The power broker

THE NEW ELITE

The northwestern outskirts of Minsk are a unique neighbourhood. During Soviet times, the party nomenklatura settled there. In the years following the collapse of the USSR, foreign ambassadors had their homes there. Later, Aleksandr Lukashenko moved his residence to this place, and his allies followed suit. Viktar Sheiman, Iryna Abelskaya, and Yury Chyzh all built their villas at the picturesque Drazdy Estate, located near the eponymous reservoir. The state soon began selling land in the estate to officials and businessmen close to Lukashenko on favourable terms. Villa after villa was built, and within a few years, an entire elite village had emerged in Drazdy. Once the territory of this “Tsarskoye Selo” was fully developed, they began constructing another opulent estate in nearby Vesninka.

A small street with the telling name of Tsikhaya (Quiet Street) lies next to the two upscale locations. The place is tranquil and secluded, a stark contrast to the bustling city. Don’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of it before. Back in the noughties, it was a village with rundown buildings. However, the proximity of Drazdy and Vesninka has transformed it. Over the past few years, fashionable villas have been built here. The Minsk Arena and the Arena City shopping centre have been constructed nearby, and Tsikhaya Street has become a new elite district in Minsk. The main subject of our investigation, Romanian businessman Vitalie Buzdugan, settled among the Belarusian elite.

Vitalie Buzdugan. Source: proftorg-grodno.by

Buro’s discovery of Buzdugan’s three apartment holdings on Tsikhaya Street – two with 121 sq. m. and one with 80 sq m. – was made possible thanks to the efforts of CyberPartisans. The property total estimated value is nearly $800,000. Buzdugan also owns an apartment on Prytytskaha Street. This property is more modest: 53 sq. m. with an estimated value of about $90,000.

Obviously, Vitalie Buzdugan is a wealthy man. This is not surprising, as he owns a whole business empire in Belarus. Buro discovered that he holds a significant shareholding in at least 15 companies. These companies operate in the fields of medicine, construction, technology, tourism, agriculture and culture. Many firms are linked to businessman Alexander Zaitsev, who is subject to sanctions for sponsoring Lukashenko, as well as to Igor Rachkovsky, the former head of the State Border Committee and a long-standing friend of Viсtor Lukashenko.

Buzdugan’s business partners in Russia are equally impressive, given the nature of the business they conduct in Belarus. For example, one of them is a direct heir to one of Stalin’s closest associates. He founded the production of attack drones in Russia, which are being used in the war against Ukraine. In Belarus, he set up a firm with Buzdugan to produce drugs from blood plasma.

Who is Vitalie Buzdugan? What led him to Belarus, and how did he achieve such success there? We began our search for answers in Buzdugan’s homeland. He is by no means the least important person in Romania – just one handshake away from the president.

LARES AND PENATES

Vitalie Buzdugan was born in 1973. The exact time of his start in business is unknown. However, he had at least two companies in Romania by the noughties, and both cooperated with Belarus.

Buzdugan opened MAZ Truck & Bus in Bucharest in 2005. The name “MAZ” refers to the Belarusian plant of the same name. This company supplied the MAZ-produced equipment to Romania. He advertised his services through AG Communication, a PR agency in which he holds a share.

Several sources have linked Buzdugan to Dunarea, a company that has also collaborated with MAZ. The company delivered its buses to Constanța, a Romanian city, for a price of around 90,000 euros per unit. However, the buses did not even have air conditioning. The Romanian press then accused the city authorities of wasteful spending.

These are the earliest examples of Buzdugan’s collaboration with Belarus that Buro discovered.

The businessman’s well-established contacts in our country caught the attention of Matei Păun, a large Romanian investor, when he decided to bring his company to the Belarusian market. This project was a lucky break for Buzdugan.

BIG LEAGUE ACCESS

The investment advisory firm Balkan Advisory Company SRL was established in Ireland in 1998 and quickly began opening branches across the Balkans. Thus, BAC Romania, a Romanian representative office, was established in 2004. Businessman Matei Păun headed it. The Belarusian subsidiary, River Invest, opened in 2008.

