140 meter mystery in Tuscan port: is it a Russian super boat?

From the North Sea ports of Germany to the French Riviera: this is the era of super space shuttle hunting. Across Europe, authorities are hunting down luxury boats linked to Russian oligarchs in an attempt to cause trouble for President Vladimir Putin’s allies.

Scheherazade – one of the newest, largest and most expensive superboats in the small Italian town of Marina di Carrara off the coast of Tuscany – is under investigation by Italian police. It is almost as long as an American guide missile destroyer and dominates the boardwalk.

Boat, that site SuperYachtFan Its value is estimated at 700 million and will be covered by two helipads and satellite domes. Inside, photos taken by a former group member turn into a swimming pool dance floor with a pull-out card. The bathrooms have a fully equipped gym and gold plated tubes.

In the exclusive atmosphere of the world’s largest superboats (14 only At least 140 meters long or 459 feet long) has led to speculation that it may have belonged to a Middle Eastern millionaire or the most influential Russian, Putin.

The captain of the boat, Britain’s hand Bennett-Pierce, denied that Putin owned or was on the boat. “I have never seen. I never met him, ” he said. In a phone interview from the boat, he said his owner was not on any list of restrictions. He did not rule out that the person may be Russian, but did not want to say anything more about the owner’s identity and referred to the “sealed secret agreement”.

Captain Bennett-Pierce said Italian investigators arrived aboard the ship on Friday and examined some of the ship’s certification documents. “They see a lot. They’re taking care of all aspects,” he said. “It’s not the local police, it’s men in dark suits.” Confirmed the start.

On Monday night, Captain Bennett-Pierce told Italian authorities that he had no choice but to exchange documents revealing the owner’s identity. He said he would do so on Tuesday and promised it would be handled “secretly”.

“I have no doubt this will clean up the ship from all negative rumors and speculation,” he wrote in a message to a New York Times reporter.

Mystery arose over the owner of the boat because – even in the most secretive world of super spacecraft – there is an extraordinary amount of mystery surrounding this ship. Not only do contractors and team members sign confidential agreements, but as with many super boats, the boat has a cover to cover your nameplate. When it first arrived at the port, workers erected a high metal barrier on the dock to partially hide the boat from visitors. Some locals commented that they had never seen anything like it on other boats.

US President Joe Biden It was revealed Last week, a joint working group with the United Kingdom and the European Union found assets, including boats owned by oligarchs close to Putin, and faced sanctions in response to Russia’s occupation of Ukraine. Hundreds of people have been banned and the lists continue to grow.

Last week, French officials Captured Amore Vero was preparing to sail near Marseille when its owner was on the list: Igor Chechin, chairman of the state-owned oil company Rosneft. In Italy, the San Remo Police Confiscated Lena, a boat owned by Putin’s friend Janeti Timchenko, who controls the oil export company. In nearby Imperia, police also seized a boat called the Lady M, owned by a wealthy Russian Alexei Mortashov. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post. It is located in Hamburg and cannot be shipped without an export discount, German officials said. Reported Bloomberg News.

Some large super boats are owned by Russians who are not on the embargo list. The second largest eclipse in the world, including A missile defense system And a small submarine owned by Roman Abramovich, a billionaire who sells his stake in British football club Chelsea. Billionaire coal tycoon Andrei Melnishenko, sailing boat a.

It is difficult to determine who owns the assets that the rich want to keep secret, especially if there is no court order, these assets are usually protected by private bankers and lawyers, and hidden in the shell companies in paradise. Tax abroad. Sheherazade carries the flag of the Cayman Islands and its owner. Belarus Assets Limited, Recorded in the Marshall Islands. Captain Bennett-Pierce’s boat management company, which claims to be registered in the Cayman Islands, works from the ship and uses their rental villa in nearby Luke as an address.

A business site, this Self-names As the “universal power of super spacecraft”, of course, the owner of the boat is “known as a millionaire from the Middle East”, El Sheherazade is the name of the protagonist who told the stories. Arabian Nights On one occasion, in September 2020, he briefly entered the Red Sea and visited the Egyptian port of Hurghada. But it usually stays at the Marina de Carrara, where it has been parked since last September.

