2023-08-30 17:47:43
Russian President Vladimir Putin moved his $100 million (€92 million) superyacht from a German shipyard to Russia just weeks before ordering the invasion of Ukraine, according to secret documents published in a new investigation.
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Further
A Russian anti-corruption organization set up by imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalni says emails show the Russian president ordered the urgent transfer of the 82-meter superyacht, called Graceful, from a Hamburg shipyard where it was undergoing a facelift valued at 32 million dollars, before February 1, 2022.
Photos show the ship being towed out of Hamburg for the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad on February 7, after the shipyard missed a February 1 deadline.
Just 17 days later, on February 24, Putin ordered the full invasion of Ukraine. Following the invasion, the US, UK and EU imposed sanctions on Russian assets abroad, and dozens of superyachts owned by oligarchs were seized around the world.
The US Government’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) includes Graceful on the list of “blocked assets in which President Vladimir Putin has interests.”
The Graceful, also codenamed Kosatka, or killer whale, and featuring a 15-meter indoor pool that converts into a dance floor, is just one of several Putin-linked superyachts.
The e-mails
An email sent to the Blohm+Voss shipyard in Hamburg on January 19, 2022 read: “The shipowner wants the Graceful to be brought to the Russian Federation on February 1… Please mobilize a crew without interruptions, two shifts ”. It continued: “Please expedite all work that may interfere with the departure of the Graceful on February 1.”
The emails said that the owner wanted to move the ship to Russia to complete the works. “The owner is not happy with the refit. He is not satisfied with the delays in the construction process ”, reads the email from SCF Group, the largest Russian shipping company. The works were expected to last more than a year.
The emails have been revealed in a report by Russian investigative journalist Maria Pevchikh, who runs an anti-corruption foundation set up by Navalni.
“Half the country is forced to raise money to buy underwear and socks for mobilized soldiers, and to make trench sails, while the person who started this war spends 3 billion rubles just on repairs and purchases for his yacht. ”, says his report.
Putin’s biggest superyacht, the $700 million Scheherazade, has been seized in the Italian port of Marina di Carrara, where it was undergoing repairs. The United States also points to him as the owner of a smaller superyacht called the Olympia, valued at 22 million dollars.
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