In one interview, Păun explained his decision as follows:

Păun did not enter the new territory alone; he was joined by his partner, Vitalie Buzdugan, who had previously collaborated with Minsk. Aliaksandr Mironau, a former officer of Lukashenko’s security service, was the third founder of River Invest.

Given such a partner, it is not surprising that Romanian businessmen had direct contact with the top leadership in Belarus. In an interview with Adevărul newspaper, Romanian economist Andrei Caramitru discussed these connections. Păun allegedly offered him the opportunity to cooperate with BAC, promising access to “major funding and projects” in Belarus thanks to his “almost exclusive relationship” with Aleksandr Lukashenko.

River Invest, which is connected to Păun and Buzdugan, did have projects in Belarus. For instance, in 2009, the company entered into an agreement with the state to “develop new technologies and equipment for processing solid domestic waste”. In 2010, the firm announced its intention to invest approximately €23 million in monitoring the gambling industry in Belarus. This issue was extremely relevant at the time because Lukashenko had approved a roadmap for developing the gambling industry over the next five years. The plan was to bring all Belarusian casinos and gambling halls together into a computer network, with everything monitored from a single centre.

НIt is unclear whether River Invest was awarded this contract. However, the fact that such projects are being discussed at the highest level of the Belarusian state speaks volumes about the influence of Buzdugan and Păun.

In January 2011, River Invest was renamed Balkan Advisor Company, a name that refers to the parent company, BAC. As early as April that same year, the company was negotiating with the State Committee for Science and Technology under this name to set up a tyre recycling plant in Belarus.

The Balkan Adviser Company then started operating more covertly through its subsidiaries. Recently, all data on its activities has been deleted.

COVERING ONE’S TRACKS

Today, the Romanian company BAC acts as if its Belarusian branch never existed; there is no mention of it on its website. However, when you open the archived version of the 2019 website, you will see a separate section on Belarus. You can see the outline of Belarus on the map of BAC branches, as well as the word “Minsk” in the company logo.

Maybe the Belarusian branch has closed? No, the Unified State Register extract shows that it is active and has several subsidiaries.

It is most likely that the information about it was removed from the BAC website because, after 2020, cooperating with Belarus became problematic for European companies. The EU imposed sanctions on the Lukashenko regime for electoral fraud and the suppression of civil society.

Matei Păun is also rejecting any connection with Belarus because collaborating with Lukashenko would tarnish the reputation of Nicușor Dan, Romania’s president freshly elected in 2025. Păun has sponsored the politician and his party since 2012. He also took part in Dan’s presidential campaign, placing all of his outdoor advertising at below-market prices, as noted by the Romanian press. Additionally, Păun and Dan were photographed together on several occasions during the election campaign. The businessman was also present at the inaugural reception for the newly elected president.

In recent interviews, Păun claimed that he had never signed a contract with Belarus, had not received “a single penny” from the state and had not been involved in the Balkan Adviser Company. Allegedly, he simply allowed the company to use his name to help “gain the market’s trust”.

His business partner, Vitalie Buzdugan, chose a different path. He openly expresses his sympathy for Lukashenko, is building a business empire in Belarus, and is promoting the ideas of the “Russian world”.

WORKING FOR THE “GOOD” OF SOCIETY

The International Fund for Black Sea-Caspian Sea Cooperation and Partnership (BSCSIF) was established in Romania in 2009. Although it describes itself as both “non-governmental” and “non-profit”, it is in fact a GONGO (a government-organised non-governmental organisation).

This term refers to associations that are nominally independent, but were founded on the initiative of, or with the participation of, the authorities, and that work in the interests of the state. They are created to disseminate narratives that benefit the authorities on behalf of the public.

Viktor Khmarin, for example, has been a friend of Vladimir Putin’s since his student days. He is the Vice-President of BSCSIF. Not only was he a witness at Putin’s wedding, but he also married one of his relatives. According to the newspaper Adevărul, Khmarin brought Buzdugan into the organisation in 2012. The Romanian businessman then became a Belarus representative in it.

By 2014, he had been joined in this position by businessman Alexander Zaitsev. He is now one of the most active entrepreneurs in Belarus and has been the subject of several Buro investigations. He was placed under EU sanctions in 2021 and under US sanctions in 2022 for his role as a sponsor of Lukashenko.

