"MISS CHOCOLATE" and the Azarov family

As discovered by the Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info, the yachts "MISS CHOCOLATE" and "FURIOUS," which were imported into Russia and exported to Turkey and the UK several times during the war, belong to Alexey Azarov, a former Verkhovna Rada deputy from the Party of Regions and the son of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. Both currently reside in Moscow. When "MISS CHOCOLATE" returned to Russia from abroad, the shipper was FARIGTON HOLDINGS LIMITED, and the importer was a certain Vitaly Kazachinsky. He is a 37-year-old resident of Sevastopol who received a Russian passport in the spring of 2014.

"MISS CHOCOLATE" is a small pleasure yacht, approximately 19 meters long, with an elegant interior, designed to accommodate a group of 6-8 people. The yacht’s interior is finished in black American walnut and teak, and it features climate control, a water maker, upgraded generators, and more.

According to the Pandora Papers leaks, Oleksiy Azarov is the beneficiary of the offshore company FARIGTON HOLDINGS LIMITED (British Virgin Islands), which handled customs clearance for the yachts’ import and export. Another of Azarov’s offshore companies, SPRENGEN FINANCE LIMITED, was also included in the list of companies whose Swiss bank accounts were frozen by the Kyiv Court of Appeal in August 2019 as part of a 140 million hryvnia bribery case. According to investigators, the Azarovs received the money in exchange for the position of First Deputy Prime Minister. After 2014, anticipating sanctions, Azarov transferred ownership of FARIGTON HOLDINGS LIMITED to his trusted associates. Therefore, the offshore company’s beneficiaries in more recent documents are listed as Austrian PAUL THORSTEN, as well as Ukrainians Konstantin Pivovarov, Dmitry Kazantaev, and Sergey Lunin. The Azarovs’ Austrian companies, including Geolog Oil and Gas Trading GmbH, which owns a chain of gas stations in Germany, were also registered in Pivovarov’s name. Paul Thorsten also served as executive director of this company. Thorsten currently owns a 9% stake in Alexey Azarov’s Russian business, Rusvata, based in Ryazan. Together with Kazantaev, the former Rada deputy owns the Ryazan-based REAL ESTATE MANAGEMENT LLC (net profit for 2024: 24.6 million rubles). Azarov Jr. also owns the Metallist Pipe and Profile Plant in Makeyevka.

In 2014, following Yanukovych, both Azarovs and their relatives fled to Russia. Both father and son were subject to Western sanctions, but in 2016 they managed to partially lift them. Currently, the elder Azarov is on the sanctions lists of the US and Canada, while Oleksiy Azarov is only on Canada’s. Therefore, both travel the world unhindered and annually sail their yachts from Crimean ports to the Mediterranean. According to customs records, both yachts change their destination twice a year. For example, the Palau-flagged yacht "MISS CHOCOLATE" was off Marmaris, Turkey, last November, and before that, it had been cruising the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas near Antalya. Interestingly, as recently as November 2022, it was still sailing under the British flag, regularly calling at the ports of Sevastopol and Balaklava.