Belarusian business in Crimea and Donbas
De jure non-recognition, de facto cooperation. The Kremlin ally Lukashenko holds a unique position concerning Crimea and Donbas. Western investors refrain from investing in these regions for political reasons or due to sanctions risks. In contrast, Belarusian entrepreneurs have initiated a diverse range of activities on the land seized by Russian troops.
Buro has identified numerous organisations with Belarusian capital in Simferopol, Sevastopol, Mariupol and other occupied territories. We invite you to look at some of them in more detail. One of the companies is linked to a powerful Russian family, while others are owned by a sports official, a former public officer and a KGB agent.
This piece was produced in cooperation with RFE/RL Ukraine’s Schemes project and based on data provided by CyberPartisans. We would also like to thank our colleagues from the Russian independent publication Vazhnye Istorii for their assistance
SPORTING INTEREST
Detached house suburbs of Yevpatoriya. The pale pink building of the Korall Sanatorium rises one kilometre away from the Black Sea coast. The six-storey resort has a gym, swimming pools, a café and a children’s playground. It offers clients both relaxation and treatment. Since ancient times, the resort has been renowned for its healing muds. A two-week vacation for two, including accommodation, meals and medical procedures, costs around $1000. The sanatorium staff promise to be able to offer vacant rooms even in July and August.
The Korall Sanatorium. Photo courtesy of the sanatorium staff
Viktar Kreidzich, a native of Pinsk, is one of the owners of Korall. In addition to his business activities, he is also a sports administrator. The 63-year-old resident of Polesia is the deputy chairman of the Belarusian Wrestling Federation. In 2005, Kreidzich and his business partners purchased an administrative building and a restaurant in the vicinity of Yevpatoriya. They proceeded to convert these properties into a hotel complex. When Russia annexed Crimea, the Korall sanatorium opened its doors wide for guests from Moscow. Nothing personal, just business.
iktar Kreidzich. Source: rf-rb.ru
From 2015 to 2022, Korall has entered into more than two dozen contracts with Moscow authorities to provide health resort treatment services. The total value of the state contracts is over $4 million. During the pandemic, Korall also received financial support from the Russian authorities, amounting to almost $20,000 in the form of government subsidies and grants. The sanatorium operates under a simplified taxation system and generates annual turnover in excess of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
DATA FROM THE SPARK INFORMATION SYSTEM – STATE CONTRACTS OF OOO SANATORIY KORALL AND DATA ON GOVERNMENT SUPPORT OF OOO SANATORIY KORALL
The partners of Kreidzich in Korall are Ukrainian nationals Faina Tedeyeva and Natalia Shchokina.
Faina Tedeyeva is the former spouse of Elbrus Tedeyev. He is a European and Olympic freestyle wrestling champion, as well as a former Party of Regions lawmaker who referred to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych as his “king and god”. It is worth noting that, according to media reports, the current head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andrii Yermak, was previously an aide to Tedeyev.
Natalia Shchokina is the spouse of Rostislav Shchokin. He is an educator and an honoured athlete. Rostislav is also the President of the Kyiv Wrestling Association and the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management, which is the largest private university in Ukraine.
Elbrus Tedeyev (first from the left) and Rostislav Shchokin (second from the left). Source: aspi.com.ua
Faina Tedeyeva refused to admit she carried out business activities in the territory of Crimea which had been annexed by Russia. She recommended that the issue be brought to the attention of her former spouse, Elbrus Tedeyev, but he did not respond to messages or telephone calls. Rostislav Shchokin stated that his family is acquainted with Kreidzich, yet has not maintained communication with him for an extended period. Both claimed to be unaware of the operations of the Korall sanatorium.
“We don’t have any idea what’s going on in the occupied territories”, Shchokin said.
Subsequently, the family representative clarified that following the annexation of Crimea, the director of the Korall sanatorium proceeded to register the company with the Russians independently, given the streamlined process. Natalia Shchokina was unaware of the re-registration of the company and did not consent to it. She therefore took legal action to have the decision invalidated and the company liquidated. The court requested specimen signatures, but it is as of now impossible and inadmissible to provide them in Crimea, according to the representative of the Shchokins. For that reason, the case stalled.
