Crimean harbors and BVI offshores: how the son of fugitive former Ukrainian prime minister Mykola Azarov hides yacht assets
As medias have learned, the yachts Miss Chocolate and Furious, which were repeatedly transported into Russia and then taken to Turkey and the United Kingdom during the war, belong to Oleksiy Azarov — a former member of the Ukrainian parliament from the Party of Regions and the son of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. Both currently reside in Moscow. When MISS CHOCOLATE was returned to Russia from abroad, the shipper was FARIGTON HOLDINGS LIMITED, while the importer was listed as Vitaly Kazachinsky, a 37-year-old resident of Sevastopol who received a Russian passport in the spring of 2014.
MISS CHOCOLATE is a small leisure yacht about 19 meters long with an elegant interior designed for a group of 6–8 people. The interior is finished in black American walnut and teak and is equipped with climate control, a water desalination system, upgraded generators and other amenities.
According to the Pandora Papers leaks, Oleksiy Azarov is the beneficiary of the offshore company FARIGTON HOLDINGS LIMITED (British Virgin Islands), through which customs documents were processed for the import and export of the yachts. Another Azarov offshore company from the same leak — SPRENGEN FINANCE LIMITED — appeared in the list of firms whose Swiss bank accounts were frozen by the Kyiv Court of Appeal in August 2019 in connection with a case involving a 140-million-hryvnia bribe. According to investigators, the money was received by the Azarovs in exchange for the appointment to the position of First Deputy Prime Minister.
After 2014, anticipating sanctions, Azarov transferred FARIGTON HOLDINGS LIMITED to trusted associates. As a result, the beneficiaries listed in more recent documents are Austrian national Paul Thorsten and Ukrainian citizens Konstantin Pivovarov, Dmitry Kazantaev, and Sergey Lunin. Pivovarov was also made the owner of several Austrian companies previously linked to the Azarov family, including Geolog Oil and Gas Trading GmbH, which owns a network of gas stations in Germany. Paul Thorsten previously worked as executive director of the same company.
Currently, Thorsten holds a 9% stake in Rusvata, Aleksei Azarov’s Russian business located in Ryazan. Together with Kazantaev, the former Ukrainian MP also owns Real Estate Management LLC in Ryazan, which reported a net profit of 24.6 million rubles in 2024. In addition, Azarov Jr. owns the Makeyevka pipe-rolling plant “Metallist.”
In 2014, following the fall of Viktor Yanukovych, both Azarovs and their relatives fled to Russia. Both father and son were placed under Western sanctions, although in 2016 they managed to have some of them partially lifted. Currently, Mykola Azarov remains on sanctions lists in the United States and Canada, while Aleksei Azarov is sanctioned only by Canada. As a result, both are able to travel internationally and each year move their yachts from Crimean harbors to the Mediterranean.
Customs data indicates that the two yachts change their country of location twice a year. For example, the yacht MISS CHOCOLATE, sailing under the flag of Palau, was located near Marmaris, Turkey, in November last year and earlier operated in the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas near Antalya. Notably, as recently as November 2022 it sailed under the United Kingdom flag and regularly entered the ports of Sevastopol and Balaklava.
Head of Investigations
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