Putin, Patriarch Kirill, Abramovich and others. Whose yacht is cooler? Putin, Patriarch Kirill, Abramovich and others Putin's yacht
The President of Russia, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, is also the owner of a fleet of magnificent luxury vessels. Of course, there is nothing surprising in this, because all the heads of coastal countries, for various events of national importance, as well as personal rest, use their own vessels, and the President of Russia is certainly no exception.
However, very little is known about these ships, and the reason is that in the Russian Federation there is a law “On the Federal Security Service”, according to which everything related to the price of a yacht, its location, as well as technical characteristics is a state secret, which is strictly forbidden to be disclosed. But, of course, everything secret in any case becomes clear, and a lot is now known about the yachts of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, because Putin’s palaces and yachts are one of the most discussed topics among the masses.
Putin's yacht photo
The flotilla of the President of the Russian Federation includes several ships, one of them is the motor ship Rossiya, which was born under Soviet rule in 1973.
However, the rebirth of the ship happened in 2003, when it was modernized and turned into a modern and truly luxurious vessel.
Of course, the government fleet also includes yachts. 
Compared to the yachts of domestic oligarchs, the yachts of Putin and Medvedev can be called quite modest; there are no huge giants, such as, for example, Roman Abramovich’s yacht “Eclipse”, whose length is 162.5 m, or Andrei Melnichenko’s yacht “A”, the size of which is 119 m. But it is the yachts of the President of the Russian Federation that are among the most beautiful and technically advanced in the whole world.
An incredibly luxurious and stylish yacht, the ownership of which by the government of the Russian Federation and, in particular, Putin is beyond doubt, is Sirius. This yacht can hardly be called small, because its length is 54 meters, but it is 3 times smaller than the Eclipse.
The yacht was designed by a world-famous naval architect named Paolo Cogliari, and the design idea was presented by a real ace 
his business, the Frenchman Jean Guy Vergen. "Sirius" was built in 2009 at one of the most famous and famous shipyards of Turkish-Italian origin, called Proteksan-Turquoise and until 2011 was an ordinary charter vessel, with a much less heroic name, because originally "Sirius" was just Leo Fun. Renting a vessel then cost €285 thousand per week.
However, in 2011, the yacht “Leo Fun” was bought by Russia for €30 million, renamed “Sirius” and became a real government yacht owned by the President of the Russian Federation.
While still “Leo Fun”, the yacht reached the finals of the most prestigious World Superyacht Awards competition, which was organized by one of the most authoritative publications, Boat International, famous for its ability to select not the most expensive and luxurious yachts, but the most stylish and technically modernized ones.
Sirius is a luxurious and incredibly sophisticated yacht. What gives it a special chic is the perfectly crafted and thoughtful design down to the smallest detail. 
design details, dark blue hull, looks irresistible on the water surface, tinted windows add modernity and style, and the white superstructure is in perfect harmony with the rest of the design and looks like a huge cloud against the azure sky, all this made the ship a real work of art. 
The yacht is incredibly strong, thanks to a literally impenetrable steel hull and a high-strength aluminum superstructure. Thanks to its huge reserves of water and fuel, Sirius is completely autonomous and is not afraid of any transatlantic crossing.
Sirius has powerful stabilizers and thrusters. Cruising speed is 18 knots.
What the yacht looks like from the inside is kept in the strictest confidence. However, this information also slowly leaked to the masses. Of course, the decoration of the yacht is incredibly luxurious and chic. On a huge area of 100 sq. m. is the most luxurious main salon of the Sirius.
"Sirius" is equipped with everything necessary for long trips.
However, despite the incredible
the high cost of the interiors, the luxury and chic reigning around, everything is done in rather strict colors, yet this is not an entertainment liner of an oligarch, but a government ship and the design certainly emphasizes this.
And yet, Sirius is in many ways inferior to one of the best private ships in the world called Olympia. 
"Olympia" is a real mega-yacht, the length of which is 57 meters. It was built in 2002 in the small southern Dutch town of Papendrecht. The concept of the vessel was Feadship 663. Next, the vessel went to Amsterdam to finalize the design, and then headed straight to Russia, to the city of Tuapse, and then to Sochi. The design of the yacht was developed by the famous Mark Hampton, while the general concept of the vessel belongs to De Voogt Naval Architects. 
"Olympia" has never been a charter vessel, because renting a yacht of such a high class is simply unprofitable, accordingly, "Olympia" has always been privately owned.
This is one of the most secret ships in the world; debate about whether it belongs to Putin or not has not subsided to this day. However, the fact that Olympia is a government yacht is supported by the very fact of its secrecy. All oligarchs love to show off their castles and yachts, and only the rulers of countries strive to preserve their private lives in 
secret.
It is not known for certain how exactly Olympia became private yacht President of the Russian Federation, but the main version is that such a luxurious gift was given to Vladimir Vladimirovich by one of the richest people on the planet, Roman Abramovich. Numerous investigations by journalists confirm that it was Abramovich who gave Putin the Olympia yacht.
Like all billionaire ships, Olympia is registered in a tax-free zone and flies the flag of the Cayman Islands.
