Lukashenka's ‘Moneybag’ Puts Business On Shadow Rails
1- 11.03.2025, 13:14
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Investigators have informed how he bypassed sanctions.
Major Belarusian businessman Mikalai Verabey apparently continues to earn money on the supply of oil products and coal, despite Western sanctions. This is reported by the Bureau. The 61-year-old native of the Ukrainian Boryspil is one of the most mysterious figures in Aliaksandr Lukashenka's entourage. He keeps a low profile and does not give interviews. Verabey is one of the top 3 successful businessmen in Belarus with assets in the fuel and logistics industries. He is called Lukashenka's “oil moneybag”. Verabey is under EU and US sanctions.
As the Bureau writes, to bypass Western restrictions, the businessman uses previously undisclosed companies that are registered to trusted persons. One of the key companies in Mikalai Verabey’s operating network is Logistic Energy, whose office is located on the party-filled Zybitskaya Street in Minsk.
The owner of Logistic Energy is Nelli Maliarova. In 2016, she worked for Interservice, and from 2019 to 2021, for BelKazTrans. Both structures are controlled by Mikalai Verabey and are under US sanctions.
Logistic Energy is engaged in rail deliveries of Belarusian oil products. Previously, Belarus sent fuel directly to Ukraine and the EU countries. But the war and sanctions disrupted traditional logistics routes. Belarusian oil products were exported through Russian ports. Logistic Energy is an important supplier in the new direction.
According to the Belarusian Railway Association, last year the company transported gasoline, diesel fuel, fuel oil, and gas oil to the ports of the Leningrad Region. Logistic Energy transported more than 19 thousand tank cars with more than 1.2 million tons of oil products to Russia. It accounted for about a quarter of all deliveries from Belarus to Russia. Only the Mazyr Oil Refinery supplied more — about 65% of all fuel shipments.
In addition to oil products, Logistic Energy is engaged in the railway transportation of coal. In the first nine months of last year, the company transported more than 1.7 thousand cars with more than 115 thousand tons of coal from Kazakhstan to Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The forwarder accounted for more than 40% of all transit shipments.
Previously, Verabey was engaged in the supply of oil products and coal through the New Oil Company and BelKazTrans, but they fell under EU and US sanctions.
The new carrier Logistic Energy is building a port in the Murmansk region to handle potash fertilizers and petroleum products from Belarus. The investment volume is not disclosed. In 2023, the revenue (the amount for the sale of goods or services) of Logistic Energy amounted to more than 71 million rubles, which is 78% lower than the figure for 2022. However, net profit (income minus expenses and taxes) last year increased by 68% to 35 million rubles. Financial indicators for 2024 have not yet been published.
Logistic Energy is not the only new company from Mikalai Verabey's orbit. The Bureau has discovered another company in the fuel sector — Polatsk-based LandResource. According to customs data, the company imported Russian oil to Belarus — more than 6.2 million tons in 2021, and more than 3.8 million tons in 2022.
The sole owner of LandResource is Siarhei Antsen. He worked for a long time at Interservice, a company controlled by Mikalai Verabey. Verabey himself was listed as an advisor to the director for the development of foreign economic relations at LandResource. The financial indicators of LandResource are classified by the Belarusian government.
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