Alexander Zaitsev. Source: tut.by

Before joining the BSCSIF, Zaitsev worked for the Belarusian government and as an assistant to Victor Lukashenko. These connections have proved useful for the organisation. For example, it held a meeting in Minsk in 2014. The programme included visits to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economy, the State Committee for Science and Technology, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Olympic Committee. The meeting with Aleksandr Lukashenko was arranged at the invitation of the Belarusian side.

He described BSCSIF “as a very solid organisation” and emphasised that Belarus “is extremely interested in cooperation”. Separately, Lukashenko expressed his “satisfaction with the level of activity of the Belarusian representatives”, Buzdugan and Zaitsev, in the BSCSIF.

In 2017, the BSCSIF was renamed the International Fund for Sustainable Peace and Development (IFSPD) due to the “expansion of its participants’ geographical reach beyond the Caspian and Black Sea regions”. According to the official website, the IFSPD has special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. This enables the IFSPD “to actively engage with the United Nations Secretariat, programmes, funds and agencies in a number of ways”.

Ironically, one of the IFSPD’s objectives is to “monitor and observe the democratisation process, human rights and freedoms, the process of consolidation of civil society, freedom of the media and expression”. We are curious about the success of this task by the Belarus branch, which Vitalie Buzdugan currently leads.

Buro sent an email to the IFSPD asking about this. The organisation has not yet provided a comment. The Belarusian branch of the IFSPD did not respond to calls from Buro journalists. We have also sent a request to the UN Economic and Social Council to verify its collaboration with the IFSPD and are awaiting a response.

Another GONGO, Committee 2017, was formed under the IFSPD. Viktor Khmarin, a friend of Putin, is one of the organisation’s founders. He also served as the organisation’s chairman. Buzdugan and Zaitsev were also included as trustees by the Committee as of 2016. They were joined by another one of Putin’s friends and classmates, the Azerbaijani multimillionaire Ilham Rahimov.

The Ukrainian publication Argument examined the activities of the Committee 2017 in detail, describing them as follows:

Not only did Buzdugan and Zaitsev work together in the field of pro-Russian propaganda, but they also collaborated in other areas. Buro found out that their businesses are closely intertwined.

AS THICK AS THIEVES

Vitalie Buzdugan is currently the sole owner of Balkan Adviser Company, which he founded in the noughties with a sponsor-consultant to the Romanian president and a former security guard for Lukashenko. This company is the vehicle through which the businessman runs his business empire. Buro discovered that 15 companies are part of this network. Many of these are directly or indirectly related to Alexander Zaitsev.

One example is the European Green Assets firm. The ultimate beneficiary today is Vitalie Buzdugan. However, companies associated with Alexander Zaitsev held stakes in the firm between 2018 and 2022. At that time, the firm was negotiating with the government of Udmurtia on the construction of a waste processing complex, supported by the Belarusian Ministry of Natural Resources. The project never materialised. Zaitsev left the company, after which Buzdugan began using it as a “straw company”. In recent years, European Green Assets has not generated any revenue, but four firms have been registered with it.

The first one has a similar name. It is called European Green Engineering. According to its website, the company appears to sterilise medical devices, pharmaceutical products, and packaging. The second company is Limitless Manpower. Initially selling watches, it then switched to pharmaceuticals and, according to its website, is now a recruitment agency. Yakovskoye AGRO is the third company to operate a tourist base of the same name in the village of Rudnya in the Vitsebsk region.

SoyuzForum is the fourth and final company. Initially, it produced animal medicines. At the time, a firm linked to Alexander Zaitsev in the United Arab Emirates had a stake in it. Following its resignation as a founding member, SoyuzForum switched to public relations. For example, in 2023, Vitalie Buzdugan handed out awards at the Kinosvet Children’s Film and Television Festival at Dana Mall as its representative.

Tatsiana Buzdugan, wife of Vitalie, is the head of SoyuzForum. Before joining her husband’s business, she worked in education. A journalist from Buro called Tatsiana to ask her about her involvement in her spouse’s business. The woman declined to respond to questions and asserted that the Buzdugan family was not involved in the ownership of companies in Belarus.

