Lithuanian oligarch prepares to sue Minsk authorities

Vladimir Romanov’s company is preparing a law suit against Belarus to be submitted to Stockholm arbitration tribunal.

Antanas Shusha, the director of the investment company Stadium, created for the realization of a joint project of the Lithuanian oligarch and Belarusian authorities, announced the news.  According to him, Minsk city executive committee did not provide a possibility to start the planned reconstruction of the Tractor stadium in the Belarusian capital. Shusha claimed that the investment agreement provided for benefits for both parties, but it was only the Lithuanian stakeholder that fulfilled its obligations, Radio Svaboda reports.

“All these years Stadium has been managing the land, belonging to the company according to the investment agreement, and also the buildings on it. It is a social construction. It cannot be profitable. But the idea of the agreement was that the investor firmly supported the social project (the reconstruction of the stadium), supported the football club and for that received accommodation. The investor has been supporting the building and the football club, but never received accommodation. And suffered losses since it has all been financed by the Lithuanian stakeholder”, - Antanas Shusha says.

The Lithuanians promised to invest 250 million euro in the project and renovate the football stadium according to the UEFA standards, build a trading and cultural complex, two hotels and office buildings. The opening of the stadium was planned in 2010.

But the investment agreement provided not only for the renovation of the stadium. It was planned to build two huge residential complexes in the sub-districts Kamennja Horka and Loshyca. The Lithuanians planned to build 400 thousand square meters of accommodation there, but the construction never started. The Lithuanians planned to invest 50 million euro more in each of these projects.

For the realization of the ambitious investment projects the company Stadium was created. 75% of its shares belonged to the Lithuanians – precisely  Ūkio Banko Investicinė Grupė (UBIG). The remaining 25% belonged to the administration of Minsk’s Zavadski district.

According to Antanas Shusha, in case of the cancellation of the agreement the Belarusian party will have to reimburse the investments – 30 million dollars. But there are still no signs that the Minsk authorities are going to return the money.

The oligarch has accused the Belarusian authorities of the disruption of the project, saying that the have been lingering with the agreement. Romanov claimed that he invested 30 million dollars in Belarus and threatened that he would fight for his money in court.