"I'll Forgive Everything": How A "Thief" And "Scoundrel" Became A Respected Figure In Lukashenko's Eyes

The little boy bit his tongue.

“Why does Lukashenko despise all kinds of oligarchs and nouveau riche? Because they have violated an ancient commandment. Norilsk Nickel itself is the product of both the suffering and the great labor of the Soviet people. And now they’re handing it over to an oligarch—a thief, a scumbag—who throws parties with prostitutes on the cruiser Aurora to mock its historic salvo and all Soviet workers.” So wrote state propagandist Grigory Azarenok in April of this year.

Dear guests

On Tuesday, September 8, Alexander Lukashenko warmly welcomed the man whom Azarenok called an oligarch, a thief, and a scoundrel. That is, the owner of “Norilsk Nickel,” Vladimir Potanin. He reminded him of his Belarusian roots and said he was very happy to see him in Belarus. And right after that, it turned out he wasn’t such a scumbag after all.

“I was reading something today on social media, online—and well, we all know that word that’s always thrown around: ‘oligarch.’ One of the representatives of big Russian capital. Well, listen, what can you do, as they say,” Azarenok said on the evening of September 8

There really isn’t much else to do. And most importantly—we don’t want to. Because the day before, Potanin signed an agreement to establish a joint venture with the BelAZ plant. In the initial phase, the joint venture—which will be built in the Krasnoyarsk Krai—is expected to focus on equipment repairs. In the future, the enterprise plans to launch its own production. Production capacity will be 150 units per year.

These are, in fact, very ambitious plans. This is because the annual demand from Russian mining companies stands at 170 units. In other words, if everything goes according to plan, this joint venture will meet nearly 90 percent of the Russian mining industry’s demand for equipment.

“This allows us not only to meet our company’s demand for mining equipment, but our joint cooperation will also enable us to create a new line of equipment that, according to our calculations and hopes, will successfully compete with the best models,” said Potanin.

BelAZ Will Not Export

For BelAZ, this is a very timely agreement. Recently, the giant of Belarusian industry has not been what it used to be. In the Russian market—which is the company’s main market—BelAZ is being squeezed out by Chinese competitors. While BelAZ previously held 70–80 percent of the Russian market for quarry dump trucks, by early 2026 its share had plummeted to 45–50 percent.

Revenues fell in tandem with the loss of market share. Which, you’ll agree, is only logical. The holding company’s net profit in Russia in 2025 plummeted by nearly half, totaling 2.5 billion Russian rubles. Based on the results for 2025, the Ministry of Industry officially deemed the holding company’s performance unsatisfactory.

At the same time, the plant has ambitious plans. This year, the plant plans to allocate 300 million rubles to fixed assets. That’s one and a half times more than in 2025.

In other words, the partnership with Potanin—oligarch that he is—is, so to speak, a lifeline for Belaz. It offers both guaranteed sales and the prospect of financial injections. “Norilsk Nickel” is one of the few Russian companies that is currently doing well. Due to rising prices for precious and non-ferrous metals, the company’s profit for the first half of the year more than doubled, reaching $2 billion. In other words, there’s money.

Family Affairs

And when the Belarusian authorities smell money—especially big money—their class instincts immediately go out the window. All the more so because Alexander Lukashenko has a personal stake in the partnership between BelAZ and Potanin. Because for Alexander Lukashenko, BelAZ is not just one of Belarus’s industrial giants.

BelAZ isn’t just some run-of-the-mill state-owned enterprise. Or—God forgive me—a “people’s” enterprise. BelAZ is what you might call a family business. I mean, the plant itself is, of course, state-owned. But the money that this plant earns—well, not quite.

All of the plant’s equipment in Russia is sold through the BelAZ Trading House, which was founded by the presidential sports club. This club is headed by Lukashenko’s middle son, Dmitry. The most profitable dealers through which BelAZ equipment is sold are owned by the wives of the trading house’s managers or close friends of the family of Dmitry Lukashenko. According to estimates by the Belarusian Investigative Center, these dealers’ revenues totaled $176 million between 2017 and 2021.

And when it comes to the family’s money, all talk of class pride immediately becomes irrelevant. And the oligarch is no longer an oligarch, but a respected partner—one who can even be forgiven for a particularly perverse act of desecration against the cruiser *Aurora*.

Alexei Mazartov, “Belarusians and the Market”

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