It bears the name of a Persian princess who saves King Shahriar from his murderous rage: does the mega-yacht “Scheherazade”, moored on the Italian coast, belong to Russian President Vladimir Putin?
Several yachts in the hands of Russian oligarchs have been seized in Europe since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, but the capture of the “Shérérazade” would undoubtedly be the most spectacular if its ownership were attributed to the master of the Kremlin.
Its prow turned towards the Mediterranean, the 140-meter-long ship, worth an estimated 700 million dollars (636 million euros), rests in dry dock in Massa, an upscale seaside town in Tuscany (center), whose the hinterland leads to the famous marble quarries of Carrara.
It would be parked there, in the shipyard of the company The Italian Sea Group, for several months for maintenance. Impossible to approach him. No obvious sign of activity on board, noted an AFPTV journalist on Wednesday. Men are busy around but the marina is still not very lively at this time of year.
Like all residents here, Cesare Cucurnia, an 83-year-old retiree, is following the case closely. “We don’t know whose it is, or whose it isn’t. Certainly not a poor man. Probably Putin,” he says as he walks along the port.
Released from the German Lürssen shipyards in 2020, the yacht offers two helicopter platforms, a swimming pool, a cinema and an anti-drone battery, believe the administrators of the SuperYachtFan site, who present themselves as investigative journalists.
An investigation by the Italian financial police is underway, which could deliver its conclusions in the coming days, a source close to the investigations told AFP.
“The acts of investigation continue. We are in a deepening phase and it is generally more complicated. It is not always easy to assign ownership” of a boat, especially since the legal arrangements in Nesting dolls make it difficult to identify the true owner or beneficiary, the source explained.
– Crew change –
According to press reports, the “Scheherazade”, which flies the flag of the Cayman Islands, is owned by a company registered in the Marshall Islands. Its captain is British but the rest of the crew was Russian – at least until recently – says the team of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny who, in a video posted on YouTube on Monday, attributes this sea monster to Vladimir Putin. It is based in particular on a list of crew members including several members of the FSO, the Russian federal service for the protection of personalities.
Coincidence or desperate maneuver to conceal the origin of the boat, the entire crew has been replaced in recent days.
“The crew was exclusively made up of Russian personnel. And suddenly, all the personnel were exchanged for a crew of British nationality,” Paolo Gozzani, general secretary of the CGIL trade union confederation in Massa, told AFP. The union is concerned about the repercussions of the sanctions on the economy and employment of the city, the resort of many wealthy Russians.
According to the American daily New York Times, Washington has indeed collected clues associating the Russian president with the luxurious ship, which would have made two trips, in 2020 and 2021, to the Russian seaside resort of Sochi, on the shores of the Black Sea. .
False, retorts The Italian Sea Group. “The ownership of + Scheherazade + cannot be attributed to Russian President Vladimir Putin”, reacted in a press release the company, which says it relies on “the documentation in its possession and the results of the checks carried out by the competent authorities”.
The captain of the “Scheherazade”, interviewed by the New York Times, said he had never seen the Russian president on board, without however wanting to identify its owner, explaining that he was bound by his duty of reserve.
In an address to the Italian parliament on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Italy to seize all the financial and real estate assets of the oligarchs, “from Scheherazade to the smallest” vessel. Without identifying the owner of the mega-yacht.
Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the sanctions announced by the European Union, the Italian authorities have seized 848 million euros in assets belonging to Russian oligarchs, including the “Sailing Yacht A”, a gigantic sailboat worth 530 million euros owned by Andrei Melnichenko, multi-billionaire coal and fertilizer magnate. Rome also seized the yacht “Lady M Yacht” worth 65 million euros belonging to Alexei Mordashov, reputed to be close to Vladimir Putin.