Russian Center for Investigative Journalism Dossier Center (DC) has found Furnishes a luxury yacht it believes belongs to the Russian president to Vladimir Putin and to this inner circle.
The 71-meter Victoria arrived in Istanbul in October, according to DC. In Istanbul, according to DC, the Victoria is at a shipyard that has maintained Turkish naval vessels.
Apertureless there is no evidence of Putin’s ownership. For example, Putin has not been photographed on the deck of a yacht.
According to DC, several circumstantial evidence points to Putin’s possible ownership.
Victoria’s home port is in Sochi, and the ship has visited Putin’s Black Sea Palace in Mys Idokopas. It often turns off its signaling device before arriving at the port, both in Istanbul and in Sochi.
According to DC, Victoria’s crew includes people who have been on luxury yachts connected to Putin or other Kremlin insiders.
The strongest evidence linking the ship to the inner circle of the Russian elite is the fact that Victoria was built by a Russian At the Sevmaš shipyard. The shipyard normally builds, among other things, submarines and other warships, and no longer takes orders from civilian vessels.
Construction project has been huge. According to DC, the shipyard started building Victoria in 2005. The same shipyard has also built another luxury yacht, Graceful, which is also believed to belong to Putin.
Sevmaš shipyard stopped building civilian vessels in 2016, and Victoria was completed at AES Yachts shipyard in Turkey in 2019.
Victoria is owned and operated by two companies believed to be billionaires, according to DC Gennady Timchenko owned.
Timchenko is considered one of Putin’s close associates. At least Timchenko also had Finnish citizenship.
With Putin there are believed to be at least eight luxury yachts whose prices run into tens of millions of euros.
The largest ship in Putin’s “fleet” was considered to be the 140-meter long Scheherazade, which was seized in Italy as part of anti-Russian sanctions in May 2022. Italy has not announced the owner of the ship, but has said that its owners are Russia’s political and financial elite. Putin is believed to own it through a Russian oligarch acting as a bulvan.
After the seizure, the Victoria would be the largest of the ships connected to Putin. Along with it, a smaller 30-meter ship Orion arrived in Istanbul.
The news published by the Dossier Center is a Russian billionaire and opposition influencer Mikhail Khodorkovsky funded by the Center for Investigative Journalism. It examines the holdings and money flows of the Russian elite.
The center has also published about the ship a longer explanation.
