Gutseriev's 'Slavkaliy' Circumventing Sanctions?

There is a new private potash company in Belarus.

A new private company "Nedra Nezhyn" appeared in Luban district. It does the same business as Slavkaliy, which is under sanctions and belongs to Russian oligarch Mikhail Gutseriev, close to Aliaksandr Lukashenka, reports zerkalo.io. Less than a month after the registration, four officials were appointed to supervise the new company.

On November 22, the Luban district executive committee registered Nedra Nezhyn OJSC, which is engaged in extraction of mineral raw materials for chemical and fertilizer production. Its line of business is the same as that of Slavkaliy, a company associated with Mikhail Gutseriyev, which fell under Western sanctions last December.

"Slavkaliy, together with China State Energy Engineering Corp, has been building the Nezhynski mining and processing plant in Luban district. A 1.4bn-dollar Chinese loan was used to finance the project. It is planned that the Nezhynski mining and processing plant will produce 2 million tons of potassium fertilizer a year.

There is not much information about the new company yet. It is known that its registered address is in the Rechen village council, Luban district, i.e. not far from the location of Slavkali and practically at the same place where the Nezhynski mining and processing plant was built. The authorised capital of the new company is 3,200 roubles, which follows from the extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs.

On December 5, state representatives were appointed to the company. They are Deputy Minister of Architecture and Construction Aliaksandr Shvayunou, First Deputy Finance Minister Dzmitry Kiyko, First Deputy Economy Minister Yury Chebatar and First Deputy State Property Committee Chairman Piotr Broukin, as follows from a resolution published on the National Legal Internet Portal.

In September, several readers of Zerkalo reported that Slavkaliy was laying off employees en masse. An enquiry sent to the company's press service on September 30 was not answered, so there was no confirmation or denial of this information.

However, it is known that Slavkaliy is not in liquidation. The company was a debtor in the court proceedings. It is unlikely that such a strong player in the industry would have a competitor in a small district. Therefore it is not excluded that Nedra Nezhyn is connected with Mikhail Gutseriyev's business. And the presence of four officials looking after the company may indicate either a state share in the business (although this is not evident from the USR documentation) or state interests in it.