The 82-meter vessel, named Graceful, entered Danish waters on the evening of June 29, according to satellite images and photographs taken from shore by eyewitnesses. Its destination is listed as Istanbul, the independent Russian outlet Agentstvo reported.
The yacht is traveling with a Russian destroyer and the patrol boat Voevoda, also visible in satellite images, DR wrote.
Graceful's Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponder had been switched off since August 30, 2022 — after Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine, the outlet noted. The yacht's reappearance on monitoring services came as a surprise.
After the transponder was turned off, the yacht was spotted several times in the Baltic Sea — off the coasts of St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, and Estonia. In October 2022, Forbes reported that Graceful (then named Kosatka) was moving toward St. Petersburg from Kaliningrad, where it had been relocated from Germany before the war began.
Graceful is the second-largest yacht linked to Putin, after the 140-meter Scheherazade. Its value is estimated at $100–120 million. In June 2022, the United States imposed sanctions on Graceful and three other yachts linked to the Russian president.
Investigations by Alexei Navalny's team said that Graceful underwent extensive renovations to meet the 'growing demands of the owner.' The yacht was previously spotted several times in Sochi when Putin was there.