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How can a $700 million superyacht sitting in an Italian port ‘belong to no one’? Russian sleuths say it’s Putin’s

In the legend of Tales From the Thousand and One Nights , Scheherazade is a beautiful virgin who escapes being murdered by the king by telling him stories at night.

Scheherazade is also President Vladimir Putin’s $700 million superyacht, according to Russian investigative journalists—and its ability to survive being seized by Western governments will require far more cunning than storytelling.

The yacht, currently moored in the Marina di Carrara on Italy’s Tuscany coast, is gargantuan, even by the outsize dimensions of Russian oligarchs’ superyachts. At about 459 feet long , it has six levels of decks, two helipads with a hidden helicopter hangar, a spa, huge living room and dining room, a swimming pool and three saunas, as well as an upper-level “owner’s area” that includes its own private spa.

“Belongs to no one”

For weeks, there have been questions about who owns the superyacht, which is registered in the Cayman Islands through a shell company. But on Monday, the group headed by jailed Russian activist Alexis Navalny claimed in a YouTube video that the vessel belongs to Putin himself.

“On paper, it belongs to no one, and sits quietly in an Italian port,” the video says in Russian. “Watch the video, and you will find out how Putin owns this yacht through figureheads, and how we can take this yacht away from him.”

The group obtained the all-Russian crew list for the yacht, and found that almost all of them were employed by Putin’s security detail, the Federal Protective Service, known by its Russian acronym FSO.

Earlier this month, the Scheherazade’ s British captain, Guy Bennett-Pearce, told the New York Times he was under “a watertight nondisclosure agreement” about who the superyacht’s true owners were, but claimed he had never seen Putin on board.

But Navalny’s group says the crew’s employment status suggests that the Russian leader owns the vessel. If that hunch is correct, it would be subject to immediate seizure under U.S., U.K., and European Union sanctions.

Superyachts have been one of the most visible signs of Russian oligarchs’ mammoth wealth—and, recently, one of the most often seized. French police seized a $120 million vessel allegedly owned by Igor Sechin, head of the Russian oil giant Rosneft, on the Mediterranean coast earlier this month . Spanish officials impounded  two more yachts, including the Crescent , a 443-foot superyacht also thought to belong to Sechin.

Another boat, owned by former KGB agent Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, was stranded in Norway when no one would sell it fuel. And on Monday, the 460-foot superyacht Solaris , owned by the sanctioned billionaire oligarch Roman Abramovich, was spotted parked in the harbor of Bodrum, Turkey; that country has not implemented sanctions.

Putin’s $200 billion

Western governments face a daunting task in tracking down Putin’s true wealth, which could amount to some $200 billion, according to financier Bill Browder, who told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017 that Putin’s inner circle of oligarchs split their billions 50-50 with the Russian president. The assets include a $1.3 billion mansion on the Black Sea, funded through a Russian health project in which Putin allies were vastly overpaid for medical supplies.

The Scheherazade , in fact, might not be Putin’s only superyacht. Last month, the vessel Graceful made a hurried departure from its berth in Hamburg as the EU was drafting tough new sanctions just days before Putin sent Russian tanks into Ukraine. Believed to be linked to Putin, that superyacht is thought to be worth $100 million .  

But untangling ownership details, and pinpointing them to Putin, will be immensely complicated.

In that, Navalny’s team has joined forces with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, or OCCRP, a Sarajevo-based group of investigative journalists, to create a database of oligarch wealth. It publishes its “ Russian Asset Tracker” in Russian , English, and Spanish.

The journalists say they are focusing on “a new generation of wealthy men obedient to Putin”—many of whom are now under Western sanctions and whose funds Western governments believe are crucial to funding the Ukraine war. The database lists mansions, superyachts, private planes, and other property, so far totaling about $17.5 billion. The group is sure that will grow, and invites people to send details of “anything we’ve missed.”

“Figuring out who owns what, and how much of it, is a tall order even for experienced police investigators,” the journalists say. “We decided to follow the trail.”

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Satellite image shows super yacht linked to Putin out of reach of sanctions

By Catherine Herridge , Michael Kaplan, Andrew Bast, Jessica Kegu

March 3, 2022 / 7:30 AM EST / CBS News

As Europe and the U.S. bear down with a raft of aggressive sanctions targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, the super yacht he is believed to own has found safe harbor in a highly militarized port in Russian territorial waters. In new satellite imagery obtained by CBS News, the yacht can be seen docked in a port in Kaliningrad, near Russia's nuclear weapons operations. 