A photo of Putin’s yacht “Olympia” demonstrates the magnificent interior decoration, style and luxury, as well as the sophistication and excellent taste of its owner. 
All cabins of the yacht, designed to accommodate up to 10 guests, are decorated with red wood, rattan and gilding, and the owner's cabin, Admiralty or Presidential, is located on a separate deck. The ship is equipped with high-tech beds with special hinges that do not change their position even during the strongest storm.
Apartment 
The Olympia's rooms and the living room are finished in stained white ash, from which the furniture is also made, and the ceilings are entirely covered in the magnificent and incredibly refined Rosa Portogallo marble. The colonnades are made of the rarest species of maple, called “Bird's Eye”. All rooms are equipped with incredibly expensive video and audio systems from Linn. 
The upper deck is equipped with a state-of-the-art Jacuzzi, barbecue and bar. On the middle deck there are pleasure boats, which are also perfect for water skiing. Putin's yacht Olympia, photos of which demonstrate incredible luxury and chic, is deservedly called the presidential yacht.
But appearance is not the most important thing for a yacht of this level, what are its main technical characteristics?
- The length of the yacht is 157 m.
- The width of Olympia is 10.1 m.
- The yacht's draft is 2.95 m.
- The fuel capacity is 100,000 liters.
- Water reserve – 24,400 l.
- 2 Caterpillar 3512B engines, 1500 hp each. every.
- The speed of the yacht is 15.5 knots.
How much does this miracle of shipbuilding cost? Of course, the exact price of the yacht is not known for certain, but according to numerous sources, the initial cost of the Olympia was said to be $35,000,000, but in the end the price increased to $50,000,000, which is not surprising, because this is one of the most technically advanced yachts in the whole world .
Putin's yacht Olympia is one of the 100 largest and most expensive ships in the world, according to the ratings of many authoritative publications, for example, Forbes.
Putin's yacht video
From time to time, video recordings labeled “Putin’s yacht” are leaked onto the Internet, but more often than not, in fact, these recordings have nothing to do with Putin’s real yachts and only show some small vessels. Also, many call their ships “Olympia” or “Sirius”, posting them on the Internet with the appropriate marking, as a result, instead of a luxury yacht, you can only see a small sailing boat with a sonorous name.
In fact, finding a video of the yachts of the President of the Russian Federation is practically 
It’s impossible, because if a real video recording of “Russia”, “Olympia” or “Sirius” ends up on the Internet, it will be immediately confiscated, and even those who allowed such a video to be posted will be punished. After all, as mentioned above, information about government yachts is kept in the strictest confidence and is a state secret, the disclosure of which can result in real punishment.
Therefore, a high-quality video of Putin’s yachts, even if someone has it, is unlikely to ever become available to the general public.
And yet, there is a video of Putin and Medvedev’s yacht on the Internet, not the video itself best quality, however, on which the majestic and luxurious Olympia is clearly visible.
According to the Turkish newspaper, it was built at the Istanbul shipyard Proteksan-Turquoise. Press secretary of the administration Viktor Khrekov confirmed to Vedomosti that the president had a new yacht, but refused to name the price and name of the manufacturer. Khrekov clarified that this is a sea vessel to support the activities of the head of state in sea areas, which the property manager purchased at the end of last year on the secondary market in order to save budget funds. “If you buy a new one, it will be more expensive,” Khrekov explained. The yacht was purchased in accordance with the procedures of the state protection law, since it was intended for a protected person.It is much easier to see Olympia live, because according to eyewitnesses, Putin’s yacht is a very frequent guest in Sochi.
According to Khrekov, no one has used it since it was built. And Medvedev too - this year the yacht entered service, but now the corresponding equipment is being accepted. “The yacht provides everything that the president needs for work and rest, negotiations and meetings, and the president can use it during the 2014 Olympics,” Khrekov said.
The characteristics of the vessel are given by the Vatan newspaper: the yacht can reach speeds of up to 18 knots (33.3 km/h), accommodates six VIP cabins, is designed for 11 guests and is served by a crew of 12 people. The yacht was completed in 2009 according to the design of Paolo Cagliari, the interior design was carried out by Jean Guy Verger, since then the yacht has been rented out to those wishing to take a “luxury cruise around Mediterranean Sea", rental price - 285,000 euros per week, indicated on advertising sites Turkish companies, offering a yacht for rent.
According to Khrekov, the current yacht replaced the Kavkaz vessel, built in 1982, which reached the end of its 25-year service life in 2007. The service life has since been extended for two years, but now the Kavkaz is still subject to decommissioning. The president also has a river ship, the Rossiya, which was recently repaired.
The release of information about Medvedev's yacht coincided with his arrival in Davos, before which the Chichvarkin case ended and many liberal statements by the president were made, notes political scientist Nikolai Petrov. When information about Medvedev’s yacht appears, the so-called Putin's palace, with a message about which at the end of last year to the president entrepreneur Sergei Kolesnikov addressed(The prime minister's press service denied this information). There is no need now to particularly discredit Medvedev, Petrov believes, but everyone sees a series of mutual accusations between the offices of the president and prime minister and predictions about whose candidate will run in the elections.