Documents from state registries say otherwise. Judging by them, Tatsiana also runs Putyami Kultury, a subsidiary of SoyuzForum. In 2025, Vitalie Buzdugan, a representative of this cultural and educational institution, participated in the “White Russia” conference, which was dedicated to the USSR’s victory in the Great Patriotic War. Dmitry Medvedev, Natallia Kachanava and Igor Siarheyenka accompanied him.

Vitalie Buzdugan is also the owner of the Irridio group of companies. It is linked to Alexander Zaitsev.

The oldest firm in the Irridio Group was incorporated in 2010. Buzdugan was one of the company’s founders, and Zaitsev held a stake between 2017 and 2021. The business has undergone several dramatic changes of direction: from publishing books to selling real estate to surveying public opinion. The company currently manufactures industrial fans and is wholly owned by the Balkan Adviser Company.

Another company in the group, Irridio Tech, originally worked in the pharmaceuticals industry but is now in the data analytics business. EuroPharmIntegration, a firm founded by Alexander Zaitsev, was registered in 2020. It now belongs to Vitalie Buzdugan.

EuroPharmIntegration is a distributor of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment. For example, the company is Pfizer’s exclusive supplier in Belarus. It exports medicines from our country to Europe, the CIS, the Middle East and the Far East.

EuroPharmIntegration’s clients in Belarus are 1846 state pharmacies in all regional centres and 2397 private pharmacies. The company also works with clinics and medical centres across the country. In 2023, EuroPharmIntegration signed a contract with Rosatom to establish several medical facilities in Belarus.

In the same year, EuroPharmIntegration established R-Pharm Integration in partnership with the Russian firm R-Pharm. R-Pharm is the largest supplier of medicines to the Russian state. Aleksei Repik, the company’s founder, is known for lending his plane to Putin’s daughter, Katerina Tikhonova.

EuroPharmIntegration also owns a 50% stake in NII Bioengineering. Vitalie Buzdugan’s wife, Tatsiana, owns the other half. The firm was registered in 2020. It started out producing chemical products and later obtained a licence to practise veterinary medicine. No information is available yet about NII Bioengineering’s projects.

However, Irridio Motors, another Buzdugan asset, is a different matter.

UNSINKABLE

Founded in 2013, Irridio Motors has been solely owned by Balkan Advisor Company since its inception. Initially, the company’s trade focused on coffee, tea, cocoa, and spices, before shifting to industrial machinery. Buro learned from Irridio Motors’ financial statements that major state-owned enterprises began cooperating with the company immediately.

In 2014, the company signed an international leasing contract with Dashkesan Filizsaflashdirma in Azerbaijan for the supply of 12 BelAZ dump trucks. Although the exact value of the deal was not disclosed, based on the price of the BelAZ-7547 ($236,000), the contract could be worth up to $2.8 million. Almost all of this amount was financed by Irridio Motors with a 2.3 million euro loan from Belarusbank. Alexander Zaitsev was also involved. In 2014, Irridio Motors borrowed €20,000 from UAB Sohra, an asset of his in Lithuania.

After that, things went messy. Leasing payments from Azerbaijan were received in small amounts and quickly fell into arrears. In 2018, Irridio Motors officially recognised the capital constraints and filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Arbitration. Although the ruling was in favour of Buzdugan’s company, it had yet to be recognised in Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, Irridio Motors needed to service the bank loan. Affiliate payments came into play. For example, in 2018, Irridio Motors received €34,500 in revenue from providing “consulting services” to the Romanian company Audienţa Generală. The company’s president is Vitalie Buzdugan. A further 54,600 Belarusian rubles, also for consultations, came from EuroPharmIntegration, which Alexander Zaitsev then owned.

All that money went to pay off the loan. However, Irridio Motors made the main payment for it in 2018, insured by Beleksimgarant, a state-owned company. In fact, Buzdugan transferred the export risk to the state structures – the bank and the insurer.

