Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny urges Italy to seize Putin’s £500m superyacht
Russia’s jailed opposition leader’s team has urged Italy to seize a £500m superyacht reportedly owned by Vladimir Putin.
Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption unit called on the country to take the vessel, called Scheherazade, which according to the Telegraph is staffed by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSO).
Dubbed the world’s most expensive yacht, its owner has not yet been identified but Navalny’s supporters have urged Italy to take the 460m boat, in response to the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
The Telegraph reported that Maria Pevchikh, who works for the opposition leader’s anti-corruption organisation, insisted Putin “Putin never keeps assets under his own name”.
“A dozen of 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 Scheherezade belongs to Putin himself and must be immediately seized.”
Navalny, one of Putin’s most vocal critics, is awaiting the latest verdict in a case against him, in which prosecutors are trying to put him away for 13 years.
The UK, Spain, Italy, Germany and France are among counties which have seized Russian oligarchs’ superyachts, while other individuals linked to Putin have tried to move vessels.
This comes after Russia’s war in Ukraine continues to be met with resistance, with 10,000 if Moscow’s soldiers reportedly having now been killed.