The yachts of top officials in Russia have often become the subject of political discussion. In the mid-1990s. two small yachts became involved in the Mabetex case - the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera accused President Boris Yeltsin of spending $500,000 from the state budget on the ships. The presidential yacht Pallada, which was mentioned in his book “Daily Life of the Kremlin under Presidents” by adviser to the head of state Vladimir Shevchenko, also received close attention from the press. By order of the presidential administration, according to Shevchenko, they built snow-white double-decker ship 31 m long - it was already used by President Vladimir Putin, and the military boat “Burevestnik” was made for it by order of the Leningrad Naval Base of the Navy. Yachts also appeared in scandalous Wikileaks publications: from the published diplomatic cable from the US Embassy in Turkmenistan it followed that the yacht "Renaissance" could give President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov for 60 million euros Russian company"Itera".
Andrey Biryukov, Valery Weisberg
 |
| Dmitry Medvedev (second from right)
|
Leo Fun began to be prepared for sale in October last year, at which time it received a new name “Sirius”. Going through the ports (according to the Digital-Seas.com service) Cote d'Azur France, in October she called at the Istanbul port of Haydarpasa for 45 days. Today "Sirius" left Istanbul, its current location is still unknown. “In accordance with the law on the Federal Security Service, the location of the yacht, its price and characteristics fall under the protection of the law on state secrets,” Viktor Khrekov explained to Marker.
[…] Last year, the ship was among the finalists in the World Superyacht Awards, conducted by the authoritative magazine Boat International. In terms of its dimensions (the length of the yacht is almost 54 m, the width is 9.5 m), Sirius is half the size yachts of Russian oligarchs, but still amazing.
The cruising range of Dmitry Medvedev's yacht is 5 thousand nautical miles, which allows for a transatlantic journey. The area of the luxurious salon is 100 sq. m. The ship has a living room, a SPA pool with a glass waterfall wall and two staircases on the sides. There is also a jacuzzi for six people, a barbecue, a dining room for 14 people, etc. The yacht has a steel hull with aluminum superstructures. […]
The yacht has six cabins for 12 guests: a full-beam owner's suite on the main deck, a VIP cabin on the lower deck and four guest suites. All cabins have their own bathroom, satellite TV, DVD, Internet, etc. The ship's crew is 11 people. They have cabins on the lower deck, a separate dining room, a galley and an entertainment center at their disposal.
This luxury yacht belongs to the president and co-owner of the private oil company LUKOIL Vagit Alekperov. The yacht was built in the Netherlands by Heesen Yachts and delivered in 2016. The boat has already won the international exhibition Monaco Yacht Show. Now she is “wintering” in Montenegro.The price of the super vessel is not disclosed, and there is no information about it in the domestic media. But a Heesen spokesman told Business Insider that yachts of this class sell for $13.2 million per meter. In this case, Galactica Super Nova should cost somewhere around $900 million.
Alekperov can afford such an expensive means of transportation. As Bloomberg calculated, in the last six years alone he has become $3 billion richer. During the third presidential term, things generally went well for Russians and they increased their fortunes, despite Western sanctions.
Eclipse
This is the largest of Roman Abramovich's yachts. Its length is 162.5 m, and its approximate cost is $400 million. The motor yacht has a music stage, an exhibition hall, two swimming pools, Gym with a sauna, a cinema and even a small clinic where simple operations can be performed.
IN this moment The yacht is located in Saint Barthelemy - the so-called island of millionaires - in the Caribbean. A few years ago, Abramovich bought 70 acres of land here and a bungalow overlooking the ocean. So if Great Britain, due to a conflict with Russia, decides to create problems for a businessman, the owner of the Chelsea football club has somewhere to retreat.
Dilbar
The yacht owned by oligarch Alisher Usmanov is equipped with a diesel-electric power plant, allowing the ship to move at a cruising speed of 22.5 knots (about 42 kilometers per hour). Estimated cost: $600 million.
The yacht was named after the mother of the founder of USM Holdings, which combines assets in the mining and metallurgy industries.
According to the MarineTraffic ship tracking map, the Dilbar passengers set sail from Spain on March 14, heading for the island of Sardinia.
Quantum Blue
The cost of the yacht is about $250 million. At the end of February, she traveled along the route from Gibraltar to Nice, France.
According to the specialized website SuperYacht Fan, the yacht belongs to the founder of the Magnit retail chain. On board Sergei Galitsky - Helipad, Jacuzzi, swimming pool, spa, gym, cinema and elevator connecting all decks.
“Spending a lot of time on a yacht is too much. A week is enough for me to already miss Krasnodar,” said Galitsky.
Yacht "A"
For coal magnate Andrei Melnichenko, size seems to matter. The world's largest "sailboat" with a name from the first letter of the entrepreneur's name was built especially for him. It's longer than a football field.
Melnichenko also owns the Swiss chemical company Eurochem. But it is believed that most of his time is spent not at work, but on a boat worth from $300 to $500 million.
