Putin's Yacht Driven To Sochi Across Arctic Ocean Due To Sanctions

The cost of the yacht is $100 million.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was able to save his 82-meter yacht Graceful worth $ 100 million from arrest in Germany, carried out a large-scale repair on her, and, due to sanctions, sent the vessel from St. Petersburg to Sochi across the Arctic Ocean, the team of investigators of politician Alexei Navalny found out.

One of Putin’s yachts, the $400 million Scheherazade, was arrested in Italy, but according to the authors of the investigation, the Graceful was towed to Kaliningrad from the shipyard at Blohm + Voss in Hamburg a month before the start of the war in Ukraine. After that, they decided to make a new yacht for Putin out of it, which was supposed to meet the “growing demands of the owner.”

The design of the new superyacht was undertaken by the Rubin Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering, which specializes in the construction of submarines, including the development of Project 941 Akula nuclear submarines.

“The total budget of the yacht with all repairs and entertainment for 2022 alone was $32 million, or almost three billion rubles at the current exchange rate,” the investigators write, citing a 145-page list of repairs on the yacht.

Among other things, the repair included: a complete repainting of the hull, replacement of helipads and decks, installation of sun loungers and sun umbrellas, furniture repair, marble polishing, modification of the sauna audio area, work on elevators, pools and jacuzzis, construction and equipment of a new cabin for the owner.

The yacht was equipped with a “specialized marine facility for organizing beach and sea recreation” — a pool in the open sea, the bottom of which should be located at a depth of three meters and be in the form of a grid to protect it from marine flora and fauna.

Millions of rubles worth of furniture and decor items were put into the yacht's bedroom, investigators write. So, for example, one carpet alone cost almost 5 million rubles. Also, porcelain flowers for 50 thousand rubles apiece for a total of 760 thousand rubles, backgammon for half a million rubles, three armored umbrellas for 1.2 million each, as well as combs for 11 thousand rubles a piece were purchased for the yacht.

Inside the yacht, there was an aqua disco equipped specially for Putin — a dance floor that turns into a pool; a movable billiard table, where you can play even with waves, and a yacht piano. Gold was used abundantly in the decor, even the toilet paper holder is made of gold.

Repair of the yacht became possible, among other things, because foreign intermediaries were ready to violate sanctions, investigators say. In particular, the Estonian company Briz Marine bought and brought displays for Putin's yacht to Russia, and also helped with their reprogramming. In turn, the Italian suppliers agreed to sell uniforms for the crew members of the yacht.

On the vessel, as the authors of the investigation found out, the same FSO employees, who were previously assigned to the Scheherazade yacht, work. At the same time, in the photo of the office equipped on board, you can see a model of the arrested Scheherazade herself, and a phone for special communications, which cannot be found on open sale.