We got hold of Korall’s registration documents, which tell a different story. In November 2014, a general meeting of the sanatorium’s owners was held in Yevpatoria. It approved a new charter, divided the company’s shares and decided to register the company in the Russian register. Shchokina and Tedeyeva signed this decision. Kreidzich’s signature does not appear on the minutes, as he was not present at the meeting. Nevertheless, the Korall Sanatorium was officially registered under Russian law.
MINUTES OF THE OOO SANATORIY KORALL SHAREHOLDERS’ GENERAL MEETING
For a while everything went well. Korall was receiving tens of thousands of dollars a year and regularly fulfilling government contracts. It was around this time that Shchokina travelled to Crimea. The situation changed after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Viktor Kreidich appeared on the horizon. He declared that he would not take part in the general meetings of Korall’s owners and would not vote on any decisions. The sanatorium was threatened with liquidation. Kreidzich then wrote a letter to the tax authorities asking them not to close the company.
LETTER FROM KREIDZICH TO THE HEAD OF THE FEDERAL TAX SERVICE INTERDISTRICT INSPECTORATE FOR THE CRIMEAN REPUBLIC
"The company must continue its commercial activities, participate in social programmes and pay taxes. I am taking measures to [...] resume the work of the company...", the Belarusian businessman wrote in March that year. The Russian authorities accommodated him and stopped the process of removing Korall from the Russian register.
We contacted the owners of the sanatorium again. Shchokina denied signing any documents after the annexation of Crimea. Her representative stated that "after 2014, the control over the enterprise was actually lost". Tedeyeva stated that it was challenging for her to recall the events of ten years ago, but did not rule out the possibility that she had signed the documents at her ex-husband’s request.
Yuriy Pivovarov, director of the Korall Sanatorium, stated that the owners were aware of the company’s registration in Russia. He advised to contact Viktar Kreidzich for details.
The Belarusian businessman initially declined to comment by phone, pretending business. However, he subsequently provided us with a written response:
“I am a citizen of the Republic of Belarus. And proud of it! I have nothing to do with Ukraine! I have no interest in engaging in any form of speculation or intrigue”.
However, Kreidzich’s fate is closely linked to Ukraine, where he was granted asylum and hid from the Belarusian security forces. Now the sports administrator and businessman is promoting anti-Ukrainian narratives. Let’s tell you more about his life’s somersaults.
CRIMINAL RECORD
Kreidzich has been an entrepreneur since the 1990s. He is a co-owner of several companies under the Istok brand. Some of the holding companies have already been liquidated, while others are still in operation. Elis, based in Smarhon, manufactures interior doors. Istok-Polesia, a company based in Pinsk, carries out technical inspections of vehicles and is contracted by various government agencies. Several companies are also registered in the names of his close relatives.
Kreidzich’s business career can hardly be described as crystal clear. The businessman was involved in two criminal cases in 2007 and 2008. The first is linked to a criminal group operating at the Zakhodni Buh customs post under the patronage of superiors from the capital. The case files indicate that smart businessmen have been smuggling a thousand of lots of household and computer equipment, clothes and shoes from Europe to Russia, using false documents to avoid paying customs duties to the Belarusian public purse. One count of the indictment alleges that Kreidzich acted as an intermediary in the transfer of a bribe to a customs official. This entails an amount of $10,000.
The second case is also related to corruption. The case’s primary defendant is Mikalai Kudzelka, the former deputy head of the Committee for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption. The reserve colonel was accepting bribes in exchange for covering businesses. Kreidzich handed him $20,000 in two instalments. The first instance happened in the forest near the lake in the Uzda District, and the second was in Minsk near the Hotel Belarus. Minsk City Court handed down a nine-year prison sentence to Kudzelka, while Kreidzich had already been well gone by that time.
In mid-2006, he relocated to Ukraine, where he was engaged as a coach of the national freestyle wrestling team. The Belarusian authorities sought to extradite him on charges of involvement in organised crime, complicity in bribery and other crimes. Kreidzich was initially detained and was to be extradited. He appealed the extradition in court, though. He asserted that he is at risk of “cruel treatment and an unfair trial” in Belarus. While the proceedings were ongoing, Kreidzich was granted refugee status in Ukraine. He ended up not being extradited to Belarus.