She can accommodate 14 guests in 7 cabins. There are 20 cabins for 42 crew members.
Recently “A” sailed past Cyprus, and people came to see the legendary yacht local residents. Before that, she visited Israel. Now I've moored to Spanish city Cartagena.
Palladium
The yacht, almost 100 meters long and worth $200 million, belongs to Mikhail Prokhorov. Last October she visited Ibiza and since then has been wintering in the Spanish port of Vilanova.
Palladium has 8 cabins and can accommodate 16 guests. Experts note its stylish futuristic design. It was created by the British bureau Michael Leach Design by Michael Leach.
Prokhorov adores aquatic species sports, so the yacht has a complete set for them.
There is even a special area designed for drinking cocktails.
Last year, the oligarch's boat attracted the attention of Spanish tax authorities. The case concerned non-payment of the amount for mooring a yacht.
Ice
While a Russian senator accused of tax evasion in France cannot leave Nice until the end of his trial, his yacht is also imprisoned. Last year, media reported that Ice could be arrested at the request of the Geneva prosecutor's office.
According to government services, the boat, worth $170 million, has not left Moroccan territory for a long time. But once even Bill Gates wanted to buy the yacht, but Kerimov refused to sell it.
Madam G.U.
The steel hull of this boat is painted in a unique sky blue color. Until 2015, she was the largest yacht built in the Netherlands. According to rumors, it belongs to State Duma deputy Andrei Skoch. In any case, journalists have repeatedly spotted him on board Madam GU. But this yacht, worth $150 million, is not listed in the official declaration. Perhaps it is registered to relatives or close friends.
Madam GU moors in Genoa. Interestingly, the last time she was ridden was on February 27th. Just when the State Duma was scheduled to have a “regional week” and deputies were supposed to meet with their voters. Perhaps he invited some of the residents of the Belgorod region, which Skoch represents in the lower house, to take a ride along the Italian coast.
Ocean Victory
At the time of writing this material, a yacht worth $120 million was sailing from the Seychelles towards Canada. Which is a little strange, since its owner is the head of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, Viktor Rashnikov. He recently made it onto the US Treasury’s “Kremlin list.”
Did he really go to negotiate so that sanctions would not be imposed? After all, the Canadian port of Victoria is located right next to the border with the American state of Washington.
Another version is that Rashnikov went to recruit Canadian hockey players to join his own club, Metallurg. If only there were no accidents - a couple of years ago a tragedy occurred on board the luxurious Ocean Victory. A worker's legs were caught in an iron chain while raising an anchor in Thailand. A man who received multiple injuries a short time lost a lot of blood and fell into a coma. Doctors transported the victim to the nearest hospital in Phuket, but they could not save his life.
Number
180 meters – the length of the world's largest yacht, Azzam, which means "Resolute" in Arabic. The width of the vessel is 20.8 meters. It belongs to the President of the UAE Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.Presidential grace
Superyacht Graceful- one of the most mysterious in the world.It began to be built in Russia, at the state-owned enterprise Sevmash. This is the largest shipbuilding complex in our country.
After Sevmash built the original hull in 2010, it was towed to Bremen, Germany. There the boat was modified, put on the water and sent to Hamburg. German shipbuilding firm Blohm + Voss completed the equipment of the vessel in 2014.
On specialized yacht sites they write that “Graceful” is smaller in size (82 meters) than some megayachts, but “it’s not inferior to them in luxury.” It has an indoor swimming pool, which after certain operations can be converted into a dance floor; owner's apartment on two floors, two VIP cabins and three comfortable guest cabins.
One of the main advantages is a unique helipad on the upper deck, which allows you to conveniently arrive on the yacht.
In the Russian media, despite the domestic origin of Graceful, almost nothing was written about it. Some information can be found in Western publications. Deutsche Welle noted that Graceful was built at the same Hamburg shipyard as Roman Abramovich's yacht. This gave reason to the British publication Independent to assume that the oligarch could have presented the boat as a gift. After all, the Daily Mail previously wrote that Abramovich had already donated one ship.
Rumors that Putin or someone close to him owns Graceful may be true, according to British website Superyacht fan, which tracks billionaires' superyacht purchases. But the authors stipulate that they found “only indirect evidence.” In addition to the above, this is that the yacht is under the command of a captain of the Russian fleet.
The source studied Graceful’s routes and found additional arguments in favor of the fact that Putin could sail on it. The ship's sailing dates coincide with the president's schedule.
Maps from the civil vessel tracking site VesselFinder show that Graceful constantly sails between Russia and Spain. On May 23, 2017, the yacht was spotted off Sochi. On the Fleetphoto website, where users post their photos of ships, there is even a photo of Graceful standing in the bay.
According to the Kremlin website, these May days Vladimir Putin spent time in Sochi. He had a meeting with members of the Security Council and a meeting on the development of the space industry. Similar coincidences in the simultaneous presence of Putin and Graceful in Krasnodar region celebrated for two years. But not only. On September 15, 2016, the president goes to Kerch, where he holds a meeting of the Presidium of the State Council. And Graceful is also heading to Crimea.
