Italy spends millions of dollars maintaining seized yachts of Russian billionaires

Million-dollar costs of seized yachts

For the fourth year now, Italy has been maintaining luxury yachts belonging to Russian billionaires that were seized over sanctions, with the costs of crew, security and maintenance covered by Italian taxpayers — CNN reports (retold by Daryo.uz). Under Italian law, seized vessels must be kept in working condition.

Sailing Yacht A: $11 million a year

The $600 million yacht Sailing Yacht A, owned by Andrey Melnichenko, has been under seizure at the port of Trieste since March 2022 — it was there for repairs when sanctions were imposed after the war in Ukraine began. According to Trieste's mayor Roberto Dipiazza, maintaining the 143-meter vessel costs nearly $30,000 a day, or about $11 million a year: the money goes toward the salaries of 20 crew members, fuel, cleaning, security and insurance. Melnichenko contested the seizure, arguing that the vessel belongs to the company Valla Sails through a trust set up by his wife, but in 2025 the EU Court upheld Italy's right to keep the yacht. By law, if the sanctions are lifted, he must reimburse the costs in order to get the vessel back. 'It would be cheaper for him to buy a new yacht than to reimburse us for all the expenses. And we could be left with this giant yacht and keep paying for it for years,' Dipiazza said.

'Scheherazade' and other vessels

Another costly vessel for the budget is the $700 million yacht Scheherazade at the Marina di Carrara port in Tuscany. It is reported to belong to former Rosneft chief Eduard Khudainatov, although Alexei Navalny's team linked it to Vladimir Putin. Over the course of the seizure, more than $15 million has been spent on maintaining the crew of Russian and British citizens. On August 28 this year, the yacht left the port under escort for 10 hours for a technical inspection; the responsible company did not disclose who paid for the outing. In addition, Italy has spent about $2 million on maintaining Alexei Mordashov's yacht Lady M at the port of Imperia, and is also holding the yacht Lena, which has been linked to Gennady Timchenko.

What other countries are doing

A similar problem exists in other European countries: Germany has the $800 million yacht Dilbar (previously linked to Alisher Usmanov's sister), France has Amore Vero, linked to Igor Sechin, and Spain has Viktor Vekselberg's Tango. Some have managed to sell seized vessels: Gibraltar sold Dmitry Pumpyansky's Axioma for $37.5 million, and the United States sold several vessels, including Suleiman Kerimov's Amadea. In Montenegro, meanwhile, Andrey Guryev's yacht Luminosity is rusting without maintenance at the port of Tivat after a 2024 auction fell through. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni advocates keeping the sanctions in place, calling their easing for a deal with Moscow a dangerous step, but Dipiazza and other local officials believe that maintaining other people's yachts should not fall on Italian taxpayers.