The businessman quickly found a purpose in his new country. He is a beneficiary of the Kyiv-based Ekomonolit and Elize companies, which are involved in wholesale and retail fuel trading.
GO RUSSIAN WORLD
Nothing was heard from Kreidzich for a long time. In Belarus, where he was accused of serious corruption offences a decade ago, he unexpectedly reappeared in 2017. The businessman provoked a brawl in the street. The incident was reported by tut.by. Kreidzich was on his way to the Zhdanovichy market in a Lexus and suddenly stopped to drop off passengers. This caused a traffic jam on the road. One of the drivers expressed his frustration. That’s when, according to the driver, Kreidzich hit him. Speaking to reporters, the businessman stated that he had only given his opponent a “light foot sweep”:
“Had I really hit him, he would have been in intensive care”.
The street fight did not stop Kreidzich from being active in public life on his return to his homeland. The businessman became a member of the Presidium of the Public Chamber of the Union State of Belarus and Russia. The Chamber was later renamed the International Public Chamber. He was frequently observed at sporting events and round table discussions, where law enforcement officials occasionally discussed the “mobilisation of joint resources of the public, opinion leaders and experts to promptly respond to unfriendly moves by third countries”.
Viktar Kreidzich (on the right) and Fedor Povny (supporter of the Russian World and Lukashenko’s confessor). Source: rf-rb.ru
Kreidzich serves as Co-Chairman of the Russia-Belarus Friendship Society and the Belarus-Ukraine-Russia-China Friendship Council. Kreidzich has publicly expressed pro-Russian and anti-Western sentiments on behalf of these structures.
“There are a lot of people who truly love the nations of Belarus and Russia. Of course, those who are closer to the West, the Lviv Bandera followers, are not our folks, while Kyiv, Odesa, and Kharkiv are our friends and brothers. We have to strengthen that, develop that. Hopefully, with a little help from us, we can form a common union. And Ukraine will be part of it”, Kreidzich said on the eve of a full-scale war.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is seen by one of the organisations he heads as “a special operation against the threat Russia saw in the Ukrainian regime”.
Understandably, a businessman with such pro-Russian views would engage in business activities in annexed Crimea without hesitation. In addition to the Korall sanatorium, he also has a stake in the Yubika company. The company was established in the village of Krasnohvardiiske in May 2017 and is engaged in the trading of petroleum products. Yubika collaborated closely with the state enterprise Krymavtodor, providing it with road bitumen. The contracts total $3.5 million.
DATA FROM THE SPARK INFORMATION SYSTEM – GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS OF OOO YUBIKA
Kreidzich’s business partner at the Crimean firm is Yury Kalbasnikau, a native of the Homel District. He had a stake in Belarusian companies that produce bitumen products. It is possible that his experience and connections were beneficial in Crimea. During its most successful period, Yubika achieved a turnover of over one million dollars. The company has not provided any new data.
A source in Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies has informed us that counterintelligence operations are underway against Kreidzich.
MARIUPOL DEVELOPER
The Belarusians are doing business not only in the Crimea, but also in the Donbas, where heavy fighting is taking place. Mariupol is the most destroyed city in this war. Russian invaders reduced Ukraine’s most important industrial centre to rubble. It is now being hastily redeveloped as a cover-up for war crimes, media reports have said.
The Mariupol company M-S-M offers vacancies for construction workers. Forty dollars a day is offered to bricklayers and concrete workers. The hiring representatives do not provide any further details in the emails, merely an invitation to attend an interview at an office located in the vicinity of the destroyed Drama Theatre, where hundreds of civilians were killed by Russian bombs.
РDamaged building of Mariupol Drama Theatre. Source: Reuters
The sole owner of M-S-M is 49-year-old Belarusian Uladzimir Unikau. He worked for the state-owned company Belorusneft for a while before becoming self-employed.
The life of the entrepreneur changed dramatically in 2015. He was arrested for possession of a large quantity of drugs. A search of the individual revealed the presence of a roll and a wrap of synthetic psychostimulant alpha-PVP, along with 11 wraps of amphetamine and six more wraps of alpha-PVP in his vehicle. The total weight of the confiscated substances exceeds five grams. The charge alleges that Unukau purchased drugs at an unspecified location and at an unspecified time without the intention of reselling them. He was sentenced to nine years in prison with compulsory addiction treatment.