As of March 14, the yacht was in the port of Barcelona. Surrounded by three other boats in close proximity: Ona, Titan and Symphony. The first belongs to oligarch Alisher Usmanov, the second to Roman Abramovich, and the third to the president of the Louis Vuitton group of companies, Bernard Arnault.
Arnault is the richest man in France. He can be called a friend of Russia. He visits Moscow, and a few months ago Putin even awarded him the Pushkin medal.
The owner of Graceful has signed a confidentiality agreement with Blohm + Voss. However, according to the Fleetphoto website, the owner of the vessel is a company from the Bahamas.
The Bahamas is a famous offshore zone. Thanks to a leak (Bahamas Leaks), it became known that at one time the American-Russian offshore company was led by former US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Rosneft also had its share in it.
A company named O'Neil, which is listed as the owner of the yacht Graceful, was registered in the Bahamas in November 2003. Exactly a month earlier, in October, Vladimir Putin signed a decree establishing diplomatic relations with the Commonwealth Bahamas. True, O’Neil’s status is no longer active.
If a lot of indirect evidence is enough to say that Graceful belongs to the Russian president, then it has the right to be considered the most expensive in Putin’s personal fleet. Previously, the source found another “galley” with the head of state - the 46-meter Shellest, worth about 1.5 billion rubles. The Graceful yacht is valued at 5.7 billion.
Buy Sell
The owner of the Monaco football club and one of the richest people in Russia, Dmitry Rybolovlev, ordered the construction of a new 110-meter yacht at the Dutch shipyard Feadship. He put his previous yacht, the 67-meter Anna, up for sale at a price of 65 million euros.But Putin’s longtime judo partner Arkady Rotenberg (more precisely, this partner’s partner Grigory Baevsky) purchased the yacht Rahil worth $60 million. It was originally built for British billionaire Graham de Zille.
One of the top yachts in the world, the $220 million Pelorus, recently lost its Russian owner. After the divorce, Roman Abramovich left it to his ex-wife Irina. She sold it, after which the boat went through several owners. Members of the Abu Dhabi royal family are currently sailing on it.
YACHT FOR THE PRESIDENT“Novaya” begins a series about the life of Russian officials with Vladimir Putin IN “New” No. 20 (dated March 21, 2005) was from our columnist Pavel Voschanov about the Kremlin property used by President Putin and his entourage. In addition to airliners, palaces and luxury transport, the ocean yacht Olympia was also mentioned, about which all that was known was that, according to rumors, it was leased by the Kremlin government and for some time was based in the port of Tuapse, where it was carefully guarded by FSO officers.
We decided to find out more about this, if only because it was the Olympia that three years ago became perhaps the only megayacht * royal executive class in Russia. Another megayacht - called the Blue Abyss, which is said to be the property of businessman Roman Abramovich - entered the Russian seaport in Vladivostok only a year after the appearance of the Olympia in Sochi.
Naturally, it was not possible to receive any official comments from the Presidential Administration. The “object” turned out to be classified, which once again confirmed our assumption: the yacht is related to the President of Russia. The search for Olympia began with a single photograph from the ITAR-TASS agency, taken at the seaport of Sochi. At first, nothing but the design and presentational advantages of the craft caught the eye.
The first item that revealed the secrets of Olympia was its flag. It was obvious that he was not Russian. To understand which country’s ship register the yacht is registered in, we compared its image with the flags of hundreds of countries: it turned out that civil ships registered in offshore territories dependent on Great Britain sail under such flags (the English flag is located on a red background in the upper left corner, and closer to the right side of the cloth the coat of arms of one or another dominion is usually placed).
To see the coat of arms, barely visible in the photo, the help of a special computer program was needed. After digital processing and enlargement of the image, it became clear that Olympia flies the flag of the Cayman Islands. It is in this tax-free offshore zone, as experts confirmed to us, that Russian and foreign billionaires prefer to register their yachts.
And then we were lucky: this year the international specialized yacht exhibition was held in Moscow, and the world leaders in the production of megayachts gathered there. We went there for “identification”, showing the photo to everyone. When they were already desperate - well, they didn’t recognize the yacht and that’s it - the director of one of the shipyards of the Dutch company Feadship suddenly exclaimed: “This is our Olympia!” Where was this filmed? After a short consultation on his mobile phone, our interlocutor took out a case from under the demonstration stand and took out from it a dark blue executive brochure with gold OLYMPIA embossing: “Gentlemen, here is everything you need.”
The prospectus contained details about interiors, designers and technical specifications vessel. Individual features, such as the hull number, made it possible to reconstruct the history of the yacht. It became known that after leaving the shipyard, Olympia went to Amsterdam for redesign, after which two months later it headed for Russia and arrived first in Tuapse, and then in
sea port
Sochi.
Also, the initial rumors about the charter of the Olympia were dispelled: the prices themselves indicated that the ship was not rented, but purchased. Chartering a vessel of this class is incredibly expensive and simply unprofitable: from 240 thousand to 300 thousand dollars per week. In three years, it will accumulate from 35 million 280 thousand dollars to 44 million 100 thousand dollars - that is, almost the sale price of Olympia.
main yacht
countries.
