Putin spends $32 million in 2022 on renovating his new yacht, investigation shows

The Kremlin regime spent at least RUB 3 billion ($32 million) in 2022 on overhauling one of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s yachts, an investigation by the team of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny’s team released on Aug. 22 has revealed.

The vessel is the 82-meter yacht Graceful, which is worth $100 million. In total, Putin owns three large sea yachts.

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The Graceful, which before the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion and war on Ukraine was undergoing repairs in Germany, was urgently moved to the Russian city of Kaliningrad (a Russian exclave between Lithuania and Poland) in January 2022, and work continued there, the authors said.

The decision to completely upgrade the yacht was made after Putin lost his Scheherazade superyacht due to sanctions, Navalny’s team suggested.

The extensive overhaul plans for the Graceful include a complete repainting of the hull, the replacement of helicopter landing pads and decks, the installation of sunbeds and umbrellas, furniture repairs, marble polishing, the construction and equipping of a new cabin for the owner, and more.

The total budget for overhauling the yacht, including repairs and entertainment, for 2022 alone, during Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, amounted to $32 million (almost RUB 3 billion), Navalny’s team said.

“Half of the country is forced to raise money for underwear and socks for mobilized soldiers, and to make trench candles,” Navalny’s team said.

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“While the person who unleashed this war spends RUB 3 billion just on repairs and purchases for his yacht.”

Investigators found that the yacht was recently registered through a network of offshore companies associated with Putin’s childhood friend Petr Kolbin, who has also had vineyards registered under his name at the dictator’s palace in Gelendzhik. Additionally, Russian FSB Federal Security Service staff who worked on Putin’s Scheherazade yacht are also employed on the Graceful.

In September 2022, the Graceful traveled from St. Petersburg to Kaliningrad (through Estonian waters) accompanied by a Russian coastal patrol boat and under the false transponder name of Kosatka (Orca), the investigation states.

Furthermore, the authors discovered a model of the arrested Scheherazade yacht on a shelf in the owner’s cabin on the Graceful, which, in their opinion, further confirms that both yachts belong to the dictator.

The yacht has separate cabins for males and females. According to investigators, all of the dictator’s mansions have a separate bedroom for his “mistress.” One bed in the female cabin on Graceful costs RUB 3.3 million ($35,000).

The purchases for the yacht also included backgammon sets worth RUB 500,000 ($5,200), a comb worth RUB 11,000 ($116) – (“almost like a subsistence minimum,” the Navalny team noted, referring to the Russian minimum income level) a Jenga game worth RUB 170,000 ($1,790), as well as three armored umbrellas costing RUB 1.2 million ($12,600) each, which were designed for the president of France.

The yacht continues to be supplied and equipped in Europe, despite anti-Russian sanctions, the investigators emphasized. Companies and intermediaries from Estonia, Italy, Turkey, and Germany, which have worked on maintaining the Graceful for many years, are involved in schemes to conceal payments and the ultimate beneficiaries, Navalny’s team said.

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Currently, the Graceful is “in a hurry for the velvet season” in Sochi, Russia, the Navalny team said, referring to the Russian term for the early autumn season, when the temperatures in the subtropics are cooler and more comfortable for vacationing.

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