Experts say Putin's luxury vessel has become a symbol not only of his vast hidden wealth, but also of how challenging that money has been to find. 

"He's a KGB agent, so he's crafty. He knows how to hide when he needs to," said John Smith, former director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which administers and enforces all foreign sanctions.

Data from MarineTraffic, a global intelligence group, shows Putin's alleged yacht, the Graceful, left Germany two weeks before the invasion of Ukraine . 

Putin's government salary is said to be about $140,000, but that doesn't begin to explain the mansions, million-dollar watch collection and over-the-top yacht. 

"It would be fair to say he's among the richest men in the world," Smith said. 

Though he sells himself as a man of the people, his wealth is estimated to be more than $100 billion. 

Putin's critics allege he also has a cliffside palace that includes an amphitheater and a personal tunnel to the beach that doubles as a security bunker. 

"Of course, he doesn't acknowledge it as being his own," Smith said. "It doesn't fit with the public persona that he's trying to create to actually acknowledge it." 

Putin relies on his oligarch friends to shield his fortune from sanctions, Smith said. 

"So if he asked them to do something, they do it in terms of hiding assets, squirreling them in different parts of the globe, they will do what he needs," he said. 

Those who have tried to expose Putin's fortune have done so at great personal risk. 

Putin critic Boris Nemtsov was assassinated on a bridge in the shadow of the Kremlin in 2015. Sergei Magnitsky died in 2009 under questionable circumstances in prison after he exposed $230 million in fraud by Putin's friends. Putin publicly condemned Nemtsov's murder and claimed Magnitsky died of a heart attack.  

His most recent No. 1 critic, Alexei Navalny , who helped expose Putin's lavish palace, emerged as a political rival and found himself repeatedly jailed. He nearly died after being poisoned two years ago, though Putin has denied responsibility for the poisoning. 

"Putin's wealth is one of the most dangerous topics," said Russian journalist Roman Badanin, who spent two decades investigating Putin's financial web. 

Badanin said Russian authorities sought to intimidate and silence his reporting team. Six months ago, he reached his breaking point. 

"I fled the country. My apartment was searched twice. I have like three criminal charges against me back in Russia," he said. 

In his State of the Union address, President Biden said the U.S. and its allies are waging economic war on Putin and Russian oligarchs. 

"We are joining with our European allies to find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments and your private jets," Biden said. 

On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced the formation of a new task force that would target Russian oligarchs. 

"Russia is not a transparent economy," Smith said. "The U.S. and our allies have decent information on some of [Putin's] assets, I think a lot will remain a mystery for a long time in the future." 

The biggest financial hit for Putin would be sanctions on the energy sector, which Smith says the Russian president has used to build up his wealth for years. So far, Washington and the Europeans have been hesitant to do that. 

• Vladimir Putin

Catherine Herridge is a senior investigative correspondent for CBS News covering national security and intelligence based in Washington, D.C.

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Italy impounds $700 million megayacht linked to Putin

ROME — Italian financial authorities said Friday that they have impounded a $700 million megayacht that has been linked in media reports and by anti-Kremlin groups to Russian President Vladimir Putin. But an element of mystery remains: Italy, in what it called its “ freezing decree ,” did not say who the owner might be.

Italian investigators had raced to investigate the vessel and prevent it from leaving the Tuscan port of Marina di Carrara. The yacht, known as the Scheherazade, had been undergoing repairs since before Russia invaded Ukraine. But this week, it returned to the water, according to a New York Times reporter who visited the marina, prompting fears that the vessel might depart and evade sanctions.

The ship, until the measures imposed Friday evening, would have been free to leave.

In announcing its action, Italy’s Finance Ministry said the yacht’s owner had “prominent” links with Russians already under European Union sanctions. The name of the owner was not specified, and Italy said only that its government had asked the E.U. to add the person to its sanctions list.

A spokesman for the Finance Ministry described Italy’s move as “provisional.”

Italy “proposed to the Council of the European Union the inclusion of the owner of the boat in the list,” the spokesman said. “Until then, the name cannot be public.”

In March, an investigation by the Italian daily La Stampa named the boat’s owner as Eduard Khudainatov, a former Russian oil executive. But the newspaper also raised a question about how somebody not listed as a billionaire could afford to purchase one of the world’s most luxurious yachts.