- It belongs to the GDP.
- She is under the “roof” of the FSO.
- Floating Kremlin.
- Now she could be in France or the Caribbean.
- She is in Greece now. And no one here will give such information. The port knows that she is leaving there.
These are the meager reviews from ordinary employees of the Sochi seaport about the snow-white 57-meter five-deck executive class yacht Olympia, built three years ago in Holland.
You will not find any mention of this yacht on Vladimir Putin’s official website www.kremlin.ru. In chapter " Water transport President”, only the motor ship “Russia”, built in 1973 and assigned to the port of Moscow, is listed alone.
Meanwhile, Olympia is no longer the only vessel of the megayacht/superyacht class, which is referred to as a presidential ** .
Those who were in the area of the Sochi seaport in August 2002 could watch an exquisite classic megayacht gently float into its waters and turn around for mooring. For local yachtsmen, well versed in the intricacies of registering VIP ships, it was obvious that the inscription George Town on the stern of this ship could only mean one thing: the yacht’s home port - Georgetown - is located on the other side of the Atlantic, in the Caribbean Sea. On board the name of the world leader in the production of royal ocean yachts - the Dutch company Feadship - sparkled in gold, and above the door to the garage with jet skis the Latin letters were cast in silver: OLYMPIA.
According to the well-known international magazine Power&Motoryacht, which compiles annual ratings of new luxury vessels (something like yacht Forbes), Olympia is among the top hundred largest megayachts in the world. Apparently, this is why the specially equipped yacht berths at the Sochi Sea Terminal turned out to be too small for her.
The parameters of the Olympia allowed her to anchor only at the pier intended for parking liners and ships, and the yacht moored at the usual passenger berth No. 2.
The status of the vessel was not in doubt among port employees. Typically, all ships in the port go through a standard procedure of arrival and departure marks, from which it becomes clear to everyone where the ship was previously and where it will go now. Meanwhile, the Olympia, which came from abroad and had previously passed through Tuapse, did not leave such marks either in the Tuapse or Sochi ports.
“They don’t register with us,” one of the port supervision employees tells us. - The FSB is involved in this matter. *** Because this yacht is classified. They simply tell us not to let anyone near this yacht.”
Almost immediately after the arrival of the Olympia in Sochi, a journalist from one of the central newspapers, part of the Kremlin pool, wrote that “the president has a new yacht, the Olympia, which is intended “for meetings on top level in the summer capital of Russia." Apparently realizing that such meetings cannot take place under the flag of the British Dominion, “sources” promised her that the flag of the Russian Navy would soon be raised on the yacht.
However, the British Shipping Register officially informed us that the Olympia is still registered under an offshore flag. According to Russian experts, offshore registration is one of the aspects of the yacht business, which allows minimizing customs and tax costs, which in a situation of transition to the Russian flag can amount to at least 24 percent of the cost of the yacht. That is, if the yacht is new and expensive, the amount of such costs can amount to millions of dollars.
And the yacht “Olympia” is completely new, recently rolled off the slipways of a shipyard in the Dutch city of Papendrecht. Therefore, in the port of Sochi there was even a procedure for its acceptance by a special commission that came from Moscow for this purpose. This is what one of the officials close to the organizers of this “state acceptance” told us:
“Comfortable, most luxurious, royal. The cabins there are all decorated with real mahogany and African rattan palm. Everything is gold plated, of course. The beds are installed like this: no matter how the sea rocks, there are powerful hinges - the ship can tilt thirty degrees, and the bed, as it was, remains exactly in the center plane. "Olympia" is more luxurious than "Valeria" (the yacht of one of the top managers of the state company Gazprom, on which V. Putin met with L. Kuchma in May 2002. - Ed.)».
Novaya found out that the upper open deck of the Olympia is equipped with a wide, ultra-modern jacuzzi, bar and barbecue, and on the middle deck there are high-speed mini-boats that can be used for water skiing. In the living room and apartments on other decks there is furniture and paneling from rare varieties of white stained ash;
The price of Olympia itself is an order of magnitude higher. The editors of Novaya found documents from the American yacht broker Aeromarine International LLC, according to which the initially requested cost of Hull 663 (this is the official number of the Olympia yacht in the Feadship company) was 35 million US dollars at the beginning of 2002. According to British journalist Dominic Midgley, the final cost of the yacht turned out to be even higher.
“Olympia” is valued at 28 million British pounds, Midgley tells Novaya correspondents. - This was already the transaction price. In the end, that’s what the yacht cost - about 50 million dollars. This is the final amount. And I know it from reliable sources.” 
If you turn to the head of state's entertainment expenses fund (see information from Novaya), then it becomes obvious that if Olympia were purchased officially, the conditional “overspend” of the federal budget would be at least 47 million 647 thousand 205 dollars. And this does not include the annual costs of maintaining and maintaining the vessel, which usually amount to 10 percent of the cost of a megayacht.
