A solid catch
Authors
The Belarusian authorities have no access to the sea, but they have been able to moor profitably in Russia, enjoying fishing quotas for over twenty years. The fishing industry is worth millions of dollars and is a boon to Aleksandr Lukashenko’s inner circle. Buro has investigated how this business is organised, who is making money from it and what Vladimir Putin’s friends have to do with it.
ADVANTAGEOUS MARRIAGE
The Minsk-based trendy Lebyazhy restaurant is a favourite haunt of the Belarusian elite. In July 2021, Aleksandr Lukashenko’s eldest granddaughter, Viktoria, was married in its luxurious surroundings. Her grandfather also stopped by the wedding in Lebyazhy to congratulate the newlyweds:
“You are writing your story..”.
According to the pro-regime Telegram channel Pul Pervogo, the event was “beautiful, heartwarming, with a warm atmosphere of family and friends”. Later, the media learned that Viktoria Lukashenko had chosen Dzmitry Dziatlau of Polatsk as her husband. However, what happened to the newlyweds after the ceremony was not reported to the public. Buro recently revealed that the Dziatlau couple became parents in 2022. Lukashenko’s granddaughter was appointed second secretary in the Belarusian foreign ministry after her maternity leave was over.
The wedding of Viktoria Lukashenko and Dzmitry Dziatlau. Source: t.me/pul_1
Our investigation uncovered that Viktoria’s husband also managed to seize a goldfish by the tail – and most likely not without the assistance of his influential father-in-law. Buro found out that Dzmitry Dziatlau had become a top manager in a promising fishing company run by Lukashenko’s entourage with the support of his authoritarian patron.
A USELESS SON-IN-LAW?
Dzmitry Dziatlau is a graduate of Belarusian State University’s International Relations Faculty. Viktoria Lukashenko attended the same faculty during those years as well. Dziatlau did his pre-graduation internship at ZapadTransEkspeditsiya.
The company processes and transports liquefied hydrocarbon gases – propane and butane. Businesswoman Ludmila Niaronskaya co-owns (25%) and manages the company. After graduating, Dzmitry got a permanent position at ZapadTransEkspeditsiya. He became the deputy head of the commercial department.
“This lady [Niaronskaya] has a certain weight [in Belarus] and certain lobbying opportunities”, a knowledgeable Belarusian businessman told Buro.
Niaronskaya is linked to Aleksandr Lukashenko’s eldest son, Viktar. Niaronskaya and Lukashenko’s children studied together at Minsk’s prestigious High School No. 16. In 2019, Niaronskaya flew from Minsk to Dubai on a private business jet with the influential official’s wife and children. Viktar Lukashenko himself joined them on the way back.
Thanks to CyberPartisans, it was discovered that Viktar Lukashenko’s son-in-law continues to build his career in the Niaronskaya business establishment. In 2022, Dziatlau transitioned from ZapadTransEkspeditsiya to her new companies, Morskiye Promysly and Morskiye Sezony.
At both firms, he assumed the position of deputy director-at-large. By mid-2023, Dziatlau was earning more than 10,000 Belarusian rubles a month in these companies. At the same time, the average salary in the country was five times less.
FAVOURABLE TERMS
Morskiye Sezony was founded relatively recently, in October 2022. The company is building a fish processing plant in the Vitsebsk Free Economic Zone and enjoys extensive tax and customs privileges. In addition, Niaronskaya’s investment project was included in the state’s “Agrarian Business” programme, and a low-interest loan of 240 million Belarusian rubles was granted to construct the plant.
“Our colonel [Lukashenko] likes to see himself as the builder of a strong and prosperous Belarus; he wants all actions taken around him to appear as his own achievements. So, it’s easy to sell such production stories to him”, a knowledgeable Belarusian businessman commented.
A representative of Morskiye Sezony told Buro that the Vitsebsk plant is in the early stages of construction and is expected to take about two more years to complete. In addition to pollock fillets and minced fish, the plant will also produce fish dumplings and other semi-finished products. The finished products will be sold mainly on the domestic market and exported primarily to EAEU countries.
Morskiye Sezony is also building another fish and seafood processing plant near Minsk.
Construction of a fish processing plant in Kaliadzichy. Source: seaseasons.by
The company has recently announced that it is looking for service technicians, electricians, equipment adjusters, fish handlers, forklift drivers, storekeepers, lift operators, cleaners and accountants. The place of work is indicated as the city of Minsk, 2 Stsebneu Street. This address is home to the state-owned company Belryba. