poisoned two years ago, though Putin has denied responsibility for the poisoning. 

"Putin's wealth is one of the most dangerous topics," said Russian journalist Roman Badanin, who spent two decades investigating Putin's financial web. 

Badanin said Russian authorities sought to intimidate and silence his reporting team. Six months ago, he reached his breaking point. 

"I fled the country. My apartment was searched twice. I have like three criminal charges against me back in Russia," he said. 

In his State of the Union address, President Biden said the U.S. and its allies are waging economic war on Putin and Russian oligarchs. 

"We are joining with our European allies to find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments and your private jets," Biden said. 

On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced the formation of a new task force that would target Russian oligarchs. 

"Russia is not a transparent economy," Smith said. "The U.S. and our allies have decent information on some of [Putin's] assets, I think a lot will remain a mystery for a long time in the future." 

The biggest financial hit for Putin would be sanctions on the energy sector, which Smith says the Russian president has used to build up his wealth for years. So far, Washington and the Europeans have been hesitant to do that. 

• Vladimir Putin

Catherine Herridge is a senior investigative correspondent for CBS News covering national security and intelligence based in Washington, D.C.

More from CBS News

Stop Putin now or war will come your way, Ukraine's leader warns U.S.

Evan Gershkovich still awaiting trial 1 year after his arrest in Russia

Robert Randolph talks performing on new Beyoncé album, "Cowboy Carter"

Families of victims in Baltimore bridge collapse speak out: "Tremendous agony"

Russian billionaire Usmanov's yacht stuck in Hamburg shipyard

The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.

Reporting by Madeline Chambers, Jan Schwartz and Moscow bureau; Editing by Howard Goller, Frank Jack Daniel and Daniel Wallis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab

The head of Ukraine's largest private energy firm, DTEK, said on Saturday that five of its six plants had been damaged or destroyed with 80% of its generating capacity lost after two weeks of Russian attacks and that repairs could take up to 18 months.

Russia launched 16 missiles and 11 drones at Ukraine in an overnight air attack, Ukraine's air force said on Sunday morning.

Russia has conducted a "counter-terrorism operation" in the southern region of Dagestan on Sunday, detaining three people, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said.

Russian opposition group report says it's identified another superyacht belonging to Vladimir Putin

• A Russian military plant built Vladimir Putin a 71-meter superyacht, according to a new report.
• The report was written by the Dossier Center, a Russian opposition group funded by an exiled oligarch.
• Putin's rumored mistress often uses the yacht on vacation, according to the report.

Vladimir Putin's newest known superyacht is 71 meters long, cost an estimated $50 million to build, and can carry up to 28 people, according to a new report from Russian opposition group the Dossier Center.

The vessel, called the Victoria, is based in Sochi but in October docked at a Turkish port near Istanbul for repairs, according to ship tracking data cited in the report. Construction on the yacht began in 2005 at a Russian military facility that typically produces nuclear submarines, according to the report, citing unnamed sources close to Putin.

Related stories

The Dossier Center, an investigative outlet funded by exiled petroleum oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky – by some estimates, once the richest man in Russia – last month revealed that Russia had accidentally doxed its own spies by uploading their addresses onto a public city hall website.

We found the secret yacht of Vladimir Putin docked at a naval shipyard of a NATO (!) country. How is this possible and what does it tell us about the character of his regime? 🧵 Read on to find out (and see pictures) - 1/18 pic.twitter.com/RhIzjmFbz3 — Mikhail Khodorkovsky (@khodorkovsky_en) November 22, 2023

Officially, Putin takes a salary of about $140,000 a year and lives in a small Moscow apartment – but extensive reporting shows the dictator almost certainly controls numerous estates and a small flotilla of luxury yachts . While there's no official estimate of his net worth, observers have pegged it in the tens of billions of dollars.

After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, authorities seized a $700 million superyacht linked to Putin with six floors, two helipads, a swimming pool , a beauty salon, and gold-plated bathrooms.

Victoria is nowhere near as grand. It has just two master cabins, according to the Dossier Center's report. But it also has the distinction of being linked to former Russian gymnast Alina Kabaeva, rumored to be Putin's mistress and the father of his children.

Given how it looks like from inside – who wouldn't be tempted? 15/18 pic.twitter.com/pCCQ6YLqKd — Mikhail Khodorkovsky (@khodorkovsky_en) November 22, 2023

Kabaeva's friend, another Russian gymnast and the choreography director of a gymnastics festival Kabaeva organizes, posted a photo of herself on social media with the yacht in the background. And an anonymous source told The Dossier Center that Kabaeva often vacations on the Victoria.