So, speculation about the Scheherazade has only intensified. Investigators working for jailed Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny say the yacht’s owner is Putin himself. In March, Navalny’s team published what it said was the crew list of people who had worked on the yacht. They purportedly include members of the Russian state agency responsible for Putin’s personal protection.

“We think that this is a solid enough proof that Scheherazade belongs to Putin himself and must be immediately seized,” said Maria Pevchikh, the head of the Navalny-founded FBK investigation team.

The assets of Russia’s ruling and billionaire class are generally kept in tight secrecy, controlled on paper through opaque offshore companies. That has made it difficult in some cases for European countries to ascertain the real owners of villas, yachts and other luxury items. The Scheherazade is officially owned by an offshore company from the Marshall Islands, Pevchikh said.

Before Friday, Italy had managed to detain a $560 million megayacht connected to Andrey Melnichenko, a coal and fertilizer tycoon who is one of Russia’s 10 richest people. Italy has also blocked access to villas that oligarchs use as summer getaways.

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Scheherazade: Giant £570m superyacht ‘owned by Vladimir Putin’ is seized by Italian authorities

The ‘scheherazade’ had been undergoing a refit in tuscany since last september, article bookmarked.

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The Italian government has seized a luxury superyacht worth an estimated £570m that is believed to be linked to Russian president Vladimir Putin .

The vessel was impounded as part of the EU’s sanctions against Russia for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine , under which similar yachts belonging to Russian oligarchs have been confiscated.

The six-deck Scheherazade had been undergoing repairs in the port of Marina di Carrara in Tuscany since last September. Recent activity at the dockside suggested that the crew were preparing to put the yacht to sea, as calls grew for it to be included in the sanctions.

The Italian finance ministry said in a statement that the owner of the yacht had ties to “prominent elements of the Russian government”, without naming them. US officials have previously told The New York Times that the vessel could belong to Mr Putin, though there has been no official confirmation of this.

Supporters of the imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny were also of the belief that the vessel belonged to the Russian president. In a report released in March , an organisation set up by Mr Navalny said it had evidence that the boat belonged to Mr Putin, as several crew members were drawn from Russia’s Federal Protective Service (FSO), which is tasked with protecting the president.

In March, the ship’s British captain, Guy Bennett-Pearce, denied that Mr Putin had ever owned or set foot on the Scheherezade . “I have never seen him. I have never met him,” he told the The New York Times .

Days later, Mr Bennett-Pearce said he had been left with “no choice” but to reveal the owner’s identity to the Italian police, adding: “I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that this will clear the vessel of all negative rumours and speculations.”

Police boarded the yacht – which is over 450ft long and has two helicopter landing pads – late on Friday to execute the order, the government said.

Officials said they had struggled to identify the real owner of the boat, as it is registered in the Cayman Islands and was built by the German firm Lürssen. The yacht was delivered to its owner in 2020 and can host up to 18 guests and 40 crew, Reuters reported.

Italian authorities said the owner was not on any sanctions lists drawn up by Brussels since Mr Putin’s declaration of war on 24 February, although Rome has asked Brussels to rectify this.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, while addressing the Italian parliament in March, urged the government to impound the yacht as part of the EU’s efforts to put pressure on Mr Putin.

Italy confiscated yachts and villas worth over £770m in March and April from Russian billionaires with close ties to Mr Putin, in a bid to hurt Moscow financially.

Earlier in March, Italy seized a £530m megayacht owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, as oligarchs around the world scrambled to save their yachts and other luxury assets from western governments.

And in April the German authorities seized the world’s largest superyacht, Dilbar , sprawling over 512ft, which belonged to billionaire Alisher Usmanov before he transferred its ownership to his sister.

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Alexei Navalny's associates show Putin's superyacht, which avoided arrest and bypassed sanctions

Alexei Navalny's associates have shown the luxury of Vladimir Putin's yacht, Graceful , which was urgently transported from Germany before the invasion of Ukraine and finished already in Russia during the war. They also revealed schemes to circumvent sanctions to decorate the yacht.

