Will it be Putin's mysterious superyacht in the shipyards of Italy?

The luxurious superyacht “Scheherazade”, which is located in the shipyards off the Italian coast of Tuscany, is shrouded in mystery, as it could belong to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Several yachts belonging to Russian magnates have been seized in Europe since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February, but confiscating the “Shererazade” would undoubtedly be a spectacular blow if it was found to belong to the Russian leader.

The 140-meter-long yacht, valued at $700 million, is located on a dry dock near Massa, a luxurious seaside resort in magical Tuscany, a few kilometres from the famous marble quarries of Carrara and Forte dei Marmi, one of the favorite destinations of Russian billionaires.

Subjected for several months to maintenance at the shipyard of The Italian Sea Group, it is almost impossible to approach the boat and no movements are detected on board, a journalist from AFPTV said on Wednesday.

For Cesare Cucurnia, an 83-year-old pensioner, his presence arouses curiosity. “We don't know who the owner is. He's certainly not a poor person. It's probably Putin,” he says as he walks along the boardwalk.

The Italian financial police opened an investigation to clarify whether the yacht belongs to any Russian businessman or even to President Putin himself, whose conclusions will be known in the coming days, a source close to the case told AFP.

“We are in the deepening phase, in general the most complicated. We studied the minutes. It is not always easy to attribute ownership” of a boat, especially since in many cases they are in the name of front men, which makes it difficult to identify the real owner or beneficiary, explained the same source.

Manufactured in 2020 at the German shipyards Lürssen, the yacht has two platforms for helicopters, a swimming pool, a movie theater and an anti-drone battery, according to the administrators of the SuperYachtFan page, who present themselves as journalists specializing in investigations.

According to the press, the “Scheherazade”, which flies the flag of the Cayman Islands, belongs to a company registered in the Marshall Islands. Its captain is British, but the rest of the crew was Russian, the team of imprisoned Russian dissident Alexei Navalny revealed in a video posted Monday on YouTube, in which they attribute ownership of the megayacht to Vladimir Putin.

According to them, several members of the crew belong to the FSO, the body responsible for protecting important Russian personalities.

For the New York Times, the US authorities have material linking the Russian president to the luxurious ship, which made two trips, in 2020 and 2021, to the coastal town of Sochi, on the shores of the Black Sea.

The firm The Italian Sea Group assured that all this is false. “The ownership of 'Scheherazade' cannot be attributed to Russian President Vladimir Putin,” he reacted in a statement, citing “the documentation in his possession and the results of the checks carried out by the competent authorities.”

- Change of crew -

Interviewed by the New York Times, the captain of the “Scheherazade” claimed that he had never seen the Russian president on board, although he refused to reveal the owner's name, because he has a contractual obligation to maintain the reserve.

By chance or in a desperate maneuver, the entire crew was replaced in recent days.

“The crew consisted exclusively of Russians. And all of a sudden, the entire crew was replaced by British nationals,” Paolo Gozzani, secretary general of the CGIL trade union confederation in Massa, told AFP.

In a speech to the Italian parliament on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky called on Italy to further sanctions against Russian billionaires who spend their holidays in Italy.

“We must freeze their properties, their accounts, their yachts, from the 'Scheherezade' ship to the smallest. We must freeze the assets of all those who have the power to make decisions in Russia,” he cried.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Italy has confiscated more than 800 million euros (almost $900 million) of assets belonging to oligarchs thanks to sanctions decided by the European Union.

Among them is the 530 million euro ($580 million) yacht “Sailing Yacht A” by billionaire coal and fertilizer tycoon Andrei Melnichenko.

Italy also seized the 65 million euro (71 million dollar) yacht “Lady M Yacht” belonging to Alexei Mordashov, considered close to Vladimir Putin.

sl-gab/kv/mb