Spokespeople for the Russian president and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Watch: Inside Putin's secret bunker and billion-dollar palace

• Main content

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My watchlist
• Stock market
• Biden economy
• Personal finance
• Stocks: most active
• Stocks: gainers
• Stocks: losers
• Trending tickers
• World indices
• US Treasury bonds
• Top mutual funds
• Highest open interest
• Highest implied volatility
• Currency converter
• Basic materials
• Communication services
• Consumer cyclical
• Consumer defensive
• Financial services
• Industrials
• Real estate
• Mutual funds
• Credit cards
• Credit card rates
• Balance transfer credit cards
• Business credit cards
• Cash back credit cards
• Rewards credit cards
• Travel credit cards
• Checking accounts
• Online checking accounts
• High-yield savings accounts
• Money market accounts
• Personal loans
• Student loans
• Car insurance
• Home buying
• Options pit
• Investment ideas
• Research reports
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing
• Newsletters

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

Alexei Navalny's associates show Putin's superyacht, which avoided arrest and bypassed sanctions

• Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later. More content below

Alexei Navalny 's associates have shown the luxury of Vladimir Putin 's yacht, Graceful , which was urgently transported from Germany before the invasion of Ukraine and finished already in Russia during the war. They also revealed schemes to circumvent sanctions to decorate the yacht.

Source : investigation by the Russian Anti-Corruption Fund (ACF), published on Alexei Navalny's YouTube channel and website

Details : The Graceful is one of Putin's three big yachts. Like the Olympia and the  Scheherazade , Graceful is not designed for the President of Russia, but it was made for him. According to ACF, the Graceful was made based on Putin's old yacht with the help of large-scale reconstruction, full repair and very expensive equipment.

The Scheherazade was arrested in the port of Marina di Carrara in Italy, and Graceful had been "evacuated" before it came under sanctions.

It was Graceful on 19 January 2022 that the owner ordered to be transported from the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg (Germany), although her repairs there were to last another year, and the superyacht was not ready. The yacht was towed to Kaliningrad.

In June 2023, during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the refurbished Graceful came from Kaliningrad to St. Petersburg.

And just now, a superyacht with a special escort worldwide via the Northern Sea Route is on its way to Sochi, Navalny's team says.

One of the proofs that the Graceful is intended for Putin is that it is staffed by members of the Russian Federal Security Service and sails with a motorcade. In September 2022, it was spotted in Estonian waters on its way from St Petersburg to Kaliningrad, accompanied by a Russian Coast Guard boat under the FSB command; the vessel is known by its codename, Kosatka (Killer Whale).

The yacht's owner's office is equipped with a Prestige-CB, a special communication phone, which cannot be just bought: it can be used by the authorities to work with information classified as "top secret".

Navalny's associates obtained a deck plan of the yacht Graceful and an estimate for repair works.

Upstairs, on the open deck, there is a helipad, a lounge with a round table that seats 12 people, a dining elevator, a large bathtub and two contrasting fonts typical for Putin's residences.

On the deck, where the captain's deck is located, there is a lounge area with a grand piano, three sofas and a TV.

The owner's deck features a transformable swimming pool that can be transformed into a dance floor or movie theatre. The same design is on the Scheherazade. On the same deck, there is a dining room with a table for 12 people and a fireplace. There is also an owner's area with two huge cabins. There are men's and women's cabins. In the master's bedroom, there is a huge bed framed by columns. In the room next to the bedroom, there's a cabin office with a special telephone and a model of the Scheherazade.

The office of the owner of the yacht "Graceful" with the special communication phone "Prestige-CB" and the model of the yacht "Scheherazade"

Navalny.com

From the cabins of the master and mistress, you can go down the stairs to the gym. American Hoist leg exercisers were purchased for Graceful.

Cabins for guests and crew are located on the same deck. Several jet skis and two boats are also there.

The renovation included repainting the hull, replacing the helipads and decks, installing deckchairs and sun umbrellas, repairing furniture, polishing marble, modifying the sound zone of the sauna, working on the elevators, swimming pool and jacuzzi, equipping a new cabin for the owner.

The total budget of the yacht, with all repairs and entertainment for 2022 alone, amounted to 32 million dollars, or almost 3 billion roubles at the current exchange rate. Wooden products cost 240 million roubles, sofa – 4 million roubles, carpets – 6 million, coffee table – almost 8 million, installation of two deck fireplaces – 10 million, and a pool connected to the yacht – 208 million roubles.

