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Italy won't say who's paying for the care of a $700 million superyacht tied to Putin

Dustin Jones

The Scheherazade, a 460-foot superyacht, has been held in Italy since May 2022 in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It is believed to have ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Laura Lezza/Getty Images hide caption

The Scheherazade, a 460-foot superyacht, has been held in Italy since May 2022 in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It is believed to have ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Scheherazade superyacht was impounded by the Italian government in May 2022 in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Instead of falling into disrepair, Italy has allowed its owner to maintain and refit the vessel, but it won't disclose who is footing the bill.

The Financial Times reported on Sunday that the vessel has been held at port in Marina di Carrara, located almost 90 miles northwest of Florence, since it was impounded by authorities in the spring of 2022. For over a year, the Italian government has permitted the owner to continue paying for the ship's staff, its maintenance and refitting of the vessel. But Italy won't identify the owner.

Italy's Finance Ministry said in a May 2022 news release that the superyacht had "significant economic and business links" with "prominent elements of the Russian government" but didn't name the owner of the ship.

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According to the website SuperYachtFan , the 460-foot superyacht belongs to Russian billionaire Eduard Khudainatov. However, Bloomberg News reported in 2022 that he is a "straw owner" of the superyacht — as well as another ship — and that the Scheherazade actually belongs to Putin.

The Financial Times reported that the Scheherazade has 22 cabins, two helicopter decks and a spa and that it's being refitted by the Italian Sea Group. NPR reached out to the Italian Sea Group for comment but did not hear back before publication.

The United States created Task Force KleptoCapture in the wake of Putin's war against Ukraine, aiming to hold Russian oligarchs accountable for evading sanctions. In its one year of operation, the task force has brought charges to at least 35 individuals and entities, NPR previously reported.

Part of those efforts included seizing luxury items belonging to billionaires with ties to the Kremlin. This includes items like a 348-foot yacht seized in Fiji in May 2022, which is valued at about $300 million and is now sitting in San Diego.

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Putin's alleged $700M superyacht seized in Italy

Zelenskyy pushes for harsher sanctions as the war in ukraine persists.

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Italian officials seized a $700 million luxury yacht with ties to the Russian government , Rome's ministry of finance announced Friday. 

Italian authorities scrambled to investigate the nearly 460-foot superyacht known as the Scheherazade, which was dry-docked in the Tuscan port of Marina di Carrara as concerns mounted the Kremlin-linked vessel would set out to Italian waters shortly. 

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The yacht was seized under coordinated measures with the European Union due to Russia's involvement in "undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine."

The Scheherazade, a 459-foot luxury yacht, is docked at the shipyard in Marina Di Carrara, Italy, March 23, 2022. (Francesco Mazzei/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

The finance ministry said the vessel, which flew the flag of the Cayman Islands, "had long been under the attention of the authorities."

Despite the acknowledged investigation that found the yacht to have "prominent" links to Russians targeted under EU sanctions, Italian officials omitted the name of the owner of the Scheherazade.

Some reporting has suggested the Scheherazade belongs to Russian President Vladimir Putin, while other reports have pointed to Eduard Khudainatov, a Russian former executive of a state-owned oil company, .

Italy's financial police patrol boat is seen in front of the multimillion-dollar megayacht Scheherazade, which is docked at the Tuscan port of Marina di Carrara, Tuscany, May 6, 2022.  (Federico Scoppa/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Khudainatov does not appear to have yet been specifically sanctioned, but a decree passed by Italian Finance Minister Daniele Franco barred the vessel from sailing away.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksyy specifically referenced the megayacht in a March address to Italy’s parliament in a plea for action.

"Don't be a resort for murderers," he said in a translated address. "Block all their real estate, accounts and yachts — from Scheherazade to the smallest ones. Block the assets of all those who have influence in Russia."

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with top officials about support to the aviation industry in Russia amid western sanctions via videoconference at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, March 31, 2022. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP / AP Images)

Ukraine has pressed the international community to impose harsher sanctions on Russia as it has continued its deadly war in Ukraine for more than 10 weeks.

The U.S., along with several European nations, have made moves to cut Russian oil ties, while others have pledged to do so by the end of 2022. 

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Zelenskyy slammed EU nations that continue to purchase Russian oil, its No. 1 export.