But recently, on an English-language specialized Internet forum on megayachts, the following dialogue appeared:
Pisces:“Roman Abramovich now owns yachts... along with another yacht manufactured by Feadship, which he is rumored to have donated to the Russian government.
Each of these yachts was sold by Nick Edmiston (famous American megayacht broker - Ed.).” Margaret:
“Abramovich gave the Feadship yacht to the Russian government? Could this have been a personal gift to a high-ranking Russian? There were rumors that Abramovich owned Feadship's Olympia, which he is believed to have sold. Isn’t that what we’re talking about?” Diana Byrne
, an expert on megayachts, also mentions in an interview with Novaya about a possible connection between Olympia and Abramovich: “I heard information that at some point Roman Abramovich owned the yacht and sold it, but I did not hear to whom exactly.” Dominic Midgley in his book “Abramovich: Billionaire from Nowhere,” published recently in London, he wrote that “Edmiston purchased the luxury yacht Olympia for Abramovich’s “right hand” Evgeniy Shvidler.” In an interview with Novaya Dominic Midgley This episode was explained this way:
“Due to the fact that it was Shvidler and not Abramovich, we did not pay too much attention to this part of the investigation.
Information that the owner of Olympia is Shvidler was shared with us by one person who knew about this deal. This was inside information received from people who wished to remain anonymous. Being at the last Russian Economic Forum in London (in April 2005 - Ed.),
I heard talk of money laundering, kickbacks and rumors that one of the yachts Abramovich bought had something to do with the Russian government.
In order to understand who Olympia is registered under, Novaya made an official request to the British ship register Lloyd's and
First, about the owners. Both companies, whose names begin with Ironstone, were registered in classic offshore zones (the island of Jersey in the English Channel and the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean). The first, according to the accounts in the register legal entities the island of Jersey, requested by "Nova" in government agencies this
island state
, began operations on January 17, 2002, that is, immediately before the purchase of Olympia, and was liquidated on May 6, 2004, before a company with a similar name appeared on the other side of the Atlantic, which inherited the property first. In other words, we are talking about “dummy” companies, often used by entrepreneurs to increase the degree of confidentiality of ownership of this or that property. Moreover, when comparing the legislation of the Island of Jersey and the British Virgin Islands, Novaya correspondents discovered that it was on the territory of the latter (where the second company owner of Olympia “surfaced”) that it is allowed not to enter information about directors and shareholders into state registers and is not required to submit annual and financial reports to government agencies. Now about managers. We found official data that registered in Cyprus Unicom Management Services is a subsidiary of the Russian OAO Sovcomflot(this is reported in the official press release of Sovcomflot, published on the corporate website). All 100 percent of Sovcomflot shares belong to the state(in other words, their balance involves paying expenses out of taxpayers' pockets).
The company's board of directors is headed by President Putin's aide Igor Shuvalov.
** So there are no more doubts. Olympia is the presidential yacht.
*** A superyacht is a motor yacht with an overall length of over 30 meters, a megayacht with an overall length of over 50 meters.
About other yachts of the president - in the next issue of Novaya.
Federal Presidential Security Service.
Daria PYLNOVA, Dmitry SHKRYLEV
Novaya Gazeta writes on Tuesday about the Kremlin property used by President Putin and his entourage. The newspaper conducted its own investigation into the luxury ocean yacht Olympia, about which until now all that was known was that, according to some sources, it was leased by the Kremlin administration and at one time was based in the port of Tuapse, where it was carefully guarded by employees FSO.
The Presidential Administration refused to provide official information about the yacht - the “object” turned out to be classified. There is no mention of this yacht on the official website of Vladimir Putin. In the “Water Transport of the President” section, only the motor ship “Russia”, built in 1973 and assigned to the port of Moscow, is listed alone. And yet, as it turned out, the yacht is intended for the head of state.
The photograph taken by the ITAR-TASS agency in the seaport of Sochi shows that the yacht is sailing under the flag of a foreign state. It turned out that civil ships registered in offshore territories dependent on Great Britain sail under such flags (the English flag is located on a red background in the upper left corner, and the coat of arms of a particular dominion is usually placed closer to the right side of the flag).
After digital processing and enlargement of the coat of arms, barely visible in the photo, it became clear that the Olympia flies the flag of the Cayman Islands. It is in this tax-free offshore zone, as experts have confirmed, that Russian and foreign billionaires prefer to register their yachts.
The manufacturer of the yacht turned out to be the Dutch company Feadship. She was identified by the director of one of the shipyards of a Dutch company, who visited a specialized exhibition in Moscow, which brought together world leaders in the production of high-class yachts. After a short consultation via mobile phone, the interlocutor provided a gold-embossed OLYMPIA brochure, which contained detailed information about the yacht. A brief description of it is also available on the company’s website.
