Diamonds, Military-Industrial Complex Products, and Preparations for a Coup: New Facts about the Arrest of Aliaksandr Zingman in the Congo

What else has become known about the African affairs of “Lukashenka’s purse.”

A businessman close to Viktar Sheiman, Aliaksandr Zingman, remains behind bars in a Congolese prison; no official charges have yet been reported. Belsat.eu tells what is known about the case at the moment and whether Zingman was really involved in the trade in military products.

Aliaksandr Zingman was detained on March 19 at Lubumbashi airport together with the general director of the AFTRADE DMCC company Oleg Vodchitsa and Italian businessman Paolo Persico. The Daily Maverick reported, citing sources close to the DRC authorities, that Zingman's arrest is linked to the businessman's intention to sell weapons to former President Joseph Kabil.

Zingman's wife Lizaveta Dzenisevich said the rumors about the weapon "are an absolute lie" and raise suspicions that the detention was "politically motivated," EUToday writes.

According to media reports, the governments of the United Arab Emirates (it is in this country that the AFTRADE company is registered) and Zimbabwe, immediately after the arrest, began to put pressure on the DRC to achieve the release of Zingman. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus said that they are dealing with the situation within the framework of "rendering consular assistance to Belarusian citizens."

Did the negotiations take place?

We do not know the exact chronology of events related to Zingman's arrest. On this account, there are several conflicting versions.

At first, the African publication Daily Maverick claimed that Zingman managed to meet with Joseph Kabila, after which he flew from Kinshashi to Lubumbashi, where he was arrested. Later, the Italian website ilsole24ore, referring to the AFTRADE DMCC office in Belarus, reported that Zingman was arrested at Lubumbashi airport after meeting with local partners, but Kabila's name was not named here.

But this week, in a comment to tut.by, the Minsk office of AFTRADE DMCC said that meetings in the DRC did not take place at all, and Zingman was arrested immediately upon arrival in the country. “A business trip was planned to discuss a possible supply of agricultural machinery and equipment to the DRC,” the Minsk office says.

“Everything that concerns messages in local resources about allegedly existing negotiations on the supply of weapons does not correspond to reality. As we have already said, the arrest took place right upon arrival in the DRC. No meetings were held. We regard reports of this kind in the media as discrediting and attempting to create a definite opinion about the reasons for their detention,” AFTRADE DMCC said.

The most interesting thing is that the statement of Aftrade DMCC that the Congolese projects were limited to agricultural machinery was de facto denied by the newspaper of the Lukashenka's Administration - SB-Belarus Today. In an article dated March 29, 2021, it was reported that in DR Congo, Zingman represented enterprises related to "various technology and mining." In particular, he was going to supply products to MAZ, BelAZ, MTZ, Homselmash, and MZKT. And MZKT is a military-industrial complex that produces wheeled chassis for missile systems and armored vehicles.

“This list of enterprises almost completely covers all the requests of the Congo. There is a great need for agricultural equipment, mining and, why keep silent about the obvious, the military is also needed. It is much more convenient to settle conflicts with military equipment than without it,” the Lukashenka's newspaper writes.

Between two presidents

It is worth noting that Zingman and Vodchits paid an official visit to the DRC in October last year. The DRC-based company plans to invest in agriculture, mining, transportation, waste management, and protection, the Congolese prime minister's press office said. AFTRADE DMCC representatives promised to provide financing for projects with the help of the African Trade & Development Bank and the Belarusian Development Bank. Among other representatives of the Congolese government, the Minister of Defense of the DRC was present at the meeting.

What specific projects were discussed in the field of defense - it was not reported. However, the government press release, in any case, contradicts AFTRADE DMCC's claims that their projects are exclusively limited to agriculture.

It is this meeting, held on October 15, 2020, that may be the key to understanding why Zingman suddenly had trouble with Congo. Zingman was in talks with Prime Minister Sylvester Ilunga Ilukamba, who is considered an associate of ex-President Joseph Kabila. Supporters of Kabila and supporters of the new president in the summer of 2019 formed a coalition government, where the former president's associates were given not only the post of prime minister but also six key ministries (including the Ministry of Defense). However, in January, the new president, Felix Chisekedi, accused Kabila of putting the brakes on reforms, and the coalition government was dismissed. Relations between Kabila and Chissekedi escalated. The Daily Maverick wrote in February that Chiseekedi's attempts to reduce the ex-president's political influence could lead Kabila to seek help from the military to overthrow the current government.

