A #YachtWatch Update: A Tale of Two Yachts in Turkey
What kind of NATO ally is this?
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ALEX’S WEEKLY RANT
Vladimir Putin is a humble civil servant whose sole calling in life is to serve Mother Russia. One wonderful thing he has done for Mother Russia is a jobs program at the Russian Sevmash shipyard, located on the White Sea. There, he has spared no expense and employed numerous Russians to build…well, private luxury yachts for himself.
The Sevmash shipyard, Russia’s only producer of nuclear submarines, took time out of its military construction contracts to build two super yachts for Putin, the humble civil servant.
The first yacht we are going to discuss today is Graceful, which was delivered in 2014. It is 82 meters (269 feet) long and is worth an estimated $100 million.
As you may recall, in early February 2023, Graceful abruptly left a shipyard in Germany, where it was undergoing repairs, and swiftly made its way to the safe Russian waters of Kaliningrad. It was one of the first indicators that a war in Ukraine was imminent.
The problem with Kaliningrad is that it’s not Sochi, the preferred sailing spot for our humble civil servant Putin. Perhaps in an attempt to throw us off the yacht’s scent, Graceful was renamed Kosatka, which means killer whale in Russian. It made its refurbished debut at the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum before setting sail to, you guessed it, Sochi.
Go look at Saint Petersburg and Sochi on a map. I’ll wait.
Sochi is not easy to get to, especially if you have to avoid western countries and their littoral territory because you are a wanted war criminal and all your assets are sanctioned and will be detained if they get too close. As such, according to Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Fund, the plan was to sail the looooooong way around Russia, through internal waterways to the White Sea, east across the Arctic, down the eastern seaboard of Russia and North Korea (waving hi to Kim Jong Un on his yacht, I assume), all the way around to the Suez Canal, then onward through the Bosporous.
Clearly, Putin and the crew of his ship didn’t seem too concerned that Turkey might try to detain the yacht, even though, as a member of NATO, Turkey surely wants to help enforce the sanctions put in place by its allies, right? Right?
The Bosporous watchers I know have not seen Kosatka, né Graceful, pass through the straight toward the Black Sea. But I have heard a number of rumors that “Putin’s boat” is in Turkey, which would make sense, given the number of other Russian yachts floating on the Turkish riviera.
The Kosatka’s AIS tracking system is not pinging, so it is difficult to locate the ship. I’ve perused satellite photos of the Black Sea, especially near Putin’s Palace at Cape Idokopas, as well as along the Turkish coast, and have not spotted the yacht. If any sleuths out there see it, please let me know!
No, Putin’s Other Boat
But it’s also possible that rumors of “Putin’s boat” in Turkey were referring to a different luxury vessel, the Victoria. Like Kosatka (Graceful), Victoria was built in Sevmash naval yard for Putin, according to an investigation by the Dossier Center.
The 71-meter (233-foot) yacht is worth an estimated $50 million and travels with an escort yacht called Orion, which is 38 meters (125 feet) and worth “only” $15 million. We have confirmation from the Dossier Center, whose investigation confirmed these two boats are part of Putin’s fleet, that Victoria is in Turkey (along with its small escort, Orion). In fact, it is being serviced in a shipyard reserved for Turkey’s NATO-assigned ships. Desan Shipyards has a Secret level NATO clearance.
Imagine, if you will, Putin’s proxies trying to walk into a French naval shipyard, or like, anywhere near Norfolk, Virginia.
Victoria took fourteen years to build, in part because the oligarch paying for it stopped paying for it. He then found himself tossed in jail and his $100 million home was seized by the Russian state. Probably just a coincidence. Putin’s good friend Gennady Timchenko then took over financing the yacht’s construction, with contributions from other oligarchs, all of whom looked at that first oligarch now rotting in prison and were like:
If any of my friends want to build me a yacht, please feel free to do so!
By the way, Timchenko’s own yacht, Lena, was detained by Italian authorities in March 2022. Also, oligarchs building yachts for the dear leader is apparently a thing in Russia. Roman Abramovich originally financed the construction of Eclipse for Boris Yeltsin, or so I’ve heard, but then Yeltsin died before it was completed and so Abramovich was like, welp, I guess it’s my yacht now!
Let’s recap: The humble civil servant Putin, who makes $140,000 a year, had two luxury yachts built in a Russian naval shipyard, then later launched a war against Ukraine while screaming about how terrible and threatening NATO was, then sent those two luxury ships to Turkey, a member of NATO, which accepted the ships and is servicing at least one of them in a shipyard meant for NATO vessels.
Given the current state of Russia’s navy—which includes an aircraft carrier that traveled with its own tugs because it was always breaking down or catching fire and a few ships getting an up close and personal view of the bottom of the Black Sea—I’m guessing some Russian Naval officers are wishing those hundreds of millions of dollars had been spent on actual military boats, rather than luxury yachts.
As for Turkey, the country has opened its arms to all kinds of sanctioned Russians. A number of the yachts that fled western sanctions have been enjoying lovely cruises in Turkey’s turquoise waters, as I wrote about here. Russian oligarchs have been in an out of Turkey like it’s a high-priced escort since the war began. Turkish companies have played middleman for western companies selling sanctioned technologies and other products to Russia. Turkey has also been holding up approval for Sweden’s ascension to NATO. Maybe Turkey worries Sweden might need access to their shipyards.
THE WEEK’S LINKS
A roundup of stories you should be reading
UNITED STATES
Trump Has a Master Plan for Destroying the ‘Deep State’ (NYTimes)
Americans think the American dream is dying (Axios)
UKRAINE
Ukraine claims wife of country’s military intelligence chief was poisoned (FT)
RUSSIA
New EU sanctions open door to seizing Helsinki arena from Russian oligarchs Rotenberg and Timchenko (The Insider)
Alex Finley is a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, where she served in West Africa and Europe. She writes and teaches about terrorism, disinformation / covert influence, and oligarch yachts. Her writing has appeared in Slate, Reductress, Funny or Die, POLITICO, The Center for Public Integrity, and other publications. She has spoken to the BBC, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, France24, and numerous other media outlets. She was also invited once to speak at Harvard, which she now tells everyone within the first ten seconds of meeting them. She is the author of the Victor Caro series, satirical novels about the CIA. Before joining the CIA, Alex was a journalist, covering Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the Department of Energy. She reported on issues related to national security, intelligence, and homeland security. Did she mention she was invited to speak at Harvard?
What kind of CIA director texts with members of Congress about an attempt to overturn a U.S. election and then suddenly resigns?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/01/19/cia-director-gina-haspel-announces-resignation/