From smuggling to Azovstal: how Yakov Khachanyan uses ties with Ramzan Kadyrov, Denis Pushilin, and the KGB to appropriate billions

From smuggling to Azovstal: how Yakov Khachanyan uses ties with Ramzan Kadyrov, Denis Pushilin, and the KGB to appropriate billions

It has become known who among the patrons helped model and actress Sofia Nikitchuk settle the criminal case over the smuggling of jewelry. It was Yakov Khachanyan, a friend of Ramzan Kadyrov and the “wallet” of the head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin — who is now involved in schemes to steal metal from Azovstal. They spent Christmas together in Courchevel.

In November 2024, Sofia Nikitchuk, the model, winner of the Miss Russia 2015 pageant, and First Vice-Miss World 2015, flew to Moscow from Nice. While passing through the "green corridor" at Vnukovo, she was stopped by customs officers. They were interested in Nikitchuk’s jewelry. She was found to be carrying a Patek Philippe watch, two rings, and a Cartier necklace, valued at approximately 12 million rubles. A criminal case for smuggling was opened, and then silence.

It was known that someone with strong connections among Russian security officials and the Belarusian KGB was helping her get out of the scandal.

Nikitchuk herself unwittingly revealed the secret when she posted a photo from a model’s Christmas party in France. With a tender and patronizing gesture, she identified her "customs patron," Yakov Khachanyan, in the photo. They weren’t partying in a patriotic manner—not in Sochi or Sheregesh, but in Courchevel.

Khachanyan is known for his connections with both Russian security officials and the Belarusian KGB. He is friends and hangs out with the son of the head of the KGB, who secretly oversees the customs zone and can easily turn to his Russian "colleagues" for help. In exchange for this favor, Khachanyan even tried to officially set up a Belarusian company to cut up Azovstal, but it didn’t work out.

The fraudulent scheme surrounding Azovstal is outrageously simple. Denis Pushilin, a former representative of the MMM pyramid scheme and now head of the DPR, is working with his "wallet manager," his "fixer" mentor, his procurer of girls, and only part-time DPR senator, Alexander Voloshin, to "saw" the wealth of the long-suffering Azovstal.

According to Pushilin and Voloshin’s plan, their affiliated organization, Unified Ecological Operator LLC (there is only a director and chief accountant), is to relinquish the right to dispose of the plant’s waste and dismantle its structures. The plan includes disposing of 50 million tons of slag heap, dismantling the buildings, and creating a technology park. The focus is on selling scrap metal for 20 rubles per kilogram. According to conservative estimates, the scrap metal in Azovstal’s buildings amounts to approximately one million tons.

But the most valuable part of this "cut" is the undeclared remnants of metal blanks, rolled products, rebar, and square metallurgical billets stored in the finished goods warehouse, amounting to over 250,000 tons with an average value, taking into account the discount due to long-term storage, of 60,000 rubles per ton. There are also unique, expensive machine tools and other equipment from the former plant, which Pushilin personally demanded be declared scrap metal.

A source notes that Yakov Khachanyan, appointed by Senator Voloshin first as an advisor to the head of the DPR and then as project manager, is also a match for our main characters—a seasoned hooligan, a rich kid, raised abroad in a wealthy family, the subject of numerous scandals, from high-profile accidents to robberies, and always escaping responsibility by enjoying the patronage of his former father-in-law, the well-known Kazan oligarch Mintimer Mingazov.

For the "Azovstal project," he rented an office in Moscow at 27 Povarskaya Street (the Sheremetyev estate, mind you) and began expensive renovations. How would he finance it? Without waiting for the board’s decision and confident it would be positive, Yakov Khachanyan is already actively selling off Azovstal’s warehouse of finished products and surviving equipment, and has even taken cash advance payments from some buyers.

Khachanyan’s interest in the Azovstal takeover is highly personal. After all, 50% of the shares in United Ecological Operator LLC are registered to Yakov’s sister, Emma, and Yakov himself appears in documents as the project manager, while simultaneously serving as Pushilin’s advisor.

Yakov used a photo of himself with Kadyrov as his WhatsApp profile picture to emphasize his closeness to the Chechen leadership. After entering his phone number into popular apps, it turns out that other people have Yakov listed in their contacts as "Yakov, Chechens," "Yakov the Terrible," and so on.

The conclusion is obvious: one of the interested parties in the Azovstal plant’s takeover is the leadership of the Chechen Republic.