Into the Great Blue Yonder...
"Don't be a resort for murderers,""Block all their real estate, accounts and yachts ... seize their accounts, their yachts, from Scheherezade to the smallest one."Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy"We've been investigating Putin's corruption for over a decade, and there is one thing we know for sure. Putin never keeps assets under his own name.""A dozen of Vladimir Putin's personal guards and servants are constantly maintaining one of the world's largest yachts docked in an Italian port.""We think that this is solid enough proof that Scheherazade belongs to Putin himself and must be immediately seized."Maria Pevchikh, member, Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation
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It's a super-yacht, in size and grandeur the mother of all super-yachts. Its name is that of the legendary story-teller of 1001 Nights' medieval Middle Eastern fame. It is also the world's most valuable vessel whose owner's identity has been a mystery. At $825 million in value it has a retractable roof over its swimming pool, one that converts into a dance floor. It has two helicopter landing pads, gold-plated bathroom fixtures and eight luxury cabins with ample room for eighteen guests.
According to one crew member, the ship is manned by an international crew at those times when the owner is not actually on the yacht and those are called "boss-off" times. When the owner is personally present on the yacht, these are "boss-on" times, when the crew is replaced by "an all-Russian staff". That all-Russian staff is reportedly comprised of members of the Russian Federal Security Service who provide personal security for the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.
An anti-corruption unit loyal to Alexei Navalny the most prominent of Vladimir Putin's political opponents whom he attempted to murder by poison, yet did a remarkable recovery thanks to medical treatment in Germany has been busy at work. When Mr. Navalny decided to return to Russia he was immediately arrested on a trumped up charge that netted him prison time and additional charges leading to a more prolonged incarceration. His political colleagues have been threatened but they continue to work at revealing the extent of corruption under Mr. Putin.
Previously their campaign had released a video showing the sumptuous interior of a presidential mansion built by Vladimir Putin, a palatial palace to reflect the grandeur of Russia's supreme commander, president-for-life, Vladimir Putin, in Sochi. The Anti-Corruption Foundation investigators discovered that the yacht is owned, albeit with great secrecy, by none other than Russia's president. The yacht is currently at an Italian shipyard for maintenance.
The Scheherezade was launched in 2020, registered to a company in the Marshall Islands, sailing under a Cayman Islands flag. A dozen of its crew registered at the official address of the Russian Federal Security Service stationed at the Sochi Black Sea residence, providing security for President Putin. "We found another $700 million that Putin stole from the Russians: the yacht, for which Russian soldiers are now dying", said Leonid Volkov, a close associate of Mr. Navalny.
To save himself from his own future, Mr. Putin might consider the advisability of leaving Moscow permanently, settling onto his yacht and sailing off forever and a day into the wide blue yonder; his escapade and escape from the consequences of the disasters he has brought upon both Ukraine and Russia, not to mention the wider world, will be the stuff of the one-thousand-and-second story in the famed group a clever woman thought up to save herself. Now Scheherezade can carry Putin off to a magical island to save himself.
Labels: Alexei Navalny, Anti-Corruption Foundation, Assets Seizure, Luxury Yacht, Russian President Vladimir Putin
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, March 26, 2022
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