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"You shouldn’t be a little evil and a little good. It is inadmissible to impose sanctions and with another hand to sign new contracts with Russia. This is definitely inadmissible in times of war. This is hypocrisy," Zelenskyy said during a virtual address to the U.K.’s Royal Institute of International Affairs Chatham House Friday.

US intelligence officials believe a $700 million superyacht that's docked in Italy could belong to Russian President Vladimir Putin, reports say

• US officials say a superyacht docked in Italy could belong to Russian President Vladimir Putin. 
• People briefed on the intelligence, however, said no set conclusions have been made, per The NYT. 
• The $700 million superyacht is currently docked on the Tuscan coast of Italy. 

US authorities believe a $700 million superyacht that's docked in Italy could belong to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The New York Times reported the news, citing several people briefed on the information.

The superyacht, called the Scheherazade, which is currently situated on the Tuscan coast of Italy first came to light after The Times reported Tuesday that Italian authorities were examining the 459-foot-long vessel. 

While some believed it could belong to a Russian oligarch, locals told The Times they nicknamed it "Putin's yacht." 

Following the invasion of Ukraine , Russia has been hit with wide-ranging sanctions targeting oligarchs and their luxury assets . Superyachts have come under particular scrutiny in recent weeks.

US intelligence officials have not concluded who owns the Scheherazade but said they found initial indications that it was associated with Putin, per The Times.

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The people with knowledge of the matter would not describe what information led them to believe the superyacht was linked to the Russian President, according to the publication. 

The ship's captain, Guy Bennett-Pearce, told reporters earlier this week that Putin was not the owner of the ship and that he had never been on the yacht. He didn't, however, rule out the possibility of the owner being Russian. 

Meanwhile, the US and the other countries are doubling down on efforts to confiscate oligarchs' high-end assets.

"We are joining with our European allies to find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets," President Joe Biden said  in his State of The Union address on March 1. "We are coming for your ill-begotten gains."

Some oligarchs have scrambled to try and escape the sanctions against them, taking their private jets and ships to places like Dubai and the Maldives . 

Others like Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich are resorting to selling off their assets .

The Scheherazade has been undergoing repairs since June 2020 in the small Italian town of Marina di Carrara. Its features include a helicopter landing pad, a large pool, a cinema, and a drone crashing system, according to Superyacht Fan . 

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U.S. seizes mega yacht owned by oligarch with close ties to Putin

PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain — The U.S. government seized a mega yacht in Spain owned by an oligarch with close ties to the Russian president on Monday, the first in the government’s sanctions enforcement initiative to “seize and freeze” giant boats and other pricey assets of Russian elites .

Spain’s Civil Guard and U.S. federal agents descended on the yacht at the Marina Real in the port of Palma de Mallorca, the capital of Spain’s Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. Associated Press reporters at the scene saw police going in and out of the boat on Monday morning.

The seizure was confirmed by two people familiar with the matter. The people could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity. A Spanish Civil Guard spokesman confirmed that officers from the Spanish police body and from the FBI were at the marina searching the vessel Monday morning and said further details would be released later.

A Civil Guard source told The Associated Press that the immobilized yacht is Tango, a 78-meter (254-feet) vessel that carries Cook Islands flag and that  Superyachtfan.com , a specialized website that tracks the world’s largest and most exclusive recreational boats, values at $120 million. The source was also not authorized to be named in media reports and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

The yacht is among the assets linked to Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire and close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who heads the Moscow-based Renova Group, a conglomerate encompassing metals, mining, tech and other assets, according to U.S. Treasury Department documents. All of Vekselberg’s assets in the U.S. are frozen and U.S. companies are forbidden from doing business with him and his entities.

The move is the first time the U.S. government has seized an oligarch’s yacht since Attorney General Merrick Garland and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen assembled a task force known as REPO — short for Russian Elites, Proxies and Oligarchs — as an effort to enforce sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

Vekselberg has long had ties to the U.S. including a green card he once held and homes in New York and Connecticut. The Ukrainian-born businessman built his fortune by investing in the aluminum and oil industries in the post-Soviet era.

Vekselberg was also questioned in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and has worked closely with his American cousin, Andrew Intrater, who heads the New York investment management firm Columbus Nova.

Vekselberg and Intrater were thrust into the spotlight in the Mueller probe after the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels released a memo that claimed $500,000 in hush money was routed through Columbus Nova to a shell company set up by Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen. Columbus Nova denied that Vekselberg played any role in its payments to Cohen.

