Hrodna straw company

Viktar Rusak has worked for Grodno Azot for more than 30 years. He held different positions from foreman to the head of the social development department. From 2016-2019, he also served as a member of the House of Representatives. In the 2020 presidential election, he headed the election commission at a polling station located within the Grodno Azot dormitory.

In July 2021, Rusak was appointed as director of Grikom, a company founded the day before. It is owned by the Hrodna Executive Committee.

It was Grikom that replaced the sanctioned Grodno Azot as a supplier of fertilizers to the West.

But only on paper, as the Rabochy Rukh activists found out after they obtained a loading report for one of the trucks they had stopped on the Lithuanian border. It is printed on Grodno Azot official template and clearly states that it was at that factory where the truck loaded carbamide. The report bears the seal of Grodno Azot.

We also found a contract between Grikom and the Serbian company Wakler. It stipulates that Grikom shall supply about €20 million worth of carbamide to Serbia during one year.

At the same time, as we learned from the drivers that Serbian customers’ cars are loaded with fertilizers at Grodno Azot, and drivers sign on the company’s official letters. It should be noted that Serbia has joined the EU sanctions against Grodno Azot.

It was for the Serbian company Wakler that the trucks intercepted at the border were carrying carbamide. We asked Željko Erceg, the director and co-owner of Wakler, to comment. He claimed that he was not aware of it.

Grikom director Viktar Rusak refused to talk to us by phone. Rabochy Rukh’s sources reported that he signs documents drafted by Grodno Azot plant managers that help bypass sanctions. The employees also identify and negotiate with customers and offer them a scheme to skirt sanctions through Grikom, insiders told Rabochy Rukh.

This is just one of the straw companies Grodno Azot uses to continue deliveries to Europe. As we found out together with the Lithuanian investigation centre Siena, the main grey fertilizer export routes from Belarus are by rail and sea.

The copies of cargo documents in our possession helped us precisely trace the delivery route of this fertilizer and find evidence of sanctions evasion. Along the way, we found regular subjects of our previous investigations.

We studied the quality certificate that Technospectreiding used to supply carbamide to Dubai. The fertilizer meets the GOST 2081-2010 standard.

The same product is manufactured in Belarus only by Grodno Azot. This is confirmed by two independent sources – Yury Ravavy, a former Grodno Azot worker who headed the plant strike committee, and Arminas Kildišis, a Lithuanian fertilizer expert.

Technospectreiding claims to be both a supplier and producer of carbamide.. Such large-scale projects in Belarus are announced years in advance. There was no such public information. But there were reports that the Belarusian authorities were going to increase the capacity of the Grodno Azot ammonia shops (from which carbamide is produced) despite sanctions. The modernization project was estimated at $270 million.

We visited Technospectreiding headquarters to seek official commentary. We expected to see large production, taking into account the company’s international contracts. But its office turned out to be registered in an ordinary cottage in a residential suburb of Minsk. There was no trace of any carbamide production.

Overlaps were also found in the staff of the two companies. With the help of the CyberPartisans hacker group, we found out that Technospectreiding logistics specialist Siarhei Pilets and an engineer, Petr Pasikau, used to work at Grodno Azot.

These facts suggest that Technospectreiding is another straw company of Grodno Azot. It might be used for supplying products to Europe to circumvent sanctions, and the Emirati buyers might just be a cover.

“As far as I know, the Emirates and the neighboring countries have enough gas to export carbamide themselves. I think purchasing it from Belarus would be somewhat illogical. Carbamide is exported to countries where ammonium nitrate and calcium ammonium nitrate are not used. These are mainly France and Germany,” fertilizer expert Arminas Kildišis commented.

Our fellow investigators at Siena contacted Technospectreiding owner Dmitriy Goshko, but he declined to comment.

Ghost companies

From the Technospectreiding consignment documents, we learned that RuzSpedition acted as a forwarder for the Dubai carbamide shipment.

It is registered in the Bremino-Orsha special economic zone and is exempt from some taxes. The firm was previously owned by the Bremino Group logistics company that belongs to Aliaksei Aleksin, Mikalai Varabei and Alexander Zaytsev. All of them are under EU sanctions as Lukashenko’s money bags. RuzSpedition itself got around the restrictions. In 2020, Yauheni Krakhotsin, Zaytsev’s proxy, took over ownership.

What also drew our attention in the carbamide supply chain was the Lithuanian importer of the cargo – Rogera, a firm registered in Kaunas.

Our colleague Šarūnas Černiauskas from the Siena investigations centre visited the company’s registration address and found only a garage. The owner of Rogera has not contacted us back.

However, Ferteksos Transportas, which handled the Technospectreiding shipment to Dubai, is much more familiar. This company is a part of the scheme to siphon money from Belaruskali, which we disclosed in one of our investigations. The main stopover in that story – the BKT terminal – was also a stop in the shipping chain of carbamide shipments to the UAE.

BKT representatives assured us that all cargo handled at the terminal is checked by Lithuanian state authorities, and the company fully trusts their competence. BKT also claims it has no relations with Grodno Azot, Technospectreiding or Rogera.

We also looked closely at the owner of the railcars transporting the carbamide – the Global Fertilizer Company, registered in Belarus but founded by Russian national Diana Ibragimova. In a telephone conversation, she claimed to have a vague idea about the company and redirected us to a person who actually runs the business, Iryna Fadzeyava.

Fadzeyava used to work for the Belneftekhim concern of which Grodno Azot is a part. In 2001-2008, the KGB issued a special permit to leave the country in her name. This might indicate her access to sensitive information related to national security. In a conversation with us, Fadzeyava said that, as a lawyer, she had helped Global Fertilizer Company with registration, but did not know the firm’s dealings.

Backed by our colleagues from the Siena investigations centre, we handed these materials over to Marius Skuodis, the Lithuanian Minister of Transport and Communications. He promised to look into these shipments:

“Judging by the information you’ve provided, it looks like some scheme. Because it’s very clear where the cargo is coming from and who the producer is. I will shortly receive other documents. I am going to petition state agencies – both the prosecutor’s office and the financial crime investigation service – to look into [the situation].”

To stop the illegal supplies, Lithuanian Railways suggests that sanctions should be imposed not only on Grodno Azot as a fertilizer producer, but also on its products.

Leverage

Grodno Azot fell under EU sanctions in December 2021 for firing and intimidating workers who participated in protests after the 2020 presidential election. In their statement, the European authorities noted that Grodno Azot was “responsible for the repression of civil society”.