Overhaul at Blohm+Voss
After a stay in Hamburg: Putin’s private yacht “Graceful” takes the fastest course to Kaliningrad
The “Graceful” in the port of Sochi in the Black Sea
© Marcus Brandt / Picture Alliance
After a journalist found Vladimir Putin’s superyacht in Hamburg, the 82-meter “Graceful” left the port on Monday, passed the Kiel Canal and set course for Kaliningrad.
The shortest route back to Russia: The snow-white luxury yacht used by Russian President Vladimir Putin has left the Port of Hamburg after a stay in the shipyard. The ship, which cost 87 million euros, was photographed by a journalist from the “Kieler Nachrichten” after undocking next to the new German Corvette “Emden” at the outfitting quay.
Then everything happened very quickly: early Monday morning, the 82-metre-long yacht drove down the Elbe to Brunsbüttel in the dark, in order to turn into the Kiel Canal. On Monday evening she passed the lock in Kiel-Holtenau to continue her journey to the Baltic Sea. On the way she met the coaster ship “Indiana Jones”, as reported by Frank Behling on Twitter.
As recently as May 2021, President Putin received Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on board the Graceful in Sochi on the Black Sea, and both had been photographed.
In May 2021 on board the “Graceful”: Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko.
© Imago Images
According to the “Kieler Nachrichten”, the yacht, which was put into service in 2014, arrived in Hamburg in September last year after a journey through the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, where it was docked at the Blohm+Voss shipyard belonging to the Lürssen Group.
“While she was in Hamburg, the underwater hull was cleaned. The Graceful’s two large German MTU propulsion engines were also overhauled,” reports the newspaper. In addition, the superstructure was supplemented by two more balconies.
On February 8, around noon, the “Graceful” passed the island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea. According to Marine Traffic, the yacht has announced the port of Kalinigrad as its destination.
© Screenshot Marine Traffic
According to the website “Marine Traffic”, the ship has given the Russian port of Kaliningrad as its destination. It is assumed that the departure took the shortest route to a Russian port in order to prevent the West from accessing the yacht as part of possible sanctions caused by the Ukraine conflict.
Sources: “Kiel News”, www.marinetraffic.com
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