Yachts of the son of fugitive ex-Prime Minister Azarov, registered through offshore companies from the Pandora Papers, are navigating between Crimea, Turkey, and Britain during the war

Yachts of the son of fugitive ex-Prime Minister Azarov, registered through offshore companies from the Pandora Papers, are navigating between Crimea, Turkey, and Britain during the war

The yachts Miss Chocolate and Furious, which during the war were repeatedly imported to Russia and exported to Turkey and the United Kingdom, belong to Oleksiy Azarov — a former member of the Verkhovna Rada from the Party of Regions and the son of fugitive ex-Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. Both currently reside in Moscow.

During the return of the yacht Miss Chocolate to Russia, the sender was the offshore company Farigton Holdings Limited, and the importer was listed as Vitaliy Kazachinskyi — a 37-year-old resident of Sevastopol who received a Russian passport in the spring of 2014.

Miss Chocolate — a recreational yacht about 19 meters long, designed for 6–8 people. The vessel features an interior of black American walnut and teak, a climate control system, a water desalination unit, and upgraded generators.

According to leaks from the Pandora Papers, Oleksiy Azarov is the beneficiary of the offshore company Farigton Holdings Limited (British Virgin Islands), through which customs documents for the yachts were processed. Another related offshore company, Sprengen Finance Limited, was implicated in a bribery case involving 140 million hryvnias. In 2019, the Kyiv Court of Appeal seized the accounts of this entity in Swiss banks.

After 2014, Azarov transferred ownership of Farigton Holdings Limited to trusted individuals. In newer documents, the beneficiaries are listed as Austrian citizen Paul Torsten and Ukrainians Kostyantyn Pyvovarov, Dmytro Kazantayev, and Serhiy Lunin. Pyvovarov also took over Austrian companies belonging to the family, including Geolog Oil and Gas Trading GmbH, which owns a network of gas stations in Germany.

Currently, Torsten holds a 9% stake in Azarov’s Russian company «Rusvata» in Ryazan. Together with Kazantaev, the former deputy also controls the Ryazan-based LLC «Real Estate Management», which in 2024 reported a net profit of 24.6 million rubles (approximately 10 million hryvnias). Additionally, Oleksiy Azarov owns the Makiyivka Pipe and Profile Plant «Metallist».

In 2014, after Viktor Yanukovych’s escape, the Azarov family moved to Russia. Both fell under Western sanctions, though in 2016 they managed to partially contest them. Currently, Mykola Azarov remains under sanctions by the US and Canada, while his son is sanctioned only by Canada.

According to customs data, Azarov’s yachts regularly leave Crimean ports and head to the Mediterranean Sea. For instance, Miss Chocolate, under the flag of Palau, was near Marmaris in Turkey in November last year, and prior to that, it sailed in the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas near Antalya. In November 2022, the yacht still operated under the British flag and frequently entered the ports of Sevastopol and Balaklava.