Search icon A magnifying glass. It indicates, "Click to perform a search".
Business Insider logo
Newsletters
World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options."
US Edition
Loading...

A mysterious superyacht docked in Italy has a crew that may include Putin's bodyguards, according to activists working with the Putin opponent Alexei Navalny

Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
  • Activists say a mysterious superyacht is staffed by members of Russian state security.
  • The Scheherazade is one of the world's largest superyachts, but its owner isn't publicly known.
  • It has been rumored to belong to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A mysterious superyacht whose owner has not been publicly named is said to staffed by several members of a Russian state agency tasked with protecting Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On Monday, the investigative journalist Maria Pevchikh and the anti-corruption activist Georgy Alburov — two activists working with the imprisoned Putin opponent Alexei Navalny — posted a video to YouTube about the mysterious superyacht, named the Scheherazade, docked on the coast of Carrara, Italy.

The Scheherazade, one of the largest vessels of its kind in the world, is a superyacht with no public owner, The New York Times reported.

According to the video, the 140-meter-long vessel is worth a whopping 75 billion rubles, or about $700 million, and features six floors, two helipads, a swimming pool, a spa complex, and a beauty salon.

Pevchikh and Alburov said they obtained a December 2020 crew list showing that all permanent crew members except for the ship's captain were Russian. The video also said some of the ship's personnel worked for the FSO, a militarized state agency tasked with being the president's personal protection.

Earlier this month, US officials told The New York Times that they were investigating whether the ship belonged to Putin but had made no final conclusions. Italian authorities have also been looking into the ownership of the vessel, according to The Times.

Through "open-source search," Pevchikh said they were able to identify at least 10 FSO officers who were listed as crew personnel of the Scheherazade. Insider wasn't able to independently confirm the crew personnel said to have worked for the FSO.

"They are Russian state employees, military personnel, and they regularly travel to Italy as a group to work on the mysterious yacht," she tweeted.

The UK, the US, and the European Union have cracked down on Russia and looked to seize some Russian oligarchs' luxury assets — including superyachts — via economic sanctions, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Navalny's team is urging Italian officials to seize the yacht should they confirm the boat's owner is Putin.

The superyacht's captain, Guy Bennett-Pearce, told The Times that Italian officials had boarded the ship earlier this month as part of an inquiry opened by the Italian financial police and that he had "no choice" but to hand over documents revealing the owner's identity.

"They are looking hard. They are looking at every aspect. This isn't the local coppers coming down — these are men in dark suits," he said, adding that the information would be handled with "confidentiality."

"I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that this will clear the vessel of all negative rumors and speculations," he told The Times.

Bennett-Pearce, a British national who is said to be the only non-Russian working on the ship, didn't rule out that the superyacht's owner could be Russian but said he couldn't elaborate more because of a "watertight nondisclosure agreement." He did say the owner wasn't on any sanctions list.

"I have never seen him," he said. "I have never met him."