Drawing the prospects of the Belarusian automotive industry to BelGee employees, Aleksandr Lukashenko mentioned a gift from BMW AG. Here is what he, in particular, said:

“Worldwide, people are focused on the production of... hybrid cars. Namely, diesel fuel... gasoline, the engine, recharging — all these are about an electric car. And particularly the electric vehicle as well. Today, the whole world, all the companies, everyone, and BMW — somehow they gave me my first small, tiny car many years ago. That is, they have already started manufacturing electric cars. Thus, the whole entire world points us to where to develop.” 

In response to the Belarusian Investigative Center’s request to confirm or deny this information, BMW AG stated:

“We listened carefully to this speech by Mr. Lukashenko. For BMW AG and its trading partners, as a global automobile manufacturer, compliance with laws and regulations is mandatory.

After checking the facts with our official BMW importer in Belarus, we are unable to confirm Mr. Lukashenko's statement that he "received a car as a gift from BMW in the past".”  

In 2019, Alexander Lukashenko already announced that he’d received a car as a gift from another well-known manufacturer. 

That time he said about Tesla: “I have a Tesla electric car, I sometimes test it. Musk gave it.”

Tesla founder Elon Musk has denied these reports from Lukashenko.