A settlement agreement was not signed by Irridio Motors and Dashkesan Filizsaflashdirma until 2020. The Azerbaijani factory agreed to pay back the fine, penalties and court expenses totalling 165,000 euros.

Despite the failed project with BelAZ, Irridio Motors has retained contracts with other state-owned plants. According to financial statements, for example, it exported MAZ machinery in 2015 and received revenue of 1.5 million Belarusian rubles. Until at least 2023, Irridio Motors was also the official exporter of MTZ.

The fact that Buzdugan was permitted to participate in such large-scale interstate projects suggests that he was in good standing with the authorities. Meanwhile, his Irridio group continued to grow and find new partners.

THE RUSSIAN PARTNER

Vitalie Buzdugan registered Irridio Energy in 2025, the youngest company in the group. It produces power consumption optimisers. Vitalie Buzdugan owns half of the firm, and Russian citizen Sergei Dubov owns the other half.

Dubov built the Optimum holding company in his homeland. Like Irridio Energy, its member companies operate in the field of electrical regulation and energy conservation. The main firm, Energia Optimum, fulfils orders for federal ministries, science academies and universities. It also has contracts with some of Russia’s largest fuel companies, including Gazprom Neft, Tatneft and Lukoil.

In 2023, the company supplied equipment to Ukraine’s occupied territories: the Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions. Dubov had previously provided energy conservation services in the annexed Crimean Peninsula. To this end, he and his partner established a separate firm called Krym Energia Optimum. This firm was operational from 2016 to 2020. And speaking of Dubov’s partners…

He runs UK Optimum alongside Vladislav Stankevich, the son of Yury Stankevich, a deputy in the Russian State Duma and a member of the Energy Committee. He is a member of the United Russia party and part of Putin’s management personnel reserve. Due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Stankevich Sr. has been subjected to sanctions by the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and several other countries.

Buzdugan found partners with connections to the highest echelons of power in both Russia and Belarus. In 2020, Igor Rachkovsky, the former head of the State Border Committee and a longtime friend of Victor Lukashenko, appeared as a third companion in his business alliance with Alexander Zaitsev.

Igor Rachkovsky. Source: hockey.by

(UN)DOWNED PILOT

Igor Rachkovsky was born in 1968 in Smarhon. Given its proximity to the Lithuanian border, it is not surprising that he chose to dedicate his life to the border troops.

From 1998 to 2007, he served in the Separate Active Measures Service (SAM), also known as the “Border Special Forces”. At that time, Lukashenko’s sons served there: Victor from 1998 to 2001, and Dmitry from 2002 to 2005. According to media reports, Rachkovsky was granted custody of the brothers, and he later became friends with Victor and his wife, with the two families travelling abroad together. Rachkovsky was head of SAM from 2004 to 2007. According to the media, he was appointed to this position because of his close ties to the Lukashenko family.

Rachkovsky, aged 39, became head of the State Border Committee of Belarus in 2007 and was promoted to the rank of major-general. It was only in 2011 that 38-year-old Andrei Shved took the lead from Rachkovsky in the list of the youngest generals.

Journalists claim that Rachkovsky’s friendship with Lukashenko’s eldest son has helped the State Border Committee and Rachkovsky himself on many occasions. This is allegedly why the state media did not report on the suicides of border troops or the corruption scandals within the department. Thanks to the patronage of Victor Lukashenko, Rachkovsky was immune to intrigues within the army. The young general was disliked by the former officers, who saw him as an upstart. However, they lost the under-the-rug tussling without even having a chance. Ironically, Rachkovsky’s meteoric career was ruined by teddy bears in the airspace in just one day.

On 4 July 2012, employees of the Swedish marketing company Studio Total illegally crossed the Belarusian airspace in a light aircraft. They dropped over 800 teddy bears bearing messages about freedom of the press and human rights over Ivianets and the outskirts of Minsk. This action was called a “plush landing force” in the media. Rachkovsky let it slip by and was dismissed by Lukashenko from his position as head of the State Border Committee for “improper performance of official duties to ensure the national security of Belarus”.

Despite the scandal, Lukashenko did not allow his eldest son’s friend to go to waste. He appointed Rachkovsky as the first vice president of the National Olympic Committee in 2012. He justified this on the basis that Rachkovsky had been the head of the Belarusian Sailing Federation since 2008. In 2014, Rachkovsky assumed the leadership of the hockey federation, stepping down from his position at the NOC. Rachkovsky’s career as an athletic official came to an end in 2017 – again, practically overnight. He resigned due to the Belarusian national team’s failure at the World Hockey Championship. This came just one day before he was ousted from his position as head of the sailing federation.

Rachkovsky has not been in the public eye since then, and no information has emerged about his new job. Buro discovered that the former army and sports official has started a business in partnership with Vitalie Buzdugan and Alexander Zaitsev.

In 2015, Rachkovsky’s sailing and hockey federations registered a company called Strakhovoy Broker Sport Kapital. The third shareholder was the Cypriot firm BAC Advisory Ltd. This refers to the BAC group of companies, of which Vitalie Buzdugan owns the Belarusian branch. This is no coincidence: subsequently, Strakhovoy Broker Sport Kapital was absorbed by Buzdugan’s Balkan Advisor Company.

Rachkovsky started working closely with the Romanian businessman in 2020 when the businessman founded the R-7Group. Apparently, it’s a straw company. Firstly, it officially employed only one person. Secondly, its published financial statements showed no revenue. At the same time, in 2022, the company made a net profit of 234,000 Belarusian rubles from “equity holding in other organisations”. Almost the entire sum was distributed as dividends.

The R-7Group held stakes in at least two companies: EuroPharmIntegration and Irridio. Rachkovsky was a shareholder of Limitless Manpower. These three firms form part of Buzdugan’s business empire, with Alexander Zaitsev being associated with each of them.

Since 2022, Rachkovsky has owned a 50% stake in the pharmaceutical firm Mostmed. While it is not officially affiliated with Buzdugan and Zaitsev, there is some overlap. Mostmed is headed by Anastasia Yazyr, who previously led EuroPharmIntegration – a company founded by Zaitsev in which Rachkovsky had a stake, and which is now owned by Buzdugan. Larysa Audzeyeva, the former chief accountant at EuroPharmIntegration, now works at Mostmed. She also ran European Green Assets, a firm in which the entire Zaitsev-Buzdugan-Rachkovsky trio held a stake. Additionally, she headed the Balkan Advisor Company, which was Buzdugan’s main asset.

Friendship was a shared bond between Rachkovsky and the Romanian businessman, as well as a shared interest in business. A member of ByPol, the union of former Belarusian law enforcers, told Buro about it. As part of a criminal records, he tapped Buzdugan’s phone in 2020.

He also learned about Rachkovsky and Buzdugan’s business plans in Hungary as a result of the tap-in. They discussed a project to build a nuclear power plant in that country over the phone.

Our source claims that this project was what led Hungary to slow the introduction of EU sanctions against Belarus.

Buro found out that Igor Rachkovsky played an important role in the formation of Buzdugan’s business empire. With his family’s help, the Romanian businessman received tax benefits in Belarus.

FAMILY BUSINESS

Igor Rachkovsky and his wife have five children. They are a very close-knit family who spend a lot of time together. For example, almost the entire Rachkovsky family celebrated the New Year of 2025 in Madeira.

The name of the company, R-7Group, probably refers to the close-knit family behind it: ‘R’ stands for ‘Rachkovsky’, and ‘7’ represents the number of family members. The fact that the head of the company is Andrei Rachkovsky, the eldest child in the family, counts in favour of this version.

He first worked at the Minsk prosecutor’s office, then served in the border troops, like his father. Finally, he entered the business world. He has owned 30% of SU-83 Belstroy since 2019. It built facilities in the Great Stone Industrial Park, among other things. This Belarus-China site has special economic zone status and an unprecedented preferential regime.

This means that land tax, real estate tax and income tax are all at 0% for ten years. Income tax is 9% instead of the national rate of 13%. There is no tax on foreign workers. Many customs duties are also 0%. These are just some of the benefits enjoyed by Great Stone residents.

It is the responsibility of the Industrial Park Development Company to attract residents. In 2020, Dzianis Silchanka, a former employee of several of Vitalie Buzdugan’s companies and son-in-law of Igor Rachkovsky, headed one of its departments.

