Oligarch Close to the Authorities, "Lukashenka's Purse," Sells Real Estate at Auction

It fell under the EU sanctions.

IPM-Torg auctioned the Slavinasport hotel in Zhlobin. It's an ordinary case, but the peculiarity of the situation is that it is owned by the company of the oligarch close to the regime, who was also called "Lukashenka's purse" - Anatoly Ternavsky. He fell under the EU sanctions, reports the-village.me.

For Sale

The hotel with the unusual name Slavinsport is offered for sale in Zhlobin, Karla Marksa Street, 5. It is a five-storey building of breeze blocks with 55 rooms, a cafe for 50 seats and a basement - a total area of 2,864 square meters. A "five-pointed star" (three pieces) made of vinyl and PVC, measuring 55x58 centimetres, was found among the property of the hotel. It may signify the three-star status of the hotel.

The cheapest bed in a double room costs 49 rubles, the most expensive room - 231 rubles.

The initial price of the lot - 1.200.000 rubles, the next possible bid - 1.260.000 rubles, and then with 5 per cent increments. The winner of the lot will also have to pay costs (about 500 rubles) and remuneration to the organizer of the lot - 2% of the final amount. That is if the hotel is sold at least for 1.285.700 rubles (about 500.490 dollars).

The Oligarch's Role

The auction bid states the hotel belongs to the IOOO Yunis Oil. This is one of the companies of oligarch Anatoly Ternavsky.

Anatoly Ternavsky, a native of Ukraine, a Russian citizen, worked in the oil industry in the Soviet Union. In the late 1990s, when Belarus got access to cheap Russian oil, which it could refine and re-export as part of a union agreement with its resource-rich neighbour, Ternavsky quickly saw potential.

In 2001 he set up Univest-M in Belarus engaged in oil refining and exporting of oil products, simultaneously having some oil assets in Russia (he knew Mikhail Gutseriev). In 2007, the business was diversified. Development, hotels and restaurants were added to the oil business. For example, the company invested in the construction of a residential Cascade complex and Cascade Alpha business centre, took part in the construction of the ProStore hypermarket in Minsk. For some time, Univest-M sponsored the Dinamo ice hockey and handball clubs. A number of development projects are being implemented under the brand of UnivestStroyInvest. According to available information, its founders, besides Univest-M, are structures close to the Presidential Sports Club, which is headed by Dmitry Lukashenka. Dmitry Lukashenka's wife worked (or is working) at Univest-M as a marketing deputy.

By 2006, his Univest-M, which was initially an exclusive dealer of the Russian state-owned Rosneft, had become the third largest taxpayer in Belarus.

Both Ternavsky and Univest-M fell under EU sanctions in March 2012. Ternavsky was accused of funding the troubled Belarusian Interior Ministry as well as state television and radio, and his company was identified as a partner of Lukashenka's presidential sports club. These close ties gave Ternavsky access to the country's oil and real estate development sector, according to the EU resolution. "Entrepreneurial activity of this scale would not have been possible in Belarus without the approval of the Lukashenka regime," the resolution concluded.

However, the sanctions were lifted in 2014.

But journalists of the Alliance of Investigators of Belarus found out that Unis Oil was involved in strange schemes. Allegedly, in 2006, his Unis Oil purchased four expensive apartments in a house in Minsk designed for foreign diplomats. For the next ten years, no one was officially registered there, although water, electricity and other utilities were regularly used. And in 2016, Unis Oil gave the apartments to individuals for free - as sponsorship, which exempted their recipients from paying income tax. Lukashenka signed the authorization for such operations. "The Alliance claims that a two-room apartment went to Nikolai Latyshenok, who headed Lukashenka's Security Service. The "four-room apartment" went to Snezhana Motsna - she was called Lukashenka's hairdresser. Later she became an advisor to the general director in Sohra Group, a company that supplies Belarusian machinery to the UAE and Africa.