Mikail Gutseriev

Historical assets: Slavneftekhim (oil trader), Slavkali (investment project for the production of potash fertilisers), Currency.com and Capital.com (cryptocurrency exchange and finance), Yu-Stroy (construction), MPS-Otel, Safmar Luks-Otel/Mospromstroy-Otel (real estate), SertusAvia (real estate), Gorizonty Znaniy (education).

Connections: Aleksandr Lukashenko (patron), Said Gutseriev (son), Viktor Prokopenya (former partner), Valery Kiriyenko (former manager), Sergei Martynov (former adviser), Irina Abelskaia (former partner).

Privileges: In the 2000s, while serving as the head of the Russian-Belarusian state-owned oil and gas company Slavneft, Gutseriev successfully cultivated a close personal relationship with Aleksandr Lukashenko, who referred to him as "Misha".

Following this, RussNeft, Gutseriev's oil production company, was granted priority access to supply the Mazyr Oil Refinery with raw materials. For many years, it was a key participant in the tolling scheme used to process customer-owned crude oil at Belarusian refineries.

In 2011, the businessman began construction of the private Slavkali potash mining and processing complex at the Starobinskaye potash deposit through the company GMC Global Energy. Due to sanctions, the businessman was forced to freeze investment in the project in the 2020s, after which Belarusian authorities nationalized it.

In 2014, Gutseriev opened the Renaissance Minsk hotel. In the late 2010s, he bought a hotel complex near Minsk from the Belarusian President's Property Management Directorate and converted it into a luxury residence. Around the same time, the businessman's companies began building a private gymnasium for children of the Belarusian elite, including Lukashenko's youngest son, Nikolai. Initially, the school was registered under the legal entity Gorizonty Znaniy, founded by Irina Abelskaia, the mother of Lukashenko's illegitimate son. From 2020 until March 2025, entities associated with the Russian billionaire Gutseriev owned the elite educational institution. In March 2025, Belarusian authorities classified information about the gymnasium's owners.

Restrictions: Gutseriev has been subject to European Union sanctions since June 2021, which were imposed in response to the forced landing of a Ryanair airliner. The rationale for the decision stated that he is "a long-time acquaintance of Aleksandr Lukashenko", and said this association helped him accumulate significant wealth and influence among Belarus’s political elite. In October 2026, the sanctions were lifted. During the trial challenging the sanctions, the businessman said he had had no "business interests" in Belarus since June 2022.