Source : investigation by the Russian Anti-Corruption Fund (ACF), published on Alexei Navalny's YouTube channel and website

Details : The Graceful is one of Putin's three big yachts. Like the Olympia and the  Scheherazade , Graceful is not designed for the President of Russia, but it was made for him. According to ACF, the Graceful was made based on Putin's old yacht with the help of large-scale reconstruction, full repair and very expensive equipment.

The Scheherazade was arrested in the port of Marina di Carrara in Italy, and Graceful had been "evacuated" before it came under sanctions.

It was Graceful on 19 January 2022 that the owner ordered to be transported from the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg (Germany), although her repairs there were to last another year, and the superyacht was not ready. The yacht was towed to Kaliningrad.

In June 2023, during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the refurbished Graceful came from Kaliningrad to St. Petersburg.

And just now, a superyacht with a special escort worldwide via the Northern Sea Route is on its way to Sochi, Navalny's team says.

One of the proofs that the Graceful is intended for Putin is that it is staffed by members of the Russian Federal Security Service and sails with a motorcade. In September 2022, it was spotted in Estonian waters on its way from St Petersburg to Kaliningrad, accompanied by a Russian Coast Guard boat under the FSB command; the vessel is known by its codename, Kosatka (Killer Whale).

The yacht's owner's office is equipped with a Prestige-CB, a special communication phone, which cannot be just bought: it can be used by the authorities to work with information classified as "top secret".

Navalny's associates obtained a deck plan of the yacht Graceful and an estimate for repair works.

Upstairs, on the open deck, there is a helipad, a lounge with a round table that seats 12 people, a dining elevator, a large bathtub and two contrasting fonts typical for Putin's residences.

On the deck, where the captain's deck is located, there is a lounge area with a grand piano, three sofas and a TV.

The owner's deck features a transformable swimming pool that can be transformed into a dance floor or movie theatre. The same design is on the Scheherazade. On the same deck, there is a dining room with a table for 12 people and a fireplace. There is also an owner's area with two huge cabins. There are men's and women's cabins. In the master's bedroom, there is a huge bed framed by columns. In the room next to the bedroom, there's a cabin office with a special telephone and a model of the Scheherazade.

The office of the owner of the yacht "Graceful" with the special communication phone "Prestige-CB" and the model of the yacht "Scheherazade"

Navalny.com

From the cabins of the master and mistress, you can go down the stairs to the gym. American Hoist leg exercisers were purchased for Graceful.

Cabins for guests and crew are located on the same deck. Several jet skis and two boats are also there.

The renovation included repainting the hull, replacing the helipads and decks, installing deckchairs and sun umbrellas, repairing furniture, polishing marble, modifying the sound zone of the sauna, working on the elevators, swimming pool and jacuzzi, equipping a new cabin for the owner.

The total budget of the yacht, with all repairs and entertainment for 2022 alone, amounted to 32 million dollars, or almost 3 billion roubles at the current exchange rate. Wooden products cost 240 million roubles, sofa – 4 million roubles, carpets – 6 million, coffee table – almost 8 million, installation of two deck fireplaces – 10 million, and a pool connected to the yacht – 208 million roubles.

Expensive dishes, a comb for 11,000 roubles (almost the size of an average living wage in the Russian Federation), backgammon for half a million roubles and three armoured umbrellas for 1.2 million each were bought for the Graceful.

The Graceful was subject to American sanctions a few months after the start of the war, but for the sake of its repair, a complex system was built, a whole infrastructure of assistants in Europe, Türkiye and Dubai, who help circumvent American sanctions daily.

Back in September 2021, the MTU system with displays, which allows you to adjust engine parameters, broke.

Estonian company Briz Marine agreed not only to buy and bring to Russia displays for Putin's yacht but also to help with their reprogramming. An Estonian intermediary picked up the equipment in St. Petersburg, found a courier who took everything to a factory in Germany, and in the spring of 2023, the repaired equipment was returned to Russia.

Italian suppliers continued business relations with the head of the Graceful, despite the sanctions. The invoice for the form was prepared, omitting all compromising details. The invoice was processed several times: first, it was issued to a Russian company that manages the yacht, then to an Estonian company, and in the end, the form was paid by a company from Dubai. After payment from Italy, the goods were sent to Lithuania to be delivered from there to Kaliningrad, directly to the yacht.

They also carried umbrellas for yachts on the route Türkiye – Lithuania – Kaliningrad.

The Estonian firm that helps buy clothes to circumvent sanctions is headed by the same person who helped with the displays for the yacht. And after the invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, the company's affairs went uphill.

