Putin’s new yacht costs $100 million — ACF investigation

The ACF foundation released a new investigation about Putin’s new super expensive yacht Graceful. The 82-meter-long yacht costs $100 million, and in 2022, 3 billion rubles were spent on its repairs and maintenance. Graceful was built based on an old yacht when Putin’s other yacht called Sheherazade, was arrested after our investigation.

A month before the full-scale war started, Graceful was urgently evacuated from Germany to Kaliningrad. We have a list of repair works: there is a complete painting of the hull, replacement of helipads and decks, installation of sun beds and sun umbrellas, repair of furniture, polishing of marble, modification of the audio zone of the sauna, work on elevators, swimming pool, and jacuzzi, as well as construction and equipping of a new owner’s cabin.

Among other things, they bought for the yacht the following: 

• carpets for 6 million rubles;
• “specialized marine facilities for beach and marine rest”, which is, in fact, a floating pool for 208 million rubles; 
• backgammon for 500 thousand rubles;
• armored umbrellas for 1.2 million rubles each.

Until recently, the yacht was registered offshore. The ultimate beneficiary of the scheme was Pyotr Kolbin, a childhood friend of Putin. Graceful has the same FSO employees as Scheherazade. Graceful bypasses sanctions via Arkady Rotenberg and companies from Estonia, Italy, Turkey, and Germany.

Following the release of the investigation, ACF lawyers wrote nine applications to Germany, Italy, Estonia, and the United States. The applications relate to foreign companies that, right during the war, helped Putin to supply his yacht with important technical parts, expensive furniture, and even clothes for the crew while the governments of these countries declared support for Ukraine and imposed sanctions.