Thus, Zingman conducted negotiations (including on projects in the defense sphere) with ex-President Kabila's associates, who, as of October 2020, were part of the Congo government. However, in March 2021, when Zingman flew to Congo, they were already perceived by President Chisekedi as potential enemies.

Belsat.eu sent several questions to the AFTRADE DMCC office. Among other things, we wanted to know who Zingman had flown in to negotiate with. In particular, we wanted to know who Zingman flew to negotiate with. But the representative office of the company said: they have nothing to add to what has already been said in the TUT.by commentary.

“We have no other information. All official representatives work in Dubai, and the representative office in Minsk performs only auxiliary functions and is not authorized to comment on AFTRADE's behalf on AFTRADE's activities,” was told the belsat.eu journalist.

We have not yet received a response to our appeal to the AFTRADE head office.

Rosoboronexport, Zambian generals, and Lieberman

Zingman is a non-public person; a few years ago there were no mentions of him in the information space at all. The situation began to change in 2018, when Aliaksandr Lukashenka suddenly decided to develop relations with Zimbabwe and appointed President Viktar Sheiman, the head of affairs of the President, to supervise this area.

Zingman has become the key person in relations between Belarus and Zimbabwe. He regularly appeared in photographs with Viktar Sheiman in Harare (where they flew on a premium business jet) and with African partners in Belarus. In the Zimbabwean media, he was sometimes called “an outstanding Belarusian businessman,” then “adviser” to Viktar Sheiman. Thanks to this, Zingman entered Viktar Sheiman's inner circle.

In January 2019, the businessman was appointed honorary consul of Zimbabwe in Belarus, and the consulate itself was opened in the President Hotel in Minsk, owned by the Presidential Property Management Department. As it became known as a result of Belsat's investigation, the office of the AFTRADE DMCC company is located in the adjacent premises with the consulate, through which the trade of Belarus and African countries is carried out. The fact that AFTRADE DMCC is controlled by Zingman was evidenced by several circumstantial facts, but this information was publicly confirmed only after his arrest in the DRC.

In Belarus itself, Belsat did not find a single business asset that officially belonged to Zingman. His wife Lizaveta Dzenisevich runs the fashionable capital restaurant Falcone, but according to official documents, Zingman has nothing to do with this business.

At the same time, as it became known to journalists, Zingman owns at least a hectare of land and three large houses in Raubichy - we are talking here about a small quarter, TUT.by notes. although earlier Zingman's secretary told Belsat that the businessman is mostly abroad and may not be in Belarus for six months. It is also known that he has two citizenships - Belarus and the United States.

In the spring and summer of 2020, the African media began to publish publications about the businessman's involvement in the arms trade. News Diggers reported that Zingman was linked to "dubious deals" between Russian suppliers and African countries. It was alleged that the businessman organized a meeting between Zambian President Edgar Lungu and Alexander Mikheev, the head of the Rosoboronexport enterprise, which has been under Western sanctions for a long time. News Diggers published a joint photo of Lungu, Mikheev, and Zingman, as well as pictures of Zingman standing next to Zambian generals - defense ministers, the head of the Air Force, and the military attaché in Moscow.

It must be admitted that the publication of News Diggers was built exclusively on the photographs themselves, the conclusions of the journalists are lacking in evidence. The publication named only one specific deal: the sale of Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft to Zambia. However, the SSJ100 is not a combat aircraft but a civilian aircraft. Moreover, the deal itself was not a secret, it was announced by Russian officials. In 2019, the implementation of the contract was generally frozen, Zambia simply did not have enough money.

Zingman's representatives denied all accusations of journalists and argued that the "leaking" of the photo was organized by his competitor, businessman Vital Fishman, who allegedly sells weapons himself. Zingman threatened to sue him.

During the "war of compromising evidence" between Zingman and Fishman, information appeared on the Web about other interesting meetings of a businessman from Sheiman's entourage. In particular, in one of the pictures, Zingman was seen next to the businessman Walden Findlay, close to the Zambian president, who is suspected by the African media of links with the drug mafia. On the other - together with the Israeli millionaire Lev Leviev, who became a defendant in the diamond smuggling investigation.