Expensive dishes, a comb for 11,000 roubles (almost the size of an average living wage in the Russian Federation), backgammon for half a million roubles and three armoured umbrellas for 1.2 million each were bought for the Graceful.

The Graceful was subject to American sanctions a few months after the start of the war, but for the sake of its repair, a complex system was built, a whole infrastructure of assistants in Europe, Türkiye and Dubai, who help circumvent American sanctions daily.

Back in September 2021, the MTU system with displays, which allows you to adjust engine parameters, broke.

Estonian company Briz Marine agreed not only to buy and bring to Russia displays for Putin's yacht but also to help with their reprogramming. An Estonian intermediary picked up the equipment in St. Petersburg, found a courier who took everything to a factory in Germany, and in the spring of 2023, the repaired equipment was returned to Russia.

Italian suppliers continued business relations with the head of the Graceful, despite the sanctions. The invoice for the form was prepared, omitting all compromising details. The invoice was processed several times: first, it was issued to a Russian company that manages the yacht, then to an Estonian company, and in the end, the form was paid by a company from Dubai. After payment from Italy, the goods were sent to Lithuania to be delivered from there to Kaliningrad, directly to the yacht.

They also carried umbrellas for yachts on the route Türkiye – Lithuania – Kaliningrad.

The Estonian firm that helps buy clothes to circumvent sanctions is headed by the same person who helped with the displays for the yacht. And after the invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, the company's affairs went uphill.

ACF intends to file a complaint against each of these firms involved in serving Putin to circumvent sanctions.

Navalny emphasises that already during the war, 3 billion roubles (US$31.8 million) were spent on "Putin's toy", of which two billion (US$21.4 million) were spent on repairs and another billion on maintenance (crew salaries, overheads, communication, storage in dry dock, fuel, representative expenses). And the money will continue to be spent.

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter , support us, or become our patron !

Recommended Stories

Nfl mock draft: trades galore as one of the best qb prospects slides outside the top 10.

Charles McDonald and Nate Tice's latest mock draft has five quarterbacks off the board in the top 13, a big-time weapon for Aaron Rodgers and some steals in the second half of the first round.

The 'extreme' Social Security move that actually makes sense

The election year battle over cherished retirement programs is a microcosm explaining why Washington doesn't solve solvable problems.

Longtime ESPN anchor John Anderson says he's retiring from 'SportsCenter:' 'The operation has changed'

Anderson has been hosting "SportsCenter" since 1999.

Mets pitcher ejected for throwing behind Brewers' Rhys Hoskins a day after heated exchange

Rhys Hoskins had a big day for the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday, continuing his grudge match against the New York Mets.

Stocks just had their best first quarter in 5 years — here's where strategists think the market is headed

With stocks off to their best start in five years, many strategists on Wall Street still make a case for the S&P 500 to keep chugging higher.

One fateful decision summed up North Carolina's Sweet 16 demise

Jae’Lyn Withers shot UNC's most important 3-pointer of the game when he had no business firing away. And now the No. 1 Tar Heels are going home.

Kenny Brooks leaves Virginia Tech for Kentucky job in stunning end of era

Within a couple of weeks, Virginia Tech's Final Four hopes dropped because of Elizabeth Kitley's injury and Brooks exited for the SEC.

2024 New York International Auto Show Editors' Top 5 Picks

Though not the biggest New York International Auto Show, there were still some exciting reveals and even a surprise or two. We pick the best of show.

Ex-Jaguars employee who once hacked team's Jumbotron sentenced to 220 years in prison for child molestation

The FBI searched Samuel Arthur Thompson's home after figuring out he hacked the Jaguars' jumbotron. What they found next was awful.

Andy Reid brings Lombardi Trophy for Royals 1st pitch, throws a strike to George Brett

The Chiefs' coach had a pretty good toss to start the Royals' season.

76ers' Kelly Oubre Jr. confronts officials after missed call on final play in loss to Clippers

"You're a b*tch. You’re a b*tch. You’re a b*tch," Oubre told each official after the defeat.

Massive changes coming to Google Chrome threaten to reshape the modern internet

Google is ending third-party cookies in Chrome. Here’s what that means for publishers trying to stay afloat in a brutal market.

USWNT's Korbin Albert apologizes after Megan Rapinoe calls out anti-LGBTQ social media content

Albert took over Rapinoe's No. 15 jersey number this year.

Conor McGregor displays concerning behavior with twitches, difficulty speaking in interview

McGregor's "Road House" hit Prime Video this week.

