An astronomical amount of 583.1 million euros was spent on the construction of the yacht of Russian President Vladimir Putin "Scheherazade", which became known after the investigation of the team of Alexei Navalny. This was found out by the publication "Dossier". Most likely, Alina Kabaeva was on the yacht.
The "dossier" refers to the materials of the investigation conducted by the law enforcement agencies of Spain, Italy, Germany and Finland. The luxurious 140-meter Scheherazade was a New Year's gift to Putin: the contract for its construction was signed on December 30, 2014. The money for the construction was collected by a whole group of Russian businessmen, which, according to the newspaper, was headed by the oligarch Gennady Timchenko.
The contract was signed by Diams Overseas, registered in the British Virgin Islands. It was concluded with the German shipyard Lürssen – and this is no coincidence, the publication emphasizes. Several yachts of Russian oligarchs were made in its docks, for example, Alisher Usmanov's 156-meter Dilbar.
According to the documents, the yacht is owned offshore by Eduard Khudainatov, the former president of Rosneft and a longtime associate of Igor Sechin. However, the businessman is a figurehead for Putin and his entourage, Dossier notes. In total, a little more than 583 million euros were transferred from five offshore companies to the construction of Scheherazade. The money was transferred by Alera Assets, Diams Overseas, High Definition, Imperial Yachts, Onda Mare.
Imperial Yachts was responsible for the construction of two more yachts – Suleiman Kerimov's Amadea and Igor Sechin's Crescent. High Definition belongs to the co-owner of the Summa group Ziyavudin Magomedov. Onda Mare serves elite vessels, its British division is headed by the captain of the Scheherazade, Guy Bennett-Pearce.
He said that he had never seen Putin on board. The Dossier's interlocutor, who is familiar with the former Olympic champion Alina Kabaeva, claims that the alleged mistress and mother of Putin's children has been on the ship.
The fact that Scheherazade belongs to Putin became known after an investigation by Navalny's team. The investigators studied the list of everyone who works on the yacht. The list was compiled in the same Italian port where the yacht was found, Marina di Carrara. This document contained the names of each crew member and all their details, from date of birth to visa number. All the names were Russian, almost all of them are associated with the Federal Security Service (FSO).
In May, the yacht was arrested by the Italian government. The financial police established "the existence of significant economic and business ties between the beneficial owner of the Scheherazade boat and prominent representatives of the Russian government."