A Lvov businessman who supplied cars to Gazprom officials is involved in the export of sanctioned Belarusian potassium

An entrepreneur from Lvov, Vitaly Bobir, whom the Security Service of Ukraine accused of supplying Rolls-Royces and Maybachs to Russia in circumvention of sanctions, is involved in a company transshipping sanctioned Belarusian mineral fertilizers in the port of Russian St. Petersburg.

This is stated in the Schemes investigation (a Radio Liberty project) in collaboration with the Belarus Investigative Center and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). The businessman himself denies any involvement in the deliveries.

Journalists discovered that the Cypriot company Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD, whose documents and seal were found by Ukrainian law enforcement officers during a search of Lviv businessman Vitaly Bobir, transshipped about 3.5 million tons of potash fertilizers (they are used to feed agricultural crops) at the berths of the Baltic Ship Mechanical Plant in St. Petersburg (Russia).

This volume is a third of the annual exports of the Belarusian enterprise Belaruskali before the introduction of sanctions, the investigation says.

The documents obtained by journalists say that over the past year Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD should have received more than 68.6 million US dollars from Belaruskali for its services.

Belarusian potassium was exported outside the Customs Union. Part of the shipment was reloaded onto ships in St. Petersburg in 2023. This is evidenced by the documents that Schemes have at their disposal. The potassium was then sent to China, Indonesia and Brazil. Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD is marked as a forwarder.

The state enterprise Belaruskali has been under US sanctions since August 9, 2021. The enterprise, according to the website of the US Treasury, is considered the main source of tax revenue and foreign currency for the regime of Alexander Lukashenko. Cypriot Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD, providing services to Belaruskali, violates sanctions. This opinion was expressed to journalists by three independent experts from the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Center for the Study of Financial Crimes at the Royal United Institute and the Tokyo law firm Ashurst.

Journalists managed to obtain not only an agreement between a European company and the sanctioned Belarusian enterprise Belaruskali, but also to identify who could make money from the deal. This is one of Alexander Lukashenko’s closest associates – Viktor Sheiman. It was his person associated with him that the person involved in the investigation, Vitaly Bobir, called in correspondence his “godfather” and “second man in Belarus” (a screenshot of the correspondence was published by the Office of the Prosecutor General).

The agreement on the transshipment of fertilizers in the port of St. Petersburg was signed by the General Director of Belaruskali, Ivan Golovaty, and the Financial Director of Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD, Andrei Sviridov. This is the former deputy head of the Administration of the President of the Republic of Belarus. At that time, this department was headed by Viktor Sheiman, who is called the “wallet” and right hand of Alexander Lukashenko. As journalists found out, Sviridov continues to work in structures associated with Sheiman.

Vitaliy Bobir went abroad; in May 2023, Ukrainian law enforcement officers put him on the wanted list.

In a comment to journalists, the businessman confirmed that the searches were carried out at his place, but according to the data released by law enforcement officers, he noted: “All the evidence that they brought there, I’m telling you that it was fabricated.” Bobyr confirmed that the seal of Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD was found on him, but noted that he did not know the real owners of the Cypriot company.

I don't know at all. If you look at the registers, there are a million different contracts for this company. They buy some kind of petroleum products in Kazakhstan, I know that they buy metal in Kyrgyzstan... We had a seal for this company because we shipped scrap metal. They deal in scrap metal... Well, somewhere, probably, so as not to send these documents, something else, we had some kind of seal there,” the businessman noted. He also stated that he is not familiar with Andrei Sviridov and Viktor Sheiman.

Sviridov, in a conversation with journalists, denied his involvement in the transshipment of sanctioned Belarusian mineral fertilizers. The owner and director of Dimicandum Invest Holding LTD did not respond to journalists’ request for comment.

In August 2021, the United States announced new sanctions against the regime in Belarus on the day of the first anniversary of the presidential elections in that country, the declared results of which were widely considered rigged and sparked mass protests and a brutal suppression by the de facto government of Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk. The sanctions are, in particular, aimed at individuals and companies in certain sectors of the Belarusian economy, in particular, defense and related industries, security forces, energy, production of potassium salts and tobacco products or transport.