Union Of Entrepreneurs, Employers Of Poland Speaks Out Against ABBA, Former Lukashenka Official Bury

Polish entrepreneurs warn against attempts to disintegrate Belarusian business in Poland.

The Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers of Poland (ZPP) has spoken out against the Association of Belarusian Business Abroad (ABBA) and its leader Yauhen Bury. ZPP warns against attempts to disintegrate Belarusian business in Poland: the organisation's statement concerns ABBA's initiative to verify Belarusian businesses that open in the European Union.

"The Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers ZPP offers consistent support to Belarusian entrepreneurs who want to open their business in Poland. Already in 2020, we were the first CEE-based organisation to support relocation processes of Belarusian companies. We successfully managed to relocate several large Belarusian software houses to Poland, a process about which we always kept the Polish government up to date.

Furthermore, we have also helped dozens of smaller companies.

We take pride in the fact that Poland is a country that welcomes Belarusians, and we hope it will remain so in the years to come. All the more so, we cannot afford to stay silent when a former employee of the Security Council of the Republic of Belarus tries to undermine, with the use of provocations and slander, our credibility and that of other organisations supporting Belarusians, while making a business model of using classified information and acquired know-how in the power structures of Lukashenko’s regime. This person is Yauheni Bury, the current head of the Association of Belarusian Business Abroad (ABBA), who, in disregard of the institutions of the Polish state established for this very purpose, claims the right to issue certificates of credibility to Belarusian citizens and entrepreneurs present in Poland, calling this process “verification”. This activity is solely based on the knowledge and experience gained from his work for the regime apparatus, and is conducted in close cooperation with former operatives of the State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus, i.e., the Belarusian KGB or the ministry of internal affairs.

Oblivious of Mr. Bury’s past, ZPP helped to found ABBA in Poland. We prepared the founding documents, executed the registration process, and aided the organisation in obtaining a large grant for its operations. We quickly realised that it had been a mistake. As it turned out, the establishment of the organisation served Mr. Bury and his wife, ABBA’s Vice-President Marina Girin, mainly to set up their own financial base instead of running a genuine business.

We categorically and unconditionally terminated our cooperation with ABBA after Mr. Bury presented the aforementioned plan to “verify” Belarusian companies operating in Poland. We indisputably took it as an omen of Soviet-style racketeering and extortion. Today we see that ABBA remains a dead organisation with no real representation of its members. All its activities are focused on public fundraising, with which Mr. Bury and Mrs. Girin finance their day-to-day livelihood and travels around the world.

Through our own Belarus Business Center, ZPP intends to further support Belarusian entrepreneurs in opening a business in Poland. However, we must not allow the credibility of companies to be “verified” by Lukashenko’s former officers instead of state institutions. With all the above in mind, we appeal to the competent authorities and bodies to investigate the activities of Mr. Bury – in our opinion, reminiscent of mafia practices – and to subsequently take appropriate steps in his case.

Warsaw, 16.08.2023

The Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers (ZPP)

Cezary Kaźmierczak – President of the Board,

Marcin Nowacki – Vice President of the Board,

Jakub Bińkowski – Member of the Board.