The snow-white 57-meter five-deck executive class yacht "Olympia" was built three years ago at a shipyard in the Dutch city of Papendrecht. After leaving the shipyard, Olympia headed to Amsterdam for redesign, after which two months later it set a course for Russia and arrived first in Tuapse, and then in the seaport of Sochi. The fact that the ship was not rented, but purchased, was indicated by the prices themselves. Chartering a vessel of this class is incredibly expensive and simply unprofitable: from 240 thousand to 300 thousand dollars per week. In three years, it will accumulate from 35 million 280 thousand dollars to 44 million 100 thousand dollars - that is, almost the sale price of Olympia.
According to the well-known international magazine Power&Motoryacht, which compiles annual ratings of new luxury vessels, Olympia is among the top hundred largest yachts in the world. The procedure for its acceptance by a special commission, which came from Moscow for this purpose, took place in the port of Sochi. One of the officials close to the organizers of the “state acceptance” told Novaya Gazeta the following about the yacht: “Comfortable, luxurious in a royal way. The cabins are all decorated with real mahogany and African rattan palm. Everything is gilded, of course. The beds are installed like this: no matter how the sea rocks, there are powerful hinges - the ship can tilt thirty degrees, and the bed, as it was, remains exactly in the center plane. The Olympia is more luxurious than the Valeria (the yacht of one of the top managers of the state company Gazprom, where Putin met with Kuchma in May 2002).
The upper open deck of the Olympia is equipped with a wide, ultra-modern jacuzzi, bar and barbecue, and on the middle deck there are high-speed mini-boats that can be used for water skiing. In the living room and apartments on other decks there is furniture and paneling from rare varieties of white stained ash; colonnades made of valuable species of Bird's Eye maple; Linn audio and video system, the market value of which amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars; a huge bathroom, two-thirds the width of the yacht's hull, with glossy ceilings, completely tiled with Rosa Portogallo marble.
From the Feadship company prospectus it follows that the style of decoration, furnishing and entire interior design was specially ordered from famous British and American designers. According to some estimates, “the interior design of a yacht like Olympia alone costs several million dollars.
The final price of Olympia itself, according to British journalist Dominic Midgley, citing “reliable sources,” turned out to be about $50 million. The initial asking price for the yacht, according to documents from the American yacht broker Aeromarine International LLC, was $35 million at the beginning of 2002.
How the yacht was acquired remains unclear. According to the newspaper, if Olympia were purchased through official means, the conditional “overspend” of the federal budget would be at least 47 million 647 thousand 205 dollars, since during the 5 years of Putin’s rule, 2 million 352 thousand 795 dollars were officially allocated from the budget for the presidential entertainment expenses. Meanwhile, Novaya Gazeta points to a possible connection between Olympia and Roman Abramovich. In particular, the publication cites a dialogue from an English-language specialized Internet forum on luxury yachts, from which it follows that it was Abramovich who gave the Olympia to the “high-ranking Russian.”
To understand who Olympia is registered in, Novaya Gazeta submitted an official request to the British ship register Lloyd's and received the following response:
“According to the records available to us, the original registered owner of the yacht Olympia was Ironstone Investments (address Langtrey House, La Motte Street, St. Helier. Jersey, Channel Islands, UK), the managers of the vessel were Unicom Management Services (Cyprus) Ltd. (Unicom Tower, Maximos Plaza, 2 Paparigopoulou Street, 3309 Limassol, Cyprus) In July 2004, we were informed that its new registered owner was Ironstone Marine Investments Ltd., registered in the British Virgin Islands, but the ship's manager was not remains Unicom Management Services (Cyprus) Ltd. The yacht itself is registered in George Town, Cayman Islands."
Both companies, whose names begin with Ironstone, were registered in classic offshore zones (the island of Jersey in the English Channel and the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean). The first, according to the Jersey Register of Entities, began operations on January 17, 2002, just before the purchase of Olympia, and was wound up on May 6, 2004, before the appearance of a company with a similar name on the other side of the Atlantic, which inherited property of the first. In other words, we are talking about “dummy” companies, often used by entrepreneurs to increase the degree of confidentiality of ownership of this or that property, the newspaper writes.
It is noteworthy that Unicom Management Services, a company registered in Cyprus, is a subsidiary of the Russian OAO Sovcomflot (this is reported in the official press release of Sovcomflot, published on the corporate website). 100 percent of Sovcomflot's shares are owned by the state (in other words, their balance involves paying expenses out of taxpayers' pockets). The company's board of directors is headed by President Putin's aide Igor Shuvalov. And the crewing office (from the English crew - team, crew of a ship) of the Unicom company in St. Petersburg, during the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the city on the Neva, formed the crew of another ship, which served as a meeting place for the heads of state of the G8.
It might be useful to read:
- How to get on an excursion to Antarctica?;
- Czech Republic Troy Castle. Troja Castle in Prague. Ancient winery and museum;
- Böcklin and his “island of the dead” A cultural phenomenon of its time;
- Air tickets to Crimea Air tickets to Crimea will become cheaper;
- What you can and cannot take with you;
- Open left menu Heviz How to get from Budapest to Lake Heviz;
- Cable car in Nha Trang (Vinpearl) The longest cable car in the world Vietnam;
- Kamenets-Podolsk fortress - a historical monument of Ukraine Life outside the walls of the Kamenets-Podolsk fortress;