R-7Group was registered as a Great Stone resident after Silchanka took office. Around the same time, Buzdugan also became more active in the industrial park: according to Buro, nine of his companies are currently registered there. At the same time, only three of them can be categorised as “high technology” – this is the main criterion for selecting Great Stone residents. They receive benefits because they invested almost a billion dollars in the project over ten years, including around 150 million dollars from the Belarusian state budget.

In an e-mail to the Great Stone administration, Buro asked why taxpayers’ money went to support Vitalie Buzdugan’s businesses, which are not related to high technology, and what role Igor Rachkovsky’s son-in-law played in this. At this time, no comments have been received.

Neither Igor, nor Andrei Rachkovsky, nor Dzianis Silchanka answered the calls from the Buro journalist.

MILLION-DOLLAR INVESTMENT

Plasma Union is one of the few Vitalie Buzdugan companies in Great Stone that operates in the high-tech sector. Its purpose is to produce blood plasma drugs, and it was established in March 2023. By November, the company’s management had sent a letter to the Ministry of Health, proposing an investment of $10 million in the Hantsavichy plant, whose construction had just begun. In December, the Ministry of Health organised a meeting at which top officials from the agency and representatives of Plasma Union discussed the proposal. Buro obtained a copy of the meeting transcript.

The document shows that, in addition to investments in Hantsavichy, Plasma Union was ready to build a second blood product production facility in Great Sone “fully at its own expense”. It is estimated that 200 tons of plasma will be produced per year. According to CIS standards, this is a significant project. Representatives of Plasma Union assured Ministry of Health officials that their “Russian partners would ensure the export of all manufactured products”.

The minutes of the meeting at the Ministry of Health do not disclose the decision made. However, the production buildings at the Hantsavichy plant have already been constructed, the equipment installed, and the utility connections are in place. Commissioning is expected in 2026. The declared processing capacity is up to 25 tons of plasma per year. There has been no update on the Plasma Union project in Great Stone involving 200 tons. At the same time, the company’s financial statements indicate that in 2024 it spent more than 3 million Belarusian rubles on the “purchase of inventories, works, and services”, suggesting the start of certain activities.

Since the Ministry of Health describes the Hantsavichy plant as “the only producer of blood plasma drugs” in Belarus, it appears that Plasma Union has abandoned its plans to build a production facility in Great Stone and is now focusing on investments in Hantsavichy instead. Let’s not forget that we’re talking about $10 million.

What is the source of Buzdugan’s company’s impressive sales figures, and which Russian partners are ready to export blood products from Belarus?

BLOODY BUSINESS

Vitalie Buzdugan’s share in Plasma Union is 45%. Pharmimex, a Russian company, holds an equal share. It is one of the largest suppliers of medicines in Russia. The powerful Apazov family is behind it.

Alexander Apazov, the family patriarch, used to head the USSR’s pharmacy industry. After the collapse of the Union, he built a pharmaceutical business with his wife, Tatsiana, and his daughter, Inga Nizharadze. In addition to Pharmimex, they oversee a network of Russian pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies, and manufacturing facilities.

According to Meduza, the family was awarded state contracts to supply expensive drugs without going through a competitive process. This is particularly true of the Circle of Kindness Foundation, which Vladimir Putin created to help children with rare and severe diseases. Journalists estimate that the Apazovs’ companies won contracts worth nearly $115 million at foundation auctions in 2021 alone. There were no other bidders at these auctions. The Federal Centre organised them under the leadership of Elena Maksimkina, whose husband had worked for the Apazovs’ companies for many years.

Buzdugan and Apazov share ownership of Plasma Union with a third Russian partner, Aleksey Ordzhonikidze. He is descended from Sergo Ordzhonikidze, the legendary Soviet commissar and Stalin’s associate.

Aleksey’s father, Grigory Ordzhonikidze, was a Russian diplomat and Executive Secretary of the Russian Commission for UNESCO. His brother Sergei Ordzhonikidze is also a diplomat. He served as both Deputy Secretary-General of the UN and Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia.