ACF intends to file a complaint against each of these firms involved in serving Putin to circumvent sanctions.

Navalny emphasises that already during the war, 3 billion roubles (US$31.8 million) were spent on "Putin's toy", of which two billion (US$21.4 million) were spent on repairs and another billion on maintenance (crew salaries, overheads, communication, storage in dry dock, fuel, representative expenses). And the money will continue to be spent.

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter , support us, or become our patron !

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See inside President Vladimir Putin's opulent $100 million superyacht

• Russian President Vladimir Putin spent $32 million refitting a superyacht, a new report suggests.
• The yacht, called Graceful, was renovated while Russian soldiers were fighting in Ukraine.
• Photos of the vessel were shared by an investigation from dissident Alexei Navalny's team.

While his troops flooded into Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin was spending millions of dollars on an opulent refit of one of his superyachts, according to an investigation from opposition leader Alexei Navalny's team.

The imprisoned anti-corruption campaigner's team released plans for the yacht called Graceful and said to belong to Russian President Vladimir Putin, that show a helipad, a sauna, an indoor swimming pool that can convert into a dancefloor, and an elaborate dining room with seating for 12 people.

Photos of the lavishly decorated interior also show marble bathrooms, champagne-colored carpets that cost as much as $88,000, and lavish bedrooms containing beds worth around $34,000.

The investigation also shared pictures of an elegant bookcase that it said contained a photo album of Saint Petersburg, a Russian-German dictionary, and a book about former Russian Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin, assassinated in Ukraine in 1911.

The total cost of the works came to $32 million, according to the investigation.

"Half of the country is forced to raise money for underwear and socks for mobilized soldiers and to make trench candles, while the person who unleashed this war spends three billion roubles just on repairs and purchases for his yacht," the report says.

The 269-foot yacht, which left Hamburg, Germany , just before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, is worth around $100 million.

The Navalny team also published an email from January 2022 to the managers of the Blohm & Voss shipyard, which says that the "owner of Graceful is not happy with refit execution."

"They are dissatisfied with delays in construction schedule," it continues, before adding that the "owners wish to remove Graceful on 01 of February to Russian Federation to complete refit."

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The message also mentions concerns about potential delays caused by rising COVID-19 cases and asks the shipbuilders to "accelerate all works which may interfere with Graceful sailing out on 01 February."

The ship was finally seen departing Hamburg on February 7 as it made its way to Kaliningrad, Russia.

The vessel has been under investigation by the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control since last year.

"OFAC is identifying Russia-flagged Graceful and Cayman Islands-flagged Olympia, as blocked property in which President Vladimir Putin has an interest," the US Treasury website said in a June 2022 press release.

"While the leader of Russia, Putin has taken numerous trips on these yachts, including a 2021 trip in the Black Sea where he was joined by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the OFAC-designated corrupt ruler of Belarus, who has supported Russia's war against Ukraine," it adds.

The Navalny team also highlighted a phone shown in one of the photographs of an office on the yacht in which a "Prestige-CB" telephone can be seen.

The report says that these phones, which have no buttons and are decorated with the Russian coat of arms, are used for "top secret" state communications and cannot be bought by the general public. It adds that Putin has the same phone in all of his offices.

The Russian president is reportedly also the owner of the 450-foot, $700 million Scheherazade , one of the largest yachts in the world. The superyacht was impounded in an Italian port last year due to its connections to the Russian government.

Putin is also thought to be the owner of a smaller, Cayman Islands-flagged yacht called Olympia, a gift from the billionaire Russian oligarch, Roman Abramovich.

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Ali Velshi reports on research done by members of Alexei Navalny's anti-corruption activist group showing that a mysterious superyacht near Italy probably belongs to Vladimir Putin. March 23, 2022

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Breaking news, inside putin’s $700m yacht, complete with gold toilet paper holder.

This yacht makes a Bond villain’s boat look like a dinghy.

Vladimir Putin, whose forces continue to attack Ukraine , spared no expense on his alleged $700 million superyacht, which comes complete with its own dance floor — and even golden toilet paper holders. Rumors that the boat belonged to him have been swirling since its construction; however, anti-Kremlin activists recently claimed that it is indeed Putin’s .