Local neighbors have their own hypotheses about who owns the boat. Some have heard that those on board speak Russian. Sheherosat is also the title of the symphony of Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

“Everyone calls it Putin’s boat, but no one knows who owns it,” said Ernesto Rossi, a retired clerk at the Marina Bordeaux on Friday. “This is a rumor that has been circulating for months.”

In Italy, the phrase “Putin’s boat” has become the acronym for a mysterious, ultra-luxury ship. It was a joke among dozens of crew members, Captain Bennett-Pierce said. “I’ve heard the same rumors.”

Another small ship, the Graceful, has long been attached to the President of Russia and is known as the “Putin boat”. He was spotted leaving the German port of Kaliningrad a few weeks before the Ukrainian invasion. (U.S. officials are apparently inferior to Putin; many of the luxury boats or houses he uses belong to oligarchy.)

Putin seems to have a preference for big recreational boats. During his tenure as head of Russia, he photographed boats from the north of Russia to the Black Sea in the south. Last May, he and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko traveled by boat on the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.

Scheherazade’s builder, the Lurssen Group, has promised its customers “total confidentiality” on its website, refusing to comment on its membership. Until June 2020, when the finished ship rolled off the dock in Bremen, Germany, it was codenamed “Lightning”. The same company Dilbar, a Bigger super boat than that. A boat with similar tremendous rates, codenamed “Luminance”, is now under construction in Lurson and is expected to be completed next year.

“Of course, all orders and projects of the Lurssen Group and its subsidiaries are handled in accordance with applicable laws and regulations,” said Oliver Grun, a spokesman for the company.

Captain Bennett-Pierce said 70 percent of Sherozat’s crew were Russians. He has traveled to Sochi for the past two summers; The last was in early July 2021, according to Marine Traffic, a leading provider of marine analysis data. The ship was built by Imperial Yachts, a Monaco company. According to Reuters, Manages Chechnya’s confiscated boat Amore Vero. Nick Flashman, who oversees the construction of large ships on Imperial boats, declined to comment.

A former board member, who spoke anonymously due to a secret deal, said he was referred to by colleagues as “Putin’s boat”. The person said that during the “boss-free” season, the boat was managed by an international team and when it was the “boss” season, the crew was replaced by all-Russian crew. In the weeks leading up to Sherosat’s voyage to the Black Sea in 2020, foreign crews were laid off, the person said.

The former team member showed listed photos of Russian and foreign employees. At least 17 of them were contacted by the Times via social media, phone or email. Very few responded.

One of the Russians quoted a secret agreement and said only that he had worked in Shehrazad. Another said danger if he spoke. One refused to work on the ship; Another said he had not worked at sea for 25 years.

Captain Bennett-Pierce commented, “A European team is not going up and a Russian team is going up”. Many of the boat’s senior officers are from Britain, New Zealand and Spain. Many international team members were fired in 2020 and replaced by Russians who did not ask for higher salaries and benefits than their predecessors, the captain said. “This is an economic issue,” he said.

Given the hostility of people outside Russia towards Putin, Captain Bennett-Pierce says that if the Russian president is actually the owner or key user of this boat, it does not make sense to have high-level team members like him. Not the Russians.

“If there was a European crew on board, it’s the biggest red herring and the biggest danger I’ve ever heard of,” he said.

They cooperated with the reporter Dmitry Gavin, Christoph Cottell, Julian E. Barnes, Jason Horowitz, Rebecca R. Ruiz And Eric Schmidt.

Michael Forsyth Correspondent Reporter. Previously, he was a reporter in Hong Kong, where he covered the crossroads between money and politics in China. He has worked for Bloomberg News and is a senior in the U.S. Navy. EPekingMike

Gaya Pianigiani is a correspondent for the New York Times in Italy. @gaia_pianigiani

David D. Kirkpatrick is a New York-based investigative journalist and editor In the hands of soldiers: Freedom and chaos in Egypt and the Middle East. In 2020, he shared the Pulitzer Prize for reporting on Russia’s secret intervention in other governments, and as head of the bureau in Cairo between 2011 and 2015, he headed the coverage of the Arab Spring uprisings. ddknyt ⁇ Facebook