Ukrainian Media: President Poroshenko spent $500,000 for 6 day vacation in the Maldives
The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, paid a surreal amount from the point of view of an ordinary Ukrainian for his six-day vacation in Maldives, spending USD 500,000 (approximately UAH 14 million in local currency hryvnia), as journalists of the Skhemy (Schemes) investigative program uncovered during their investigation.
Journalists learnt from their own sources that the President and his family secretly left for a vacation to Maldives. Using the FlightRadar online tracking resource, the journalists tracked a Falcon 7X private jet to its final destination. The plane bound to Malé left Kyiv on January 1st and returned on January 8th around midnight. Upon arrival the aircraft landed in the farthest corner of the Kyiv airport, and four minutes later its passengers were picked by two automobiles and four mini-buses, one of which is officially registered as a security automobile of the Presidential car fleet. The cortege, blinking lights off, no flashes, hauled the mysterious passengers to the Presidential countryside estate in Kozyn (Kyiv region).
The Falcon 7X is one of the most expensive jets in the world, it can hold 14 passengers and maintain an uninterrupted flight of up to eight hours. The plane, with the tail number ТС-KMR, chartered by the President is on lease from the Setair Turkish airline company. According to the company’s cost estimates, the seven-day rental fee including the Kyiv - Malé roundtrip and the time in Maldives will cost approximately EUR 154,000 (USD $188,000).
Journalists obtained the names of the passengers who were on the Kyiv - Malé - Kyiv charter flight, three men and five women: Vera Lazarieva, Ivan Dekhteriev, Evheniia Safonova, Oleksandr Syshchykov, Kateryna Boieva, Vitalii Kokorin, Olena Senchenko, and Olha Herasymenko.
At the resort, the Head of State registered under the name of Mr. Petro Incognito (Ukraine). Skhemy journalists learned from reliable sources that in Maldives the President stayed at the Cheval Blanc, a five-star hotel in the midst of the Indian Ocean, in the most expensive part of the resort, on the most expense private villa. The double-story villa situated on a separate island had a swimming pool, a lounge, a pier for boats, a spa zone, a dining area in the open air and a private beach.
The rental fee at the Cheval Blanc resort starts at USD 46,000 per night (USD 276,000 for six nights). In addition, the journalists discovered that leisure activities, such as diving and other water sports, and boats cost an additional USD $18,705. The breakfasts cost in total USD $10,791, lunch, USD $4,682, and dinners, USD $3,165. In addition, Mr. Petro Incognito paid USD $37,550 in cash for other services.