Aleksandr Ordzhonikidze is Sergei’s son and Aleksey’s cousin. He began his career in the mining industry before moving into the media. He became General Director of NTV Plus in 2003 and head of Ren-TV in 2005. He later served on the leadership team at Russia’s National Media Group, which manages state-run Russian media, alongside Putin’s unofficial wife, Alina Kabaeva. In 2016, Aleksandr Ordzhonikidze took over the management of Yury Kovalchuk’s Latvian business assets. Kovalchuk has fallen under EU sanctions as a Putin crony.

Aleksey Ordzhonikidze is following in his relatives’ footsteps. He has over 25 years of experience in marketing with major Russian companies and over 15 years in the healthcare industry. Ordzhonikidze discovered another business line in 2023. Important Stories reports that he co-founded the firm Rustekhdron. It produces the Inferno attack drones currently being used by the Russian army in the war in Ukraine. While these drones are killing people and destroying cities’ infrastructure, Ordzhonikidze is enjoying a life of luxury in Moscow.

Buro discovered that he owns three apartments in the Russian capital. One of these is located in the exclusive Yakimanka district, close to the Kremlin. The other is located in Victory Square, close to Poklonnaya Hill. The third is in Khamovniki, one of the city’s most prestigious and expensive districts. Ordzhonikidze’s car collection includes a Mercedes, a Bentley and a Ferrari. The businessman also regularly shops at TSUM. He placed orders worth at least 4.5 million Russian rubles via email alone.

Notably, Ordzhonikidze began producing drones in the same year that he started his blood products business in Belarus. By that time, Russia had only just begun to experience a shortage of these drugs. In particular, albumin, which is essential for the medical care of wounded people – of whom there are more and more in Russia every day due to the ongoing war – has disappeared from pharmacies. The medicines produced in Belarus by Plasma Union can be used to meet various needs, given that the Russian founders have made no secret of their desire to export all their products.

A RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

Vitalie Buzdugan is one of the most prominent business figures in modern-day Belarus. It’s rare for a foreigner to find success in our country, but Buzdugan has figured out the formula. In democratic countries, where free competition is the norm, business efficiency is paramount. In authoritarian systems, however, proximity to power is the most important factor. Buzdugan was always surrounded by people who could provide it.

First, Buzdugan was helped by a former employee of the presidential security service. Then, he was supported by a sponsor of Aleksandr Lukashenko. Finally, he was helped by a friend of Victor Lukashenko. These connections have provided Buzdugan with something most people can only dream of: access to government contracts, ministerial-level negotiations and tax breaks. His companies operate in all strategic areas, including pharmaceuticals, energy, agriculture and culture. Failures are of no concern to them. If you demonstrate your allegiance, the risks can always be passed on to the state. Buzdugan has proven his loyalty by promoting narratives favourable to the authorities through GONGOs, propaganda events, and pro-government conferences.

Buzdugan’s ability to be in the right place at the right time with the right people helped him to become the power broker of the Belarusian business world. Behind him lies an entire empire, yet no unnecessary fuss is made about it. With almost a million dollars’ worth of real estate in an upscale neighbourhood, he is not immediately noticeable. Although he does not hold any official positions, he is present wherever decisions are made.

Buzdugan does not stop there, however, and is gradually entering the Russian market. The tactic remains the same: to find partners who enjoy a good relationship with the authorities. They support the occupation of Ukrainian territories, supply the Russian army with attack drones, and make money from medicines intended for seriously ill children. This only benefits businesses because it fully complies with the rules of the game in a thoroughly corrupt state.

If things do not go as planned, Buzdugan has a fallback option: a Romanian passport. The businessman is just one handshake away from the Romanian president. Buzdugan has four active companies in this EU country, with the most recent registered in 2023. The journalist from Buro asked Vitalie Buzdugan by phone how he manages to work in such different jurisdictions.

He stated that he was not in business and had never collaborated with Alexander Zaitsev on any joint projects. Furthermore, he said that he had been in a long-standing quarrel with the latter. Vitalie Buzdugan refused to answer further questions.

Buro sent the investigation’s findings to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and requested a reply. The response is still pending.