A new Putin yacht was discovered as having needed some work and, curiously, it was carried out at the same Turkish shipyard that prepares ships for NATO member Turkey’s military fleet. But when it comes to yachts and Putin, one way or another we always arrive in Italy, or pass through Italy. Hear why.
The yacht is called Victoria, measures 71 meters, value indicated in the 2019 customs declaration: 50.1 million dollars. And her story is a perfect example of the power connections of the Putin clan, and of the most compliant countries: including the Bel Paese. Interweavings that can be reconstructed thanks to new documents made available by the Dossier Center. The Victoria yacht (accompanied by the “small” 38 meter Orion vessel) was finished in the Sevmash military shipyards together with the Graceful, another well-known Putinian yacht. The same shipyards whose main products are nuclear submarines.
In Istanbul the yacht was moved to a more hidden part of the pier, which according to satellite images was built recently, in May-June 2023, is 100 meters long and 19 meters wide, i.e. it has dimensions suitable for hosting superyachts. On 21 October the Victoria left Sochi and two days later she moored west of the Istanbul shipyard. Then on October 25th she was moved to the dock, she turned off the AIS transmitter and she ceased to exist. Poof, gone.
In reality it was always there. The Victoria – the new yacht – was ordered from the Sevmash shipyard by a friend and associate of Timchenko, Sergey Maslov, known in the news for being a trusted nautical expert of the Kremlin elite, himself passionate about yachts (and antics, (like one time he took a small yacht overland, a wedding present for his daughter, to the French ski resort of Courchevel). Maslov was also the builder of the “Syrian Express”, a fleet of boats that transported military supplies and weapons to Syria for the Russian army (Evgheny Prigozhin also participated in the construction of the “Syrian Express”). The “Victoria” was ordered by one of Maslov’s companies, Julesburg Corp of the British Virgin Islands, which received funds from Maslov’s Luxembourg company SVM Holding, which in turn received large loans from companies… Gennady Timchenko. And that’s it.
This is where Italy comes into play. At the end of 2013, the yacht was delivered by Sevmash (the builder shipyard) in Italy, in Ancora, to a large Italian company for the outfitting and construction of mega yachts, ISA Yachts. But in 2014 Maslov (behind whom was Timchenko, behind whom was Putin) stopped paying (he was then also briefly arrested on charges of embezzlement, but who knows why no one ever thought of taking revenge on the yacht), and in 2015 the ship she was transferred to Turkey. Maslov would later explain to the Dossier Center: «I’m just helping a dear friend complete a yacht. Building yachts is my hobby. And I advise a lot of people who build yachts.” Since the construction of the “Victoria” was taking a long time, it was Timchenko – an acquaintance of his tells Dossier Center – who started the construction of another super yacht for Putin: the now very famous Scheherazade, 140 metres, now seized (by the Draghi government ) in Italy, in Marina di Massa. The Scheherazade contract was signed on December 30, 2014, Timchenko raised the money for the ship from Russian oligarchs. Currently the “Victoria” is owned by Paer and managed by Fazar-Invest, two related companies that are part of the group of entities attributable to Timchenko.
“Victoria” is based in Sochi and every now and then reaches Cape Idokopas, where Vladimir Putin’s palace is located, and turns off the transponders. On social media a friend of Alina Kabaeva, Putin’s current partner, quite recklessly posted a photo of him with Victoria in the background. Recently (2021) the Victoria was also in Crimea, shortly before the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, escorted by the smaller boat (the yacht Orion). This one, built entirely in Italy, in Viareggio. We like the sea and we don’t care much about Putin’s wars.
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