Italian taxpayers are funding nearly €10 million a year to maintain a single seized Russian oligarch’s yacht in Trieste.
The 143-meter Sailing Yacht A, owned by sanctioned billionaire Andrei Melnichenko, has been impounded in the port since March 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered EU sanctions. Trieste mayor Roberto Dipiazza told CNN the vessel costs over €26,700 daily—about €9.8 million annually—for a 20-person crew, generator fuel, specialized cleaning, security, and insurance .
Italian law requires seized vessels to be kept operational, so the state must maintain them rather than let them deteriorate. If sanctions on Melnichenko are ever lifted, he would have to reimburse the costs to reclaim the yacht, valued at roughly €530 million. Dipiazza doubts this will happen: “In the end, it will be cheaper for him to buy a new yacht than to pay back everything we’ve spent. And where does that leave us? We may end up paying for this monster for years to come” .
Since 2022, Italian taxpayers have already covered about €45.6 million in upkeep for Sailing Yacht A alone. Melnichenko challenged the seizure in 2022, arguing the yacht was owned by a company, Valla Sails, but the EU Court of Justice ruled in 2025 that Italy could keep it—and the obligation to maintain it .
The yacht is not the only burden. In Tuscany, the 142-meter Scheherazade, linked by opposition figure Alexei Navalny to Vladimir Putin, has cost local taxpayers over €13 million in crew expenses since its seizure. It briefly left port on 28 August for technical tests before returning under heavy security .