J.J. McCarthy second overall? + QB class red flags, Dak Prescott on the open market | Inside Coverage

Jason Fitz is joined by Senior NFL Reporters Charles Robinson and Jori Epstein to go behind the scenes on the latest rumors and news around the NFL. The trio start with takeaways from the NFL owner's meetings as Jori was on the ground in Orlando. The hosts discuss the fallout of the new kickoff rule (are rosters going to change because of it?), the two Christmas Day games and what the heck Jerry Jones was doodling in his notebook. Next, it's time to pull out the crystal ball as the hosts attempt to look into the future for some key quarterbacks, starting with Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy. McCarthy's draft stock has been skyrocketing lately as some rumors emerged that he could go as high as second overall. Charles gives his thoughts and what he's hearing from GMs around the league before moving onto Brock Purdy and whether San Francisco will be willing to pay him when the time comes. Charles dives deeper into the 2024 quarterback class and why every prospect has a massive red flag, and Jori gives us the latest on the Dak Prescott contract negotiations, which seem to be heading in the wrong direction. All signs are pointing towards Dak hitting free agency next offseason. Finally, Fitz wraps things up by asking about Deion Sanders' comments about choosing where his sons get drafted and whether or not player empowerment could be ascending to a new level with the emergence of NIL.

2025 Ram 1500's 'Hurricane' I6 tops V8 in fuel economy

2025 Ram 1500 full-size pickup truck now has fuel economy numbers, and the Hurricane inline-six delivers better numbers than the V8 it replaces.

NBA playoff races to watch, predictions and first-round matchups we want to see

With just over two weeks left in the regular season, our NBA writers break down the most intriguing playoff races to watch and make predictions for the stretch run.

After Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye’s pro days, the Commanders may hold the keys to the NFL Draft

The No. 1 pick seems to be a foregone conclusion, which means all eyes are on the Commanders and their decision that likely boils down to two QBs.

Bad NFLPA grades push Patriots' Robert Kraft, Chiefs' Clark Hunt to make upgrades

In two NFL markets, the players' complaints were heard.

Report: Eagles trading Pro Bowl pass rusher Haason Reddick to Jets for draft pick

The Jets are upgrading their pass rush after losing Bryce Huff to the Eagles in free agency.

Putin has dozen yachts, one being repaired at shipyards of 'hostile West'

J ournalists have counted how many yachts the Kremlin's leader Vladimir Putin owns. In particular, it turned out that he has acquired two new vessels, one of which is being repaired by a company that fulfills orders for NATO countries, according to the investigation by the Dossier center.

"Putin's two new yachts are the 71-meter yacht Victoria and the 38-meter boat Orion, which accompanies it. Now Putin's well-known fleet consists of 10 ships," say investigators.

What is known about the yacht Victoria?

According to the investigation, the yacht Vitoria belongs to the mega-yacht class (over 70 meters long). The cost of such vessels, as journalists say, reaches hundreds of millions of dollars, and annual maintenance is tens of millions of dollars.

Victoria was built at the Sevmash military plant shipyards. It was laid down in 2005 and took 14 years to build. It was the first attempt to make a civilian superyacht for Putin in Russia.

The hull of the Victoria yacht was launched in 2013 and sent to Italy to the ISA Yachts shipyard. It was completed at the Turkish company AES Yachts Shipyards and launched in 2019.

As journalists found out, Alina Kabaeva, who is considered Putin's possible lover, and her entourage usually use Victoria. But now Victoria is at the Desan company shipyards in Istanbul.

"This unusual company not only fulfills civilian orders but also builds military ships for NATO and can work with the Alliance's classified documentation," the investigation says.

Putin's yachts

Among Putin's known ships is the yacht Graceful, 82 meters long, launched in 2014. It has a swimming pool, a helipad, two floors of apartments, guest cabins, and lounges. The cost is estimated at $100 million. It's worth noting that the Graceful yacht left the German port before EU sanctions were imposed.

In addition, the yacht Shaherezada, associated with Putin, was seized in Italy. It costs $700 million.

The rhetoric of the "hostile West"

The theme of the "hostile West" is traced in all speeches of the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and his close political entourage. It can be confidently said that this is one of the pillars of the ideology of the Putin regime. For example, even before the large-scale invasion, Putin claimed that NATO had declared Russia its enemy, and Ukraine's accession to the Alliance posed a threat to the Russian Federation. There were also several statements that Russia was allegedly at war with NATO in Ukraine. However, as seen from the investigation, this does not prevent Putin from enjoying the benefits of the so-called "hostile West."