Finally, Zingman and Fishman were spotted together with Viktar Sheiman, the notorious Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman (in Israel, he was involved in several criminal investigations), and his son Amos. The meeting took place in the lobby of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in the Israeli city of Herzliya in November 2019. Representatives of Lieberman explained to the authoritative publication TheMarker that the politician met Zingman while visiting the Falcone restaurant in Minsk and now maintains friendly relations with him. As for Sheiman, he allegedly came to Israel "for medical reasons" and joined the meeting "out of politeness."

Sheiman, son, and general of the FSB

Could Zingman and Sheiman have anything to do with arms shipments to Africa? At the moment, there is no evidence for this.

But the very fact that Sheiman was suddenly appointed to oversee the Zimbabwean and other African projects of the official Minsk raises many questions. Firstly, the silovik, Colonel-General Sheiman is not a specialist in the export of agricultural and other industrial equipment, which is officially targeted by African projects. Secondly, the development of international relations is not at all included in the sphere of Sheiman's core duties - now he is in charge of the presidential administration.

Previously, Sheiman oversaw international projects in 2006-2012, when Lukashenka was actively developing relations with Venezuela. According to media reports, one of the components of the Venezuelan projects was just the arms trade. As the authoritative Spanish newspaper El Pais wrote, Venezuela was an intermediary in the acquisition of surface-to-air missiles between Colombian FARC rebels and European suppliers. The then Secretary of the Security Council, Sheiman, was one of the promoters of € 720m worth of arms contracts to Venezuela, the newspaper said. Sheiman himself denied this information.

Many questions are raised by the fact that his son Siarhei also appeared in Sheiman's African projects. According to the Zimbabwean publication The Herald, during the visit of the head of the Presidential Property Management Department to Harare in March 2018, Siarhei Sheiman was a member of the Belarusian delegation. He was presented as an "advisor" to his father.

A person with identical data - Siarhei Viktaravich Sheiman - appears as a co-founder of Tep-Holding in Togliatti (RF), which has the classic characteristics of a gasket firm. Together with Siarhei Sheiman, the founders of Tep-Holding are three more citizens of the Russian Federation, including Anatoly Tkachuk, a former major general of the FSB, and now a successful businessman and head of the commission of the military-industrial complex of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RUIE). Tkachuk and Sheiman Sr. knew each other precisely from their work on the African continent.

Back in July 2010, a joint Belarusian-Russian delegation visited Ghana, in which the Belarusian side was represented by Viktar Sheiman and Russian - by Anatoly Tkachuk. The delegates held talks with the ministers of the government of Ghana on the participation of Belarusian and Russian investors in oil and gas projects. Later, Sheiman will fly to Akra three more times - in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Every time representatives of Russia will be present there, probably Tkachuk himself or his people. Moreover, in Ghana, Sheiman also spoke about military cooperation: in 2011, the construction of a service center for Mi-7 helicopters was discussed, where helicopters from all over Africa would be repaired. Tkachuk, in turn, as a representative of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs officially deals with the export of products of the Russian military-industrial complex enterprises to Africa.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the poorest countries in the world and at the same time one of the largest states in Africa in terms of territory and population (more than 100 million people live there). human). In the 90s and early 2000s, there was a civil war on the territory of the DRC with active intervention in the conflict of other African states. The Second Congolese War (1998-2002) killed 5.4 million people. Now in the east of the DRC, an armed confrontation has been going on for many years between government forces and numerous militant groups terrorizing the local population. From time to time, militants take over entire areas. The government is unable to completely take control of the eastern provinces.

In this regard, SB-Belarus Today states that the DRC has a lot of gold, diamonds, and other minerals, and the development of their deposits only stimulates armed conflicts on the territory of the country. At the same time, the newspaper admits that the payment for the Belarusian equipment will be exactly the income from the gold and diamond mines.

“Many argue that supplying technology to a country where such dramatic events are taking place is not entirely ethical. They have been arguing angrily about this for a long time. But you know what? It doesn't matter at all. In this matter, only the national interests of the Republic of Belarus are important for Belarusians. We produce goods, and we need to sell them to someone,” the Lukashenka newspaper writes.

Interestingly, the "national interests of Belarus" are represented by the private company AFTRADE DMCC registered in the free economic zone of the United Arab Emirates, which for some reason was appointed as a key intermediary between the Belarusian state exporters and African clients. This is although, from year to year, Lukashenka harshly criticizes the institution of mediation in his public rhetoric, calling such businessmen “speculators.” But an exception was made for Zingman.