Vekselberg and Intrater met with Cohen at Trump Tower, one of several meetings between members of Trump’s inner circle and high-level Russians during the 2016 campaign and transition.

The 64-year-old mogul founded Renova Group more than three decades ago. The group holds the largest stake in United Co. Rusal, Russia’s biggest aluminum producer, among other investments.

Vekselberg was first sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018, and again in March of this year, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine began. Vekselberg has also been sanctioned by authorities in the United Kingdom.

The U.S. Justice Department has also launched a sanctions enforcement task force known as KleptoCapture , which also aims to enforce financial restrictions in the U.S. imposed on Russia and its billionaires, working with the FBI, Treasury and other federal agencies. That task force will also target financial institutions and entities that have helped oligarchs move money to dodge sanctions.

The White House has said that many allied countries, including German, the U.K, France, Italy and others are involved in trying to collect and share information against Russians targeted for sanctions. In his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden warned oligarch that the U.S. and European allies would “find and seize your yachts, your luxury apartments, your private jets.”

“We are coming for your ill-begotten gains,” he said.

Wednesday’s capture is not the first time Spanish authorities have been involved in the seizure of a Russian oligarch’s superyacht. Officials there said they had seized a vessel valued at over $140 million owned by the CEO of a state-owned defense conglomerate and a close Putin ally.

French authorities have also seized superyachts, including one believed to belong to Igor Sechin, a Putin ally who runs Russian oil giant Rosneft, which has been on the U.S. sanctions list since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

Italy has also seized several yachts and other assets.

Italian financial police moved quickly seizing the superyacht “Lena” belonging to Gennady Timchenko, an oligarch close to Putin, in the port of San Remo; the 65-meter (215-foot) “Lady M” owned by Alexei Mordashov in nearby Imperia, featuring six suites and estimated to be worth 65 million euros; as well as villas in Tuscany and Como, according to government officials.

Para reported from Madrid and Balsamo reported from Washington.

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Drone Footage Shows Superyacht Under Investigation for Putin Links

US intelligence officials told the New York Times that they were investigating a superyacht docked in Italy for possible links to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The yacht, named Scheherazade, is docked at Marina di Carrara on the west coast of Italy.

This drone footage of the yacht was taken by Carlo Demicheli on April 22, 2021.

The Italian Sea Group, which runs the port, said in a statement that the yacht was not associated with Putin.

“The Italian Sea Group, on the basis of the documentation in its possession and following the findings of the checks carried out by the relevant authorities, declares that the 140 meter yacht Scheherazade, currently in the shipyard for maintenance work, is not attributable to the property of Russian President Vladimir Putin,” the group said. Credit: Carlo Demicheli via Storyful

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Russian oligarchs moving yachts as U.S. tracks down assets

By Catherine Herridge

March 2, 2022 / 9:19 AM EST / CBS News

Yachts owned by Russian billionaires are on the move as the U.S. and its allies seek to hunt down the assets of Russia's wealthiest in direct response to the invasion of Ukraine . The wealthiest Russian money – including Russian President Vladimir Putin's — has pushed to sea.

Data from MarineTraffic, a global intelligence group, shows yachts owned by oligarchs are on the move, including aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska's $65 million Clio and oil executive Vagit Alekperov's $80 million Galactica Super Nova.

"No self-respecting oligarchy exists without a super yacht. And so what we're seeing now is a hightailing it on the high seas," financier and anti-corruption activist Bill Browder told CBS News. 

A super yacht is typically over 40 meters long. The Clio and Galactica are each over 70 meters long. 

In response to Putin's war against Ukraine, the Biden administration created a task force to go after Russian oligarchs' "yachts, luxury apartments, money and their ability to send their kids to fancy college[s] in the West." 

Browder said the goal is to get the oligarchs to pressure Putin to stop the war. 

"We're not ready to engage in military warfare. And so there's an expression: We should fight them in the banks if we can't fight them with tanks,'" he said. 

Some oligarchs have made statements taking issue with the Russian invasion.

Mikhail Fridman, who founded one of Russia's largest private banks, said he does "not believe that war would be a solution." Evgeny Lebedev — the son of an oligarch, and who owns a London newspaper — wrote an op-ed pleading with Putin to "save the world from annihilation." 

The financial pressure is really about undermining support for Putin, both "among rank-and-file Russians as well as the oligarchs who help control the economy," said John Smith, former director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which administers and enforces all foreign sanctions.

Weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine , the $100 million "Graceful" — believed to be owned by Putin himself— left a German port for safer Russian waters. 

"He's a former KGB agent, and he has worked his entire career to appear on the surface to be the common man — when below the surface, it's apparent that he has significant wealth stored," said Smith.

Former government officials and experts told CBS News that cutting off Putin's revenue from the energy industry is key but this is an area where both the U.S. and its allies are vulnerable. Further disrupting the energy supply could send prices even higher .

• Vladimir Putin

Catherine Herridge is a senior investigative correspondent for CBS News covering national security and intelligence based in Washington, D.C.

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Captain of Lynch’s yacht under investigation, lawyer says

 Italian authorities are investigating the captain of the yacht Bayesian for his role in its sinking last week in Sicily, which led to the death of UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch and six others, according to one of the lawyers involved.

James Cutfield, the New Zealand-citizen captain of the luxury vessel, is being investigated for manslaughter and for negligent shipwreck, one of his lawyers confirmed in a message.

The investigation does not imply any guilt or negligence by the captain, but it is a formal step needed for the prosecutors investigating the events to continue the probe.

The victims of the Bayesian sinking were likely either asleep or tried to escape as Lynch’s yacht went down in minutes during bad weather, prosecutors in Sicily said on Saturday. Deputy prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano told reporters Cutfield had been “very cooperative” in answering questions.

Details on what happened to the victims aren’t fully clear, Cammarano said last week. Prosecutors have said they are limited in what they can communicate to the press lest it prejudice the investigation.

Of the 22 passengers in the boat, 15 were rescued on Aug. 19. Besides Lynch, Morgan Stanley International chair Jonathan Bloomer was among the victims found dead.

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A 459-Foot Mystery in a Tuscan Port: Is It a Russian’s Superyacht?

As European authorities go after the luxury assets of oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin, a superyacht cloaked in secrecy has come under investigation.

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By Michael Forsythe Gaia Pianigiani and David D. Kirkpatrick

From Germany’s North Sea ports to the French Riviera, open season has been declared on superyachts. Across Europe, authorities are hunting down luxury vessels tied to Russian oligarchs in the effort to inflict pain on President Vladimir V. Putin’s allies.

In Marina di Carrara, a small Italian town on the Tuscan coast, one of the world’s biggest, newest and most expensive superyachts — called the Scheherazade — is under scrutiny by the Italian police. Almost as long as a U.S. guided-missile destroyer, it dominates the waterfront.

The yacht, estimated by the website SuperYachtFan to cost about $700 million, has two helicopter decks and is studded with satellite domes. Inside, photos supplied by a former crew member show, is a swimming pool with a retractable cover that converts to a dance floor. Then there’s the fully equipped gym and the gold-plated fixtures in the bathrooms.

In the rarefied world of the biggest superyachts ( only 14 that are at least 140 meters, or 459 feet long), the Scheherazade is alone in that no likely owner has been publicly identified. That has spurred speculation that it could be a Middle Eastern billionaire or a superconnected Russian — even Mr. Putin.

The ship’s captain, Guy Bennett-Pearce, a British national, denied that Mr. Putin owned or had ever been on the yacht. “I have never seen him. I have never met him,” he said. He added, in a phone interview from the yacht, that its owner was not on any sanctions list. He did not rule out that the person could be Russian, but declined to say more about the owner’s identity, citing a “watertight nondisclosure agreement.”

Captain Bennett-Pearce said that Italian investigators had come aboard on Friday and examined some of the ship’s certification documents. “They are looking hard. They are looking at every aspect,” he said. “This isn’t the local coppers coming down, these are men in dark suits.” A person familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it, confirmed that the Italian financial police had opened an inquiry.

On Monday night, Captain Bennett-Pearce said he had “no choice” but to hand over documents revealing the owner’s identity to the Italian authorities. He said he would do so on Tuesday and had been told they would be handled with “confidentiality.”

“I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that this will clear the vessel of all negative rumors and speculations,” he wrote in a message to a New York Times reporter.

The mystery about the ship’s owner arose because — even for the hyper-confidential world of superyachting — there is an unusual degree of secrecy surrounding this vessel. Not only do contractors and crew members sign nondisclosure agreements, as on many superyachts, but the ship also has a cover to hide its name plate. And when it first arrived at the port, workers erected a tall metallic barrier on the pier to partly obscure the yacht from onlookers. Some locals remarked that they had never seen anything like it for other boats.