Unukau was apparently released early. His restriction on leaving Belarus was lifted in 2020. In a conversation with Buro, the businessman said he had no desire to “dredge up the past”. According to him, when he got out, he first went to Moscow, and then he was invited to help rebuild Mariupol.
Unukau’s first job in Mariupol was with Premium, a company that renovates high-rise buildings and bachelorette houses. Residents are not always happy with the quality of the work. In May of last year, local officials convened a meeting between Mariupol residents and representatives of Premium, with Unukau in attendance. The contractor promised to “address all issues”.
Uladzimir Unukau (in the centre, wearing a black cap). Source: mariupol-news.ru
Premium is co-owned by Russian businessman Viacheslav Kobets. He heads the MBK Group, which is involved in rail transport, trading and construction. The MBK Group includes Pervaya Granitnaya Masterskaya, a manufacturer of paving and facade tiles in the Novosibirsk region.
One of Kobets’ business partners in Pervaya Granitnaya Masterskaya is Sergiy Chayka. He is the grandson of former Russian Prosecutor General Yuriy Chayka. Over the years, the Chayka family has established a substantial business empire, with interests spanning various sectors, including salt production, real estate development, urban space development, and waste management.
Unukau stated that he knows Kobets only casually and is unaware of his business associates.
“I’m nowhere near that”, Unukau said.
He stated that he is no longer involved with Premium and is currently developing his own business, M-S-M. The company was established just over a year ago, yet it presents itself as a dynamic construction company with a track record of participation in over a dozen major construction and reconstruction projects in Moscow, Donetsk and Mariupol.
According to Unukau, M-S-M is currently undertaking reconstruction work in Mariupol as a subcontractor. The contracts were obtained through contacts he had made during his previous employment.
“We established our own company and began working independently. It’s better to start your own business than to work for someone else. Especially as Mariupol is experiencing a historic moment. I am really looking forward to participating in this project. I don’t give a shit what the Ukrainian authorities might think. I don’t consider them legitimate”, Unukau said.
His company ended last year with a turnover of $290,000 and a net profit of $2,000. Incidentally, the M-S-M office is located in the same building as the Mariupol branch of Premium. M-S-M also uses the same post address as another Mariupol-based company, Litiy-M. The sole owner of Litiy-M is Viacheslav Kobets. He hasn’t responded to our request for contact.
CRIMEAN AFFAIRS
Kreidzich and Unukau are not the only Belarusians doing business in Crimea and Donbas. In the occupied regions of Ukraine, we found a total of about 60 companies with Belarusian capital. Most were registered after 2014 and are mainly active in trade and construction.
AV-Tekhnostroy has been in operation in Simferopol since May of last year. During the year, the company won state contracts to carry out major repairs to school and kindergarten buildings and to improve public gardens and courtyards in the Crimea. The contracts total around $750,000.
DATA FROM THE SPARK INFORMATION SYSTEM – GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS OF OOO AV-TEKHNOSTROY
The sole owner of AV-Tekhnostroy is 46-year-old Aliaksandr Kazhan, who was born in Babruisk. The businessman does not hide the fact that he works in Crimea and is not afraid of getting into trouble because he considers himself “first and foremost a patriot of Belarus and, therefore, of the Union State with Russia”.
Aliaksandr Kazhan (in the centre holding a map). Source: e-zdravnitsa.ru
In a conversation with Buro, Kazhan stated that he was invited to Crimea because Belarusian developers are considered to be highly skilled professionals, which he views as a positive impact of Lukashenko’s leadership. He claimed that the AV-Tekhnostroy company had a solid reputation, which led to it receiving government contracts in Crimea on a non-competitive basis.
In Belarus, Kazhan was the director of the Babruisk branch of the state-owned enterprise Belzhilproekt. He was dismissed from his post after being caught accepting bribes. The case file indicates that in 2007 and 2008, the official received compensation exceeding $2,000 for the production of design and estimate documentation for various projects. He was prosecuted and sentenced to six years in a correctional facility, with the confiscation of his property and the disqualification from office. Kazhan states that he has no regrets about that part of his life story.