“It’s like a mini city,” an unnamed worker reportedly involved in its construction told the Sun of the 495-foot luxury vessel, which is moored in Marina di Carrara in Italy. “There are countless swimming pools, a spa, a sauna, a theatre, ballrooms, a gym, two helipads.” 

Known as Scheherazade — after the iconic Persian queen from literature — the opulent watercraft was reportedly estimated at £500 million ($6.6 million), although insider sources price it closer to £750 million ($990 million).

And it appears that Putin put his money where his boat is: Photos obtained by the Sun show the veritable maritime mansion and its six floors of swanky amenities. They include a 16-foot aquarium, multiple televisions — including a 15-foot beast spanning an entire wall — and a self-leveling pool table so that guests can play even when the sea turns turbulent.

There are also bathrooms outfitted with King Midas-evoking gold taps and toilet paper holders, plus a tile dance floor that converts into a pool. Scheherazade is thought to be one of only two ships in the world with that feature, the Sun reported; the other is Putin’s second yacht, Graceful.

Along with standard bling, the Russian president decked out the superyacht with personal touches, including a judo room with framed pictures of black belts, plus various books showcasing the autocrat’s worship of wealth.

“Every surface is either marble or gold,” an unnamed boatbuilder told the Sun of the glitzy vessel, which the worker finds especially obscene in light of current events.

“It is hard to swallow the fact that the most incredible ship in the world is owned by a man intent on bombing civilians in Ukraine,” he continued. “And it is an unimaginable amount of wealth when the average Russian’s salary is £5,000 a year, and people there are struggling to eat.”

The ritzy ship isn’t just built for pleasure cruises. Much like the baddie’s superyacht in the movie “Thunderball,” Scheherazade can supposedly transform from a party boat to a battleship in a flash with a state-of-the-art security system reportedly capable of shooting down drones.

If that wasn’t ostentatious enough, the superyacht-cum-aircraft-carrier also contains two helipads and a hangar than can house a helicopter, six Jet Skis, five dinghies and eight Seabob underwater scooters.

Scheherazade was built over two years ago. However, the vessel’s alleged ties to Putin came to light recently after activists affiliated with jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny claimed that some of the crewmembers worked for the Federal Security Service, which handles the Russian leader’s security.

“To sum up, a dozen of Vladimir Putin’s personal guards and servants are constantly maintaining one of the world’s largest yachts docked in an Italian port,” investigative journalist and Navalny ally Maria Pevchikh wrote on Twitter Monday.

Meanwhile, during a Tuesday address to the Italian parliament, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky implored Italy to confiscate the assets of Putin and his supporters, who he claimed frequently traveled to Italy, the Guardian reported .

“Don’t be a resort for murderers,” he said, urging Italian authorities to seize every yacht “from the Scheherazade to the smallest ones.”

The ship is currently being investigated by authorities for potential ties to sanctioned Russians.

See the full set of image at The Sun

Despite the accusations, the Scheherazade’s British captain, Guy Bennett-Pearce, has denied that Putin has ever owned or even set foot on the vessel.

“I have never seen him. I have never met him,”  he told the New York Times , adding that the vessel’s owner was not on any sanctions list.

Earlier in March, Italian officials seized several superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs, including Alexey Mordashov’s 213-foot vessel , Gennady Timchenko’s 132-foot watercraft and Audrey Melnichenko’s $578 million, 469-foot superyacht.

The seizures are among the latest efforts to hit Putin and those close to him over Russia’s brutal assault against Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24. 

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As Moscow bureau chief, Guy runs coverage of Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Before Moscow, Guy ran Brexit coverage as London bureau chief (2012-2022). On the night of Brexit, his team delivered one of Reuters historic wins - reporting news of Brexit first to the world and the financial markets. Guy graduated from the London School of Economics and started his career as an intern at Bloomberg. He has spent over 14 years covering the former Soviet Union. He speaks fluent Russian.

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Moscow cracks down on messaging platform to restrict citizens 'hostile' to putin, uk says.

Russia has blocked any of its citizens from using the encrypted messaging app Signal  in its latest information crackdown, according to UK intelligence.

Russian media reported that Russian Federal telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor had blocked Signal on August 9, supposedly to “prevent the use of the messenger for extremist or terrorist purposes”.

This naturally led to assumptions this was part of the Kremlin’s ongoing attempts to control the narrative around the war, especially now Ukraine has turned the tables on Moscow.

