Italy faces the puzzle of the cost of maintaining a Russian oligarch’s “megayacht”, “frozen” due to the war in Ukraine

The maintenance of the “Scheherazade” has already cost the Italian government 10 million euros and it may never recover it.

The “Scheherazade” is a war prize of unimaginable luxury: designed for around forty passengers, it accommodates a cinema, a dance floor with opening roof, a sauna, a Turkish bath, marble bathrooms, a cryotherapy room, two helicopter runways and a drone security system. Its price is estimated at around 700 million euros.

Since May 6, 2022, in the name of European sanctions against Russian oligarchs, the Scheherazade has been immobilized in the Massa marina, on the Tuscan coast. Its official owner is Eduard Khudaynatov, former boss of the oil giant Rosneft and close to the Kremlin. But according to the organization of opponent Alexei Navalny, its real holder is none other than Vladimir Putin. Yacht trackers “Folder center”, [article en russe]linked to the opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky, even assure that it is the Russian president’s Christmas gift offered in 2014 by a handful of grateful oligarchs.

10 million euros in maintenance expenses

It is therefore a very big prize of war for Italy, except that a good thus “frozen” is under a particular legal condition, which obliges the State to maintain it and keep it in perfect condition. The daily La Repubblica taken over by Courrier International has done the math: the Italian state has already spent 10 million euros on Sheherazade and it does not know who to send the bill to. Eduard Khudainatov is himself sanctioned individually and cannot pay.

However, as time passes, the need for upkeep and maintenance work increases. Rome is in an inextricable situation where there is no solvent owner identified, but it is not the only one. Other European countries, which have seized smaller yachts, such as Spain, also find themselves facing a financial abyss.

Tax frozen financial assets

The solution would be to codefinitively tax these Russian goods, seize them and no longer just freeze them in order to then be able to resell them. The political will exists, but it is legally complicated since it would mean several years of procedure and clients would have to be found.

It is actually much easier to profit from the 200 billion euros of Russian financial assets frozen in banks.

Belgium, one of the European countries with the most, has decided to tax the interest generated by this money which is dormant and which cannot be touched. This has already earned it 1.7 billion euros which it recently promised to pay back to Ukraine in 2024. Calling on the other countries of the Union to follow suit. A much more efficient procedure than stopping luxury yachts in ports.