Putin's Superyacht 'Graceful' Spotted Off Danish Coast
A column of three Russian ships, including the superyacht 'Graceful' attributed to Putin, crossed Danish waters Monday evening heading for Istanbul. The yacht reappeared on monitoring systems after a long silent period.
Danish media "DR Verificerer" confirmed, citing international shipping monitoring sites and photographs, that the vessel seen at sea is the superyacht "Graceful". According to data from the ship tracking service "MarineTraffic", the yacht crossed Danish waters on Monday evening, with Istanbul as its destination. The superyacht was accompanied by the patrol boat "Voievoda" and a Russian minesweeper, whose presence was also recorded in satellite images.
The appearance is unexpected because since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the yacht's Automatic Identification System (AIS) transmitter had been turned off. The last time publicly available data on the yacht's location was received at the end of August 2022. Although it was later spotted several times in the Baltic Sea near St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, and the coast of Estonia, the yacht always moved in the so-called silent mode.
The yacht "Graceful" was built in 2014 at Russia's largest shipbuilding plant, "Sevmash". It is one of several yachts reportedly used by Vladimir Putin, according to journalistic investigations. An investigation published in 2023 by Alexei Navalny's team revealed that extensive repair work had been carried out on the yacht to adapt it to its owner's "growing demands".
