Alexei Navalny. Schherazade, the mysterious $700 million yacht believed to be owned by Vladimir Putin

Moscow. – The investigation team of the imprisoned Russian opposition leader, Alexei NavalnyOn Monday, he confirmed that he had found a 140-meter yacht in Italy that would belong to the head of the Kremlin. Russian President Vladimir PutinIts value is estimated at $700 million.

yacht namedScheherazade‘, is now moored in the Italian city of Marina di Carrera, a small town on the Tuscany coast.

The investigation acknowledges that it could not confirm in the documents that the boat belonged to Putin, but considers that the best evidence is that members of the FSO, the Federal Protection Service, are working on it.

The FSO is the body responsible for the security of the president, senior officials, the Kremlin and various official residences of the Russian leader.

“Even in Italy, thousands of kilometers from Moscow, the people officially listed as Putin’s security guards and crew serve,” one of the research participants, Maria Pevchig, says in a video posted on the team’s website.

Navalny’s collaborators, who were sentenced to another year in prison Tuesday, noted that all crew members of the yacht, except for the captain, have Russian citizenship.

In particular, they mention Sergey Grishin, an FSO agent who will act as assistant captain of the yacht, Guy Bennett Pierce, an English national, and other members of the Russian crew residing in Sochi (Black Sea).

The ship, which has two helipads and even a hangar, is the only yacht in the world over 140 meters in length whose owner is unknown.

The mega yacht also has a gym and swimming pool with a retractable cover that can be converted into a dance floor.

Opponents demand arrest.Scheherazade“And published documents on the cost of its construction and the amount of money used to pay for its maintenance.

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Most recently, Bennett Pierce told The New York Times that he had never seen Putin on the boat, though he did not rule out that the owner was Russian.

Italian police are now investigating who owns the yacht and whether it belongs to a Russian businessman or even Putin himself, within the framework of sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU) on the Russian oligarchy for military intervention in Ukraine.

Guardia di Finanza (Border Police and Tax Offenses) clarifies the ownership of this and other vessels in the country, sources close to the investigations told Efe at the time.

“ScheherazadeIt is the title of a symphony by Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, which reinforces the suspicion that the person behind this luxurious ship may be a Russian millionaire.

In recent weeks, the security forces of several European countries have arrested yachts owned by Russians close to Putin, such as the head of the Rosneft oil company Igor Sechin.

On Tuesday, the Russian judiciary will begin reading a new ruling against Navalny for fraud and crimes in court that could lead to another 13 years in prison.

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agv / rdmd