Thread by @kromark

🧵/ link in the last post. We decided to take a close look at the alleged Putin's yacht, Scheherazade, in the port of Carrara. Literally close. We hired a boat from the same marina. What happened next included drone wars, fire drills, and dealing with the police (successfully).

The Scheherazade was impounded by Italy shortly after the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine broke out, and it has been sitting in Carrara since then.

Our small crew arrived in Carrara on January 24th. As we approached our boat, everything on board the yacht was still and quiet.

A few minutes after we set sail, we noticed a drone circling around us.

Initially, we weren't sure if it was launched from the Scheherazade, but soon I managed to take a photo of the pilot.

People were running here and there on the yacht, water sprinklers activated, and several men grabbed fire hoses, pouring water into the sea.

As @eSysman informed me, hoses are not charged with water even during fire drills, so it was likely a 'stay away' signal.

The yacht is guarded constantly by a security firm La Lince from the nearby town of Spezia.

Current yacht crew is [again] from UK, including the captain, whose mother earlier said her son would never work for then 'murderer' [Putin] archive.is/QHgf7

Suddenly, another boat approached us — belonging to the Guardia di Finanza, the Italian Financial Police, who also serve as coast guards.

They told us we were clear to continue filming even before checking our documents. They also informed us that the drone was launched by the yacht's crew, who had also contacted them to check on us.

They also cleared us to launch our own drone. At exactly the same moment the yacht’s drone pilot launched his one for the second time, probably after draining the first battery.

At that moment, our drone suddenly lost control and signal, veering quickly towards the yacht, but we managed to regain control and retrieve it. Maybe just a coincidence.

I wish we always had a helipad to launch our drone from!

The rear deck of Scheherazade, currently undergoing expansion, is sheltered from the rain, some damage to the paint is visible. However, overall, the yacht's condition doesn't appear to be bad.

The official owner of Scheherazade is the sanctioned Russian tycoon Eduard Hudainatov, who is attempting to prove in a U.S. court that he is not a straw owner of the yacht.

https://twitter.com/CarlSchreck/status/1751954128765378760

Interestingly, Hudainatov claims he is not the straw owner of yet another seized super-yacht. The 348-foot Amadea is allegedly owned by Suleiman Kerimov in reality.

Kerimov is a multibillionaire sanctioned by @USTreasury in 2014 and 2018 in response to Russia's activities in Syria and Ukraine.

It seems Kerimov recently gave up on Amadea by refusing to pay its $7 million/year maintenance. Will Putin do the same with the Scheherazade after all?
reuters.com/world/russian-…

How the Scheherazade is connected with Putin? In 2022, @navalny's team discovered that shortly after delivery, the crew of 'Scheherazade' was changed to a Russian one.
navalny.com/p/6620/

It included employees of the Federal Protection Service, which is in charge of guarding high-ranking officials, primarily Vladimir Putin himself.

https://twitter.com/kromark/status/1505997812785365001

Later on, together with @pustota, we found more evidence linking the 'Scheherazade' to Russian president.

https://twitter.com/kromark/status/1506681848251965442

There's a compelling reason to closely monitor the Scheherazade: two other seized yachts of a sanctioned Russian oligarch disappeared from Italy back in 2022. archive.is/voJqn

Not only yachts, but arrested Russians sometimes disappear from Italy as well.
rferl.org/a/us-reward-in…

The latest EU sanctions package is a small step towards assets like the 'Scheherazade' being sold, with the proceeds going to Ukraine. However, there are already EU countries doing so.
rferl.org/a/croatian-cou…

Watch the whole story in this video: rferl.org/a/putin-yacht-…

And here’s the text version of this story in Russian, please Google Translate for your language! svoboda.org/a/sheherezada-…

Thank you @AusMalloy, @WillTizard1, @CarlSchreck, @pustota, @Maja_Zivanovic and many others for making this story possible! /END

Bonus post: we noticed another famous seized yacht in the dock. It's Ebony Shine, which also was owned by a Russian oligarch back in the days, and then by an African dictator's son. As of Jan. 2024 it was on sale for $100 million. forbes.com/sites/mfonobon…