In his State of the Union address last week, President Biden announced a Justice Department task force to go after oligarchs close to Mr. Putin and facing sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Sanctions have been imposed against hundreds of people, and the list keeps growing.

Last week, French authorities seized the yacht Amore Vero near Marseille as it was preparing to depart, claiming it was owned by a man on that list: Igor Sechin, the head of the Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft. In Italy, police in Sanremo impounded Lena, a yacht belonging to Gennady Timchenko, a Putin friend who controls an oil exporting company. In nearby Imperia, police also impounded the Lady M, a yacht belonging to Alexei Mordashov, Russia’s richest man. The fate of the Dilbar, one of the world’s biggest yachts that the United States says belongs to the oligarch Alisher Usmanov, is unclear. It is in Hamburg, and German officials said the vessel could not leave without an export waiver, Bloomberg News reported .

Some of the biggest superyachts are owned by Russians who are not on the sanctions list. The world’s second-largest, Eclipse, which has a missile defense system and a mini submarine, is owned by Roman Abramovich, the billionaire who is selling his ownership stake in the British soccer club Chelsea. Andrey Melnichenko, a billionaire coal baron, owns Sailing Yacht A.

Determining the ownership of assets that the wealthy want to keep hidden is difficult, especially without a warrant, because they are often zealously guarded by private bankers and lawyers and tucked away in opaque shell companies in offshore secrecy havens. The Scheherazade is flagged in the Cayman Islands and its owner, Bielor Assets Ltd. , is registered in the Marshall Islands. The yacht’s management company, which Captain Bennett-Pearce says is also registered in the Cayman Islands, works from the ship and uses his rental villa in nearby Lucca as its address.

One trade website, which bills itself as “the global authority in superyachting,” claims that the vessel’s owner is “known to be a Middle Eastern billionaire.” The Scheherazade shares a name with the female storyteller in “The Arabian Nights,” and it made one brief foray into the Red Sea in September 2020, calling at the Egyptian port of Hurghada. But mostly it stays in Marina di Carrara, where it has been moored since last September.

Locals have their own theory about the ship’s ownership. Some have heard people onboard speaking Russian. And Scheherazade is also the title of a symphonic work by the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

“Everybody calls it Putin’s yacht, but nobody knows whose it is,” said Ernesto Rossi, a retired clerk who was taking a walk along the marina’s promenade on Friday. “It’s a rumor that’s been going around for months.”

In Italy, the phrase “Putin’s yacht” has become shorthand for a mysterious and ultra-luxurious ship. It’s also a joke among the dozens of crew members, Captain Bennett-Pearce said. “I’ve heard the same rumors.”

Another, smaller vessel, the Graceful, has long been tied to the Russian president and is known as “Putin’s yacht.” It was tracked leaving Germany for the Russian port of Kaliningrad just weeks before the invasion of Ukraine. (U.S. government officials point out that Mr. Putin owns little outright; many of the luxurious homes or ships he uses are owned by oligarchs.)

Mr. Putin appears to have a penchant for big pleasure boats. During his time as Russia’s leader, he’s been photographed on yachts from Russia’s northern reaches to the Black Sea in the south. Last May, he and Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, took a cruise on a yacht at the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.

The Scheherazade’s builder, Lurssen Group, whose website promises customers “complete confidentiality,” declined to comment about its ownership. Until June 2020, when the completed ship left the pier in Bremen, Germany, it had the code name “Lightning.” The same company built the even bigger superyacht the Dilbar. A similar gigantic yacht, code-named “Luminance,” is now being built at Lurssen, scheduled to be completed next year.

“Of course, all orders and projects of the Lurssen Group and its subsidiaries are treated in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations,” said Oliver Grun, a company spokesman.

About 70 percent of the Scheherazade’s crew is Russian, Captain Bennett-Pearce said. And during each of the past two summers, it has sailed to Sochi, the last time in early July 2021, according to MarineTraffic, a top maritime analytics provider. The ship’s construction was managed by Imperial Yachts, a company in Monaco that, Reuters reported , manages the Amore Vero, Mr. Sechin’s seized yacht. Nick Flashman, who oversees construction of large vessels at Imperial Yachts, declined to comment.

