At an Italian shipyard, a mega-yacht was blocked due to sanctions, which the media and Russian opposition associate with the Russian president, estimating its cost at $ 700 million. The investigation has not been completed, the connection has not been proven. But there is another yacht, allegedly related to Putin.

Italian authorities on Friday decided to freeze the yacht “Scheherazade” due to uncertainty about who could be its owner, amid reports that it belongs to Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to France-Presse.

The mega-yacht, estimated at $700 million, has become the subject of an investigation by the Italian financial police, the agency writes. This investigation found “significant economic and business ties between the person who officially owns Scheherazade and prominent representatives of the Russian government,” as well as other entities under sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, follows from the message of the Italian Ministry of Finance.

After that, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Daniele Franco, signed an order to seize the yacht, which sails under the flag of the Cayman Islands. The decision comes in line with post-invasion EU sanctions that have already seized other luxury yachts. Italian police said they are doing their best to identify the true owner. If this succeeds, the Italian authorities will propose to include the actual owner in the sanctions list. Until then, the ship will be frozen.

Built by Germany’s Luerssen in 2020, the 140m yacht has two helipads, a swimming pool and a cinema, according to SuperYachtFan.

Since September last year, the ship has been moored for repairs at the shipyard in the town of Marina di Carrara in the suburbs of Tuscany. On Friday, she was about to set sail, a photographer for France-Presse said (before the Italian government’s statement was released).

It is not always easy to determine ownership of a yacht, a source close to the Italian investigation told the agency in late March. On Friday, he said there was “nothing new” in the investigation.

In March, the captain of the Scheherazade assured that the owner of the ship, whose name he did not name, was not on any sanctions list, the New York Times wrote .

The exact owner of the Scheherazade has not been identified, but officials in the United States told the New York Times that the yacht was allegedly linked to Putin, without giving details.

Supporters of the politician Alexei Navalny also associate her with the Russian president. They referred to the crew list they had, which allegedly included several employees of the Federal Security Service (FSO), which deals with presidential security issues.

According to other versions, the yacht may belong to businessman Eduard Khudainatov, who used to be one of the leaders of Rosneft. It has not been subject to EU sanctions.

The BBC was talking about another vessel, which was called “Putin’s yacht”, and found its owner in the array of documents “Putin’s palace”.

Two weeks before the war in Ukraine, Graceful hurriedly left Hamburg for Kaliningrad, possibly because of the threat of sanctions. The impending Russian invasion was then reported only by the American media, and the Russian authorities replied that these were provocations and disinformation.

Graceful is an 82-meter comfortable ocean-type pleasure vessel, which was started to be built at Sevmash in Severodvinsk and finished in Germany. The yacht was launched in 2014 and was named Graceful (“Graceful”). The yacht has a swimming pool, helipad, two floors of apartments, guest cabins and living rooms. The possible cost was estimated at $100 million.

Western media and specialized portals called the vessel “Putin’s yacht” based on several indirect facts. In the fall of 2021, the Graceful yacht arrived in Hamburg at the Blohm and Voss shipyard for modernization, and left Hamburg in early February without waiting for the completion of all work. A few days later, she was photographed at the entrance to the Kaliningrad Bay.

According to the information on the website of the “Administration of the Sea Ports of the Baltic Sea”, its owner is a certain JSC “Argument”. There are three companies in Russia with this name – two without traces of vigorous activity, and the third from Gelendzhik and is directly connected to “Putin’s palace.” This is a luxurious complex near the village of Praskoveevka near Gelendzhik, which was allegedly built for the President of Russia.

In January 2021, Navalny’s team released an investigation dedicated to “Putin’s palace”. In May 2021, the BBC confirmed many of its findings. “Nothing that is listed there as my property belongs to me or my close relatives and has never belonged,” Putin himself asserted.

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