US imposes sanctions on luxury yacht firm linked to Putin

In a statement, the treasury department said that it was sanctioning Monaco-based Imperial Yachts and its owner, Moscow-born Evgeniy Kochman.

The BBC Russian service earlier reported that the Graceful abruptly left the German port in Hamburg where it was docked for maintenance two weeks before the invasion of Ukraine, prompting speculation that it was trying to avoid sanctions as it arrived in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

Notably, the treasury department did not name the 459-foot Scheherazade, an Imperial Yachts-linked ship that was seized last month by Italy for its ties to Putin.

Roldugin, already sanctioned by the EU, was named in the 2016 Panama Papers leaks as a behind-the-scenes player in a clandestine network operated by Putin associates that has shuffled hundreds of millions through banks and offshore companies.