[2][11] Since 2022, 2Rivers has quietly grown to become the largest trader circumventing Western sanctions on Russian crude and petroleum exports, mainly from Rosneft.

At the beginning of 2024, CEO Talat Safarov, CFO Ahmed Kerimov, and CCO Anar Madatli (Azerbaijani nationals and UAE residents) completed the purchase of Garayev's remaining shares.

[20] Another company that shared directors with Coral Energy is Nord Axis[12] which was established on 15 February 2022 (9 days prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine).

[24] Novus Middle East was used to purchase the Karimun oil storage terminal in southern Indonesia, at the entrance to the Strait of Malacca.

[12] According to a 2022 published analytical report by Transparency International, between 2014 and 2015, Mikhail Gutseriev and Kirill Shamalov (Putin’s former son-in-law) was involved in a Czech-Russian money-laundering scheme used for transfers of illicit funds from Russia to the Czech Republic.

[25] Organizers of the scheme concluded fictitious contracts for the purchase of Eurobonds between Czech and Russian companies, subsequently entering intoarbitral proceedings and influencing the decision of the commercial arbitration court in order to effectuate a transfer of illicit funds.

[26] According to the Financial Times, based on research reports from the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) Institute, Russia has increased the capacity of its dark tanker fleet by up to 70%.

A significant portion of these vessels are owned and operated by a number of shell companies in India, Mauritius, the United Arab Emirates and other jurisdictions.

[28] On September 9, 2024, Vladislav Vlasiuk, Ukrainian Commissioner for Sanctions Policy and Special Advisory to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that one of the largest transport companies that helps the Russian Federation export oil is 2Rivers/Coral Energy.

Rosneft had previously contracted with Geneva-based Proton Energy, a company associated with Viktor Medvedchuk, an exiled Ukrainian oligarch who was a key supporter of Viktor Yanukovych, and Mikalai Varabei (also known as Nicolay Vorobei), to transport these exports to Ukraine via pipeline; however, Proton Energy terminated its trading operations in 2021 due increased risk of sanctions.

[32] The US government sanctioned Varabei in August 2021 for aiding the Belarusian regime through his oil trading business in Belarus and Medvedchuk in 2014 for his ties to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.

Together with the State Register of the Russian Federation, the authority of Alpen Trade, Safarov Javid Mursal Ogli is the current director.

[2] In July 2022, Coral Energy outbid China's Sinopec for the purchase of Russian Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean (ESPO) crude oil cargoes.

[35] In March 2024, Etibar Eyyub, together with his partner Tahir Garayev, were reported to be the traders of 80% of all Russian oil exports, including Rosneft's.

[23] In 2022, following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Trafigura sold its 10% share in the Vostok oil project to Etibar Eyyub and his company Nord Axis.

[14] In October 2024, it was reported that the Office of Foreign Assets Control were investigating 2Rivers for breaching sanctions relating to the Russian oil price cap.

[10] The office of Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the companies were “key linchpins in enabling the trading of Putin’s precious oil” and that the sanctions aimed to clamp down on “oil revenues he so desperately needs to fuel his illegal war.”[17] In January 2025, it became known that representatives of 2Rivers were preparing to meet with representatives of the new US administration in Washington to lobby for the continued unauthorised use of 2Rivers/Coral and the funding of the war in Ukraine.