A superyacht, which critics of the Kremlin claim belongs to Russian President Vladimir Putin, shares the same construction manager and European crew members as several other yachts of Russian tycoons that Western governments have either confiscated , or have sanctioned them, according to a research by Radio Free Europe.
Radio Free Europe has also revealed that a Russian crew member of the superyacht Scheherazade - worth an estimated $700 million - previously worked for a Russian yacht company, which won millions of dollars in contracts from the services of Kremlin security, whose officials allegedly served on the yacht's crew.
The research is based on an analysis of the Scheherazade yacht - whose ownership is being investigated by Italian authorities - which was published on March 21 by associates of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
The mystery of who owns the 140-metre vessel, which is now moored in Tuscany, Italy, has grown in recent weeks following the launch of Italian investigations and unprecedented Western sanctions over the launch of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Navalny's team has claimed that some of the crew members are officials of Russia's Federal Guard Service (FSO), which is responsible for Putin's security, adding to the evidence of the ship's possible connection to the Russian president.
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The ship is a mystery even for the crew, a source who worked on the Scheherazade ship told Radio Free Europe.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said the lack of the yacht's name and port of registry was "very unusual" and that crew members had referred to the vessel by different codes. and not by name.
"It was a very big secret", said the source.
The yachts of all oligarchs
Construction of the Scheherazade, which was completed by German company Lurseen in 2020, was overseen by Monaco-based yacht broker Imperial Yachts, which also managed the construction of the luxury vessel linked to Putin's confidante, Igor Sechin, head of the giant oil company, Rosneft, and billionaire Alisher Usmanov, whom the White House identifies as a "close ally of Putin."
In early March, French authorities announced that they had seized the vessel suspected of being linked to Sechin, the Amore Vero, while the United States had sanctioned Usmanov's yacht, the Dilbar.
At least two individuals named in the Scheherazade's crew worked for Imperial Yachts, according to public records, including Nicholas Snooks, who also worked on Usmanov's yacht.
Both he and other people who appear to be linked to Imperial Yachts - a British woman named Esme Leyland - are listed as "additional workers" on the list published by Navalny's team.
Radio Free Europe has been unable to contact members of the ship's crew.
A spokesperson for Imperial Yachts told Radio Free Europe that the company's involvement in the Sheherazade vessel ended when she was delivered in June 2020.
He said the company knows the owner of the yacht, but "as is customary in the industry, client confidentiality is paramount."
According to him, the company "has seen the latest speculations in the media", but "is not aware of the involvement of (Russian President Vladimir Putin)" with the yacht.
The ship's British captain, Guy Bennett-Pearce, told the New York Times this month that the Sheherzade never belonged to Putin, and that he never set foot on it.
He said that Italian investigators are examining the ship's documents.
The ship's first captain has also worked on other yachts that have been linked to Putin's aides and have been hit by Western sanctions.
The captain, an American citizen named Alexander Scherbakov, has been steering the ship two months after the completion of work on it, according to his profile on the platform, LinkedIn.
His profile mentions that from 2017-19, Scherbakov served as captain on the 65-meter long superyacht Rahil.
The ship is owned by Grigory Bayevsky, a business partner of Putin's friend Arkady Rotenberg, who has been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union.
A 2016 investigation by the so-called Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project found that Putin's daughter, Yekaterina Tikhonova, listed her residential address at a residence outside Moscow owned by Bayevsky .
In the summer of 2014, Scherbakov worked on the yacht St. Vitamin, which is owned by tycoon Yevgeny Prigozhin — also connected to the Kremlin — according to his LinkedIn profile.
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In 2019, the United States sanctioned St.Vitamin and other Prigozhin assets.
Russian cashier
Navalny's crew list also includes the name of a well-known Russian company that secured millions of dollars in state contracts with Russia's Federal Guard Service (FSO), whose officials are believed to be - according to the team of Navalny - that they were members of Scheherazade's crew.
The Sheherazade ship's treasurer – who is responsible for the yacht's various operations, including financial administration – is said to be Viktoria Kulikova.
An account on the Facebook social network, with the same name and the same date of birth, shows that Kulikova works at the Burevestnik Group.
In 2017, Kulikova was listed as a sales manager for the Burevestnik Group.
Founded by the well-known Russian businessman Andrei Boyko in 2003, Burevestnik is the most famous Russian yacht company worldwide.
Although Boyko was arrested in 2009 on charges of smuggling, which were later dismissed, his company has benefited from lucrative state projects.
In 2018, the Russian state-owned company Sovcomflot granted the Burevestnik Group the right to manage a yacht club, which was built in Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
An analysis by the Russian Radio Free Europe Service of state tenders shows that in the period 2008-2012, Boyko's company won a total of 38 contracts worth some 17.3 million dollars.
Kulikova has not responded to Radio Free Europe's requests about her work as a cashier on the Sheherazade ship.
A man who answered the phone at Burevestnik Group said she no longer works there.
Changing of the Guard
The footage, which is believed to show the interior of the Sheherazade, was first published by British newspaper The Sun on March 22.
It features a ballroom that can be converted into a swimming pool, a pool table that adjusts to the yacht's motion, a Jacuzzi on deck, and an exercise room with a framed photo of a judo robe -- one of his favorite sports. Putin.
Documents released by Navalny's team show that, according to the documents, the yacht is owned by Bielor Asset Ltd., an anonymous company, which is registered in the Marshall Islands.
The spokesman of the Imperial Yachts company told Radio Free Europe that it has no business relationship with Bielor, or with the Federal Guard Service of Russia (FSO).
On March 23, the AFP news agency quoted an unidentified source, close to the investigations being carried out by the Italian Police, that the epilogue of this case could be completed within a few days.
"We are in the deepening phase and in general it is a more complicated situation", said this source according to AFP.
"It is not always easy to attribute ownership."
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Afterwards, both AFP and Britain's Times newspaper quoted Paolo Gozzani, an official for the Italian trade union CGIL, as saying that a British crew had taken over the Russians on the yacht for reasons that were not immediately clear.
This source, who worked for the Sheherazade, told RFE/RL that a similar exchange took place after work on the superyacht was completed in June 2020, but in the opposite direction: a British crew is replaced with the Russian one./ REL
