Graceful Yacht, Attributed to Putin, Spotted Off Denmark’s Coast

The yacht Graceful, which has been linked to Vladimir Putin, was spotted off the coast of Denmark on the evening of June 29, DR reports, citing MarineTraffic data. According to Agentstvo, the vessel’s destination is listed as Istanbul.

The yacht is moving under escort by a Russian destroyer and the patrol boat Voevoda. That the vessel is indeed Graceful is confirmed by eyewitness photos taken from shore. DR also notes that the convoy is visible in satellite images.

According to the outlet, the yacht had not appeared on radar since August 30, 2022. After the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the vessel’s automatic identification system, or AIS, transponder was switched off.

In October 2022, Forbes wrote that Graceful had been spotted off the coast of Estonia: at the time, the yacht was heading toward St. Petersburg. Before that, it had been in Kaliningrad, where it was moved from Germany before the war began. According to journalists, the vessel was given a new name—Kosatka. Later, it was seen in the Baltic Sea near St. Petersburg.

The 82-meter Graceful is considered the second-largest yacht allegedly used by Putin, after the 140-meter Scheherazade. It had previously been spotted several times in Sochi during periods when the Russian president was there. The yacht’s value, according to various estimates, is $100–120 million.

In June 2022, the United States imposed sanctions on four yachts that Washington said were linked to Putin. Graceful was among them. A month earlier, the yacht Scheherazade was detained in Tuscany, Italy. Italian investigators said the vessel’s owner was linked to the Russian authorities.