Russian opposition leader and head of the Anti-Corruption Foundation Alexei Navalny accused Russian President Vladimir Putin's longtime spokesman Dmitry Peskov of renting an extravagant yacht for 26 million rubles ($400,000) a week in his blog Monday.
Peskov denied the allegation to RBC news agency, saying he was staying in a hotel in Sicily.
Navalny claimed that Peskov and his new wife, figure skating champion Tatyana Navka, along with their children and a few close friends were having a lavish honeymoon on an 88-meter yacht called the Maltese Falcon at a cost of 26 million rubles per week. The price, according to Navalny, didn't include food or entertainment.
“Allow us to present the world's biggest, most luxurious, most expensive sailing yacht: 88 meters — almost as big as a football pitch,” the opposition leader wrote in his blog. “Dmitry Peskov would have to spend three years' salary to afford seven days on this yacht,” he said.
Navalny said he had received the information from an unidentified source and confirmed it using an online yacht tracking service and pictures from the Instagram account of Peskov's friend, former Moscow district official Oleg Mitvol, that proved he was spending time on the yacht off the Sardinian coast.
The opposition activist also posted as evidence Instagram photos of Navka's daughter Alexandra, 15, showing her on a yacht and wearing a bathrobe with a logo that appears to read “Maltese Falcon.”
Earlier this month, Navalny claimed that Peskov owns a 37-million-ruble watch that he could not possibly afford on his official state salary. Peskov denied the allegations and said that the watch, which he was pictured wearing at his marriage, was a wedding present from Navka. Navalny then published a photo posted three months ago on Peskov's daughter's Instagram account showing him wearing the same watch.
Contact the author at d.litvinova@imedia.ru
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