After all, on August 6 – just three days b before Moscow blocked Signal – Ukraine breached Russia’s borders in a surprise incursion , and quickly secured 1,000 sq km.

But, according to the latest update from the UK’s ministry of defence (MoD), this “is highly unlikely” to be the reason behind the increased restrictions.

Instead, it believes the Kremlin is trying to restrict criticism of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s regime.

“Signal is used by many independent Russian journalists and opposition activists to evade the Russian government’s pervasive system of electronic monitoring,” the MoD explained.

“In this context, the restriction on Telegram is likely intended to increase the ability of the Russian authorities to monitor and restrict the communications of private citizens hostile to the regime.”

Outspoken critics of the Kremlin have met unfortunate ends in the past, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny who died while serving a lengthy sentence in a penal colony earlier this year.

The MoD said: “This comes at a time when the Russian government is proscribing independent media organisations, and disrupting YouTube and the messaging service WhatsApp; measures intended to increase government control over access to media and information in Russia.”

At the same time, Russians are on the cusp of becoming disillusioned over the war, according to one of Putin’s former speechwriters, exiled  Abbas Gallyamov.

He told Times Radio the general public are starting to “doubt the reasons for the war” now Russia has been invaded for the first time since World War 2.

Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 19 August 2024. Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/dMKKXwAFgP #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/B3i0eAgERu — Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) August 19, 2024

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Alexei Navalny’s widow rubbishes Russia’s latest claim Putin critic died of ‘combination of diseases’

Alexei Navalny ’s wife has rubbished fresh claims by Russian investigators that his death in an Arctic penal colony was caused by “a combination of diseases” – accusing them of trying to cover up his murder.

Russian president Vladimir Putin ’s most significant political challenger had been serving prison sentences exceeding 30 years on charges widely regarded as bogus until his sudden death in February, just a day after he appeared fit and jovial in a court hearing.

The late opposition leader’s wife Yulia Navalnaya has now shared the contents of a letter which she said she received last week from Russia ’s investigative committee stating there were no criminal circumstances surrounding her husband’s death and therefore no grounds to open an investigation.

The letter was signed by Alexander Varapayev, the same official who – according to Ms Navalnaya – initially refused to hand over her husband’s body to his mother unless she agreed to have him buried in secret, a demand which she rejected.

According to the letter shared by Ms Navalnaya, the cause of her husband’s death was a “combination of diseases” which it presented as a long list, ranging from hypertension and pancreatitis to damage to his vertebrae and the presence of herpes virus in his lungs and spleen.

The trigger for his death was a critical increase in blood pressure that upset the rhythm of his heart and overloaded the pressure in its chambers, according to the letter.

It claimed Navalny had fallen ill suddenly while walking in the prison yard, and was taken to a medical unit where staff tried unsuccessfully to save him with “indirect heart massage and artificial respiration”. An emergency team was sent for, but was also unable to revive him.

Ms Navalnaya, for whom Russia issued an arrest warrant last month , said that version was a lie and a cover-up.

“We know very well that when Alexei became ill, he was taken not to the medical unit, but back to the punishment cell. That he was dying there, alone. That he was taken to the medical unit already unconscious. That in the last minutes before his death he complained of acute pain in his stomach,” said Ms Navalnaya.

“Why is all this not in the resolution of the Investigative Committee?” she said, without elaborating on how she and her husband’s supporters had established the sequence of events she described.

Ms Navalnaya said “every third person in Russia” had chronic diseases of the kind listed by the report, and “people don’t die suddenly from something like that in the space of an hour”. She also challenged the diagnosis of heart arrhythmia.

“Tell me, how did you discover this arrhythmia during the autopsy? Heart rhythm disturbances cannot be determined posthumously, and during his lifetime Alexei did not have any heart diseases,” she said.

Ms Navalnaya also accused Russian investigators of continuing to refuse to return her husband’s possessions to his family, contrary to protocol.

“There can be one explanation for this. Only one. He was murdered, and now they’re trying to cover their tracks as much as possible,” she said.

Expressing demands for a criminal case to be opened, Ms Navalnaya – who is living in an undisclosed location outside of Russia – said she was resigned to the likelihood that there would be no investigation so long as Mr Putin remains in the Kremlin.

“Therefore, we will continue to investigate ourselves,” she said, urging prison staff and officials to contact her team confidentially and promising to pay for any new information.

Additional reporting by Reuters

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