One former crew member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the nondisclosure agreement, said that shipmates called it “Putin’s yacht.” The person said the ship was manned by an international crew during “boss off” times; when it was “boss on,” the crew was replaced by an all-Russian staff. In the weeks before the Scheherazade’s 2020 trip to the Black Sea, the foreign crew was dismissed, the person said.

The former crew member supplied photos of rosters of both international and Russian crew members. The Times reached out, via social media, phone or email, to at least 17 of them. Few responded.

One of the Russians said only that he had worked on the Scheherazade, citing a nondisclosure agreement. Another person said it would be dangerous to talk. One man denied serving on the vessel; another said he hadn’t worked at sea in 25 years.

Captain Bennett-Pearce said “categorically there is not a European crew that comes on and a Russian crew that comes on.” Many of the ship’s senior officers are from Britain, New Zealand and Spain. Many international crew members were dismissed in 2020, replaced by Russians who didn’t demand the high salaries and benefits that their predecessors had, the captain said. “It came down to economics,” he said.

Given the antipathy that people outside of Russia have toward Mr. Putin, if the Russian president really were the owner or principal user of the yacht, keeping non-Russian senior crew members like him on staff would make no sense, Captain Bennett-Pearce said.

“If there’s a European crew onboard it’s the biggest smoke and mirror and the biggest risk I’ve ever heard of,” he said.

Reporting was contributed by Dmitriy Khavin , Christoph Koettl , Julian E. Barnes , Jason Horowitz , Rebecca R. Ruiz and Eric Schmitt .

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article referred imprecisely to the new task force announced by President Biden in his State of the Union address. He announced a Justice Department task force to pursue and seize the assets of oligarchs associated with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, not a joint task force with partners in Europe, which was previously announced.

How we handle corrections

Michael Forsythe is a reporter on the investigations team. He was previously a correspondent in Hong Kong, covering the intersection of money and politics in China. He has also worked at Bloomberg News and is a United States Navy veteran. More about Michael Forsythe

Gaia Pianigiani is a reporter based in Italy for The New York Times.  More about Gaia Pianigiani

David D. Kirkpatrick is an investigative reporter based in New York and the author of “Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East.“ In 2020 he shared a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on covert Russian interference in other governments and as the Cairo bureau chief from 2011 to 2015 he led coverage of the Arab Spring uprisings. More about David D. Kirkpatrick

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

A Deadly Russian Barrage:  Russia launched a fresh wave of missile and drone attacks  on Kyiv and several other large Ukrainian cities, continuing a far-reaching bombing campaign .

Ukraine’s Poetry Boom:  With verses that capture the raw emotions of the war and resonate deeply with the population, Ukrainian poets have emerged as some of the country’s most influential voices .

Modi’s Kyiv Visit:  Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India visited Kyiv, furthering a diplomatic effort by Ukraine to engage non-Western nations  in potential settlement talks with Russia.

A Shift on Putin in Russia:  Negative feelings about President Vladimir Putin have appeared to increase across Russia  since Ukraine’s incursion into the country, according to a firm that tracks Russian attitudes.

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Grusom tragedie: 15-årig dreng anholdt

Tre blev dræbt i angreb på byfest fredag i solingen. en 15-årig dreng er anholdt, og mulig forbindelse undersøges.

En bare 15-årig dreng er blevet anholdt af det tyske politi, efter gårsdagens grusomme knivangreb til en byfest i den tyske by Solingen.

Det siger det tyske politi på et pressemøde ifølge mediet Bild .

Politiet skal nu undersøge drengens mulige forbindelse til knivangrebet, men politiet fortæller på pressemødet, at den 15-årige ikke umiddelbart formodes at stå bag selve angrebet.

Derfor er vurderingen, at den formodede gerningsmand stadig er på fri fod.

Mindst tre personer blev stukket ihjel omkring klokken 21.40 fredag under byfesten.

I alt otte personer blev såret ved angrebet - fem alvorligt, oplyste politiet i en meddelelse tidligt lørdag.

Solingen ligger i delstaten Nordrhein-Westfalen i det vestlige Tyskland tæt på Düsseldorf og Köln.

Knivangrebet skete under en fejring af byens 650-års fødselsdag, som skulle vare hele weekenden. Byfesten er nu aflyst af myndighederne.

Delstatens indenrigsminister, Herbert Reul, besøgte området tidligt lørdag. Han har kaldt knivangrebet for et målrettet angreb på menneskeliv. 

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