“I’ve served my time and I’ve realized everything. I don’t do that anymore”, Kazhan said.
Upon his release from prison, he established an architectural firm in Minsk, AST-Profi Group. The company has provided design services for several industrial facilities. The company is still operational, but its financial figures are not publicly available, unlike those for Kazhan’s Crimean firm. In the previous financial year, AV-Tekhnostroy generated revenues of over $125,000 and achieved a net profit of approximately $35,000.
Another Simferopol-based company with Belarusian roots is Torgovyi Dom – Krymbelholding. The company has been operational since February 2016 and is engaged in the supply of hydraulic systems for Belarusian heavy machinery. Furthermore, the company transported hot water boilers and gas burners produced in Belarus to Crimea.
TD-Krymbelholding is headed and co-owned by Uladzimir Akulich, a 60-year-old from Pukhavichy. His wife and daughter are natives of Simferopol, but are now residents of Belarus. His wife worked in the Department of Security Services, and his daughter served in the Border Guard. Akulich himself cooperated with the Belarusian special services. His work as a senior KGB inspector is recorded in his professional biography.
Since 2015, Akulich has also been the head of AkuBel Export, a trading company based in Homel. Vitali Belavusau, a native of Rechytsa, is the sole proprietor of the business. Before entering private enterprise, he spent a considerable period working for the state enterprise Gomelobldorstroy. Belavusau was Akulich’s business partner at the Crimean firm TD-Krymbelholding.
Apparently, things are not going well for them. For the past three years, the Simferopol-based company has not provided financial reports, and in 2019 and 2020 it incurred a loss. Akulich and Belavusau declined to comment.
DE JURE AND DE FACTO
The sustained involvement of Belarusian businessmen in Crimea and Donbas aligns with the political stance of Aleksandr Lukashenko on the temporarily occupied regions of Ukraine. The Kremlin’s ally is not rushing to recognise them as new Russian lands, but is always ready to co-operate.
“If we have to, we’ll recognize them. Should it make any sense... [...] De facto we have recognised that Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk exist because we are cooperating with them”, Lukashenko said in July 2022. Nine months later he received the head of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin.
Aleksandr Lukashenko and Denis Pushilin. Source: president.gov.by
The Consulate General of Belarus will open in Rostov-on-Don in July. Among others, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, Crimea and Sevastopol, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Regions will be included in the consular district.
Ukraine has the legal right to persecute Belarusians for conducting business in the temporarily occupied territories, according to the interviewed Ukrainian experts.
Ukraine has criminalised conducting economic activities in cooperation with an aggressor country. The penalty is up to five years in prison.
Inna Vishnevska, a postgraduate researcher at the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, elucidated the application of this article with reference to the Korall sanatorium. In this case, the interaction with the aggressor country consisted of entering into contracts with the Russian state agency, which commissioned the provision of tourist services.
It should be noted that both Ukrainian and Belarusian citizens are subject to criminal liability for conducting business in the temporarily occupied regions, as the article does not specify the nationality of the criminal. Furthermore, the expert noted that Belarusian citizens are subject to criminal liability due to the crime having been committed in Ukraine.
Additionally, economic activities in the occupied Ukrainian territories may be subject to sanctions, according to a lawyer from the Regional Centre for Human Rights, Kateryna Rashevska.
She stated that before the full-scale invasion, Ukraine had imposed restrictions on Moldovan and Portuguese airlines, which were carrying out illegal flights to occupied Crimea, as well as on an architectural bureau registered in Austria for the illegal construction of an opera house in the city of Sevastopol. However, in practice, the number of such sanctions imposed is relatively limited.
“At the level of foreign countries, such sanctions are more of an exception and require more advocacy to prevent the relevant economic activity”, Rashevska said.
Ukraine has made it clear that it will not tolerate any form of assistance to the Russian occupiers.
“Any form of recognition of the occupation is considered an anti-Ukrainian action by the Ukrainian authorities and will be met with a strong response. It is clear that sanctions are part of the response toolkit”, said Ukrainian Roving Ambassador for Belarus Ihor Kyzym in a comment for Buro.
The number of individuals and legal entities from Belarus on the Ukrainian sanctions list has now reached more than 200. This list is updated regularly.
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