An expensive floating eyesore has marred views in the port of Trieste, northern Italy, for more than four years, and it is costing Italian taxpayers millions to maintain, the city’s mayor says.

Russian oligarch Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko’s “Sailing Yacht A,” one of the world’s largest sailing vessels and worth around $600 million, was in Trieste for maintenance in March 2022 when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to widespread sanctions and seizures of Russian assets.

Among them was Melnichenko’s 468-foot craft, once dubbed the “world’s ugliest yacht” and known simply as “A” by locals who have grown to hate it. Designed by Philippe Starck, the superyacht features an outer surface that is ghostlike, its barely visible windows embedded in a shimmering armored steel frame. Its three rotating carbon masts are as tall as an eight-story palazzo, casting a silhouette that has by now become a fixture in the busy port where dozens of cruise ships dock each week.

In September 2025, Mayor Roberto Dipiazza raised the issue of who is paying for the yacht’s mooring fees and maintenance in a public campaign, calling it a “disgrace,” and threatening to sell it or sail it away. Dipiazza told CNN that the cost to keep the ship afloat, including paying for a 20-person crew, fuel to run the generators, specialized cleaning, security and insurance, amounts to around $30,000 a day – or nearly $11 million a year.

According to Italian law, a sequestered ship must be maintained and cannot be left to rust or sink. If and when sanctions against Melnichenko are lifted, he will have to pay back those costs to retrieve his vessel. “It will eventually cost him less to buy a new yacht than to pay back all we have spent,” Dipazza said. “And where does that leave us? We could be paying for this monstrosity for years.”

Melnichenko, a banker and industrialist whose fortune is estimated at around $20 billion, challenged the seizure of the yacht in the summer of 2022, arguing that the vessel was not directly owned by him, but instead a company called Valla Sails through a trust set up by his wife. The case was heard by a court in Rome in 2022 and eventually reached the Court of Justice of the European Union, which ruled in 2025 that Italy has the right to keep it sequestered – and with it, the obligation to maintain it.

Sailing Yacht A is not the only Russian yacht costing Italians money. In the Tuscan port of Marina di Carrara, the six-deck, 465-foot superyacht is docked behind high walls to keep it both safe and hidden from curious onlookers. While it is reportedly licensed to Rosneft executive Eduard Khudainatov, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny credibly claimed it actually belongs to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On August 28 of this year, it left the port heading north towards the Italian Rivieria, according to transponder signals recorded by Vessel Finder, heavily flanked by Italian security forces. It returned after ten hours of what a spokesperson for the Italian Sea Group, whose dock it is moored at, said were technical tests as part of its maintenance.

The superyacht, worth $700 million, has twin helipads among its many amenities and a swimming pool that converts to a dance floor, according to Superyacht Times.

The ’s mooring contract had been paid through September, according to tax records seen by CNN. Italian Sea Group will not say who paid for, or who is now paying for, those mooring costs. Since it was sequestered, Tuscan taxpayers have paid more than $15 million for the skeleton crew, some of whom are British and others Russian, which switches out several times a year, according to local press reports. A film crew that tried to approach the vessel last year was chased away by drones and water canon.

Additional costs include the security to make sure no one gets close – and that it doesn’t set sail while sequestered.

Among the other vessels that Italy is paying to keep is the , a sleek 210-foot superyacht owned by Alexei Mordashov, a Putin associate and majority shareholder in Severstal, Russia’s largest steel and mining company. Forbes puts Mordashov’s net worth at nearly $37 billion. is sequestered in Imperia, and has cost Italian taxpayers around $2 million so far, Matteo Bonjean, vice director of the port of Marina di Imperia, told Forbes.

The 126-foot superyacht , owned by Gennady Timchenko, another Putin ally, is being maintained nearby.

All of the sequestered vessels have crews that maintain the yachts, paid for by the Italian government. Other costs include the use of air conditioning to prevent mold from growing inside.

Italy is by no means the only country stuck with costs for sequestered yachts in Europe. Germany has the $800 million , owned at one time by the sister of sanctioned Russian magnate Alisher Usmanov. France is paying to keep the sanctioned oligarch Igor Sechin’s a, and Spain maintains the , owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg.

Gibraltar was able to auction off Russian steel magnate Dmitry Pumpyansky’s 236-foot for some $37.5 million, according to Reuters. The United States has sold several vessels, including the Amadea, owned by twice-sanctioned Russian politician Suleiman Kerimov.

Not all countries choose to pay upkeep if their national laws don’t require it. Sanctioned Russian Andrey Guryev’s massive 353-foot , sequestered in Montenegro, has been left to rust and rot, according to images posted on social media by Benetti Yachts, which built the ship. Montenegro tried to sell the yacht in 2024 for €135 million, but the sale was ultimately blocked and the yacht continues to languish in the Porto Montenegro marina in Tivat.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been a strong supporter of maintaining sanctions against Russian oligarchs tied to Putin, warning the Italian Senate last month that any softening or deal making with Moscow was “a very risky choice.”Many others, like Trieste mayor Dipiazza, feel that taxpayers should not have to pay for the upkeep of oligarchs’ toys.