$600 Million Megayacht Scheherazade Was a Christmas Gift From Putin's Friends

New documents obtained by Dossier Center reveal a few more details about the super-secretive and also super-expensive and impressive megayacht known as Scheherazade (formerly Project Lightning), which shipyard Lurssen delivered to the owner in 2020. As of the time of press, Scheherazade is arrested in Italy, where it had docked for repairs some months before current sanctions against Russian oligarchs went into effect.

Scheherazade is the stuff of superyacht legends, and it’s not only because of whoever might own it, or the fact that it’s been seized by the Italian government. At 459 feet (140 meters) in total length and a volume of 10,167 GT, it is the world’s 12th largest vessel; with a reported cost between $700 million and $1 billion, it is also among the most expensive.

The fact that no one who shouldn’t be there was ever allowed onboard has given it a mythical and mysterious aura, with reports saying that every screw and even the toilet-paper holder are made of solid gold. Those reports should be taken with a grain of salt (or two), but leaked photos do show that whoever owns Scheherazade is not a man of regular (or subtle) tastes.

Speaking of the Scheherazade owner, Dossier Center says that it’s undoubtedly Putin, even though establishing this for a fact is more of a mission impossible than Ethan Hunt has ever had to complete. Dossier Center is a group that “tracks the criminal activity of various people associated with the Kremlin” and is backed by Open Russia opposition movement founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Dossier Center has had access to European documents related to the build and the seizure of Scheherazade and, if not able to verify the owner of the megayacht with accuracy, it’s at least able to put a figure on the build.

That figure is $592 million or €583 million, but Putin didn’t dig in his own pockets to get it. As per the report, it was Putin’s oligarch friends who all chipped in for the build, which was presented to him as a 2014 Christmas or New Year present. 2014 was a good year for Putin, with accomplishments like the Sochi Olympic Winter Games, the annexation of Crimea, the start of the war in Eastern Ukraine, and the impending birth of his child with former gymnast-turned-politician Alina Kabaeva.

Russian oligarchs chose Lurssen and commissioned the build of what would become Scheherazade; billionaire investor Gennady Timchenko handled the collection of the money and was the middleman in the relationship with Lurssen. The shipyard had previously delivered vessels of similarly impressive size, like Dilbar and Graceful, the latter of which is also owned by Putin. Five companies paid for the build: Alera Assets (€225.9 million / $229.3 million), Diams Overseas (€288.4 million / $292.8 million), High Definition (€60 million / $60.9 million), Imperial Yachts (€3.9 million / $4 million), and Onda Mare (€3.9 million/ $4 million). An unknown party made two transfers of €1.1 million ($1.2 million) each.

The paper owner of Scheherazade is Bielor Asset, whose owner changed names and nationalities depending on when you started taking a closer look at it. In March 2022, in a letter to Italian authorities, oil businessman Eduard Khudainatov confirmed he was the de facto beneficiary of Bielor Asset. Wealthy as he might be, he doesn’t have the financial resources to own several yachts, including Scheherazade: he is also the straw owner of Suleiman Kerimov’s 106-meter (348-foot) Amadea and Igor Sechin’s 135-meter (443-foot) Crescent.

This obvious and very elaborate attempt to hide all connections Putin has with Scheherazade, as well as the fact that its main crew is made up of members of the FSO, or the Federal Protective Service that Putin uses, point to the fact that he is the true beneficiary. Captain Guy Bennett-Pierce, who heads the British crew, has previously told the media that he had no knowledge of the identity of the owner, nor had he ever seen Putin onboard. The report says that Kabaeva, Putin’s mistress, was onboard several times and that she even moved to Italy in recent years.

This report doesn’t establish for a fact that Putin owns the gigantic, outrageous megayacht, but it offers crumbs that could lead to this conclusion. Until authorities are able to clear all this out, if ever, Scheherazade has switched the flag country to Malaysia, and is registered officially as a houseboat. An enormous, five-deck, 40-guest and 90-crew houseboat, with two helidecks, one hangar, a spa facility, and a pool that becomes a huge nightclub. All of it dripping in gold, allegedly.