Belarusan Investigating Committee detained Uralkalij CEO

Vladislav Baumgertner. Photo: fedpress.ru

Prosecutor General's Office has begun criminal proceedings against a number of members of the “Belarusian Potash Company” supervisory board, including Uralkalij CEO Vladislav Baumgertner.

As Pavel Travulka, spokesman for the Investigative Committee, told BelaPAN, has been already arrested and taken into custody.

The 41-year-old Russian citizen, who is also chairman of the supervisory board of Belarusian Potash Company (BPC), is accused of abuse of office under Article 424 of the Criminal Code, said the spokesman.

In addition, criminal proceedings have been instituted against some BPC executives. These include Oleg Petrov, a member of the company's supervisory board; Konstantin Solodovnikov, first deputy director general; Igor Yevstratov, deputy director general; Dmitry Samoilov, head of the freight department, and "other people." The four named suspects, all Russian citizens, are also employees of Uralkalij. They have been placed on Interpol's wanted list.

The executives are accused of abusing their office for mercenary purposes, which entailed significant harm to Belarus' state and public interests, and caused large-scale damage to BPC and Salihorsk-based potash giant Belaruskalij, said Mr. Travulka.

The criminal case is apparently linked to Uralkalij's July 30 decision to stop exports through BPC, its joint trader with Belaruskalij.

Speaking to reporters earlier this month, Belaruskalij CEO Valery Kiriyenko suggested that Uralkalij may have quit the trade cartel in an effort to take over the Belarusian potash producer.

"The Russian managers of BPC left [Belarus] so hastily that they even left all of their belongings in their [Minsk] apartments and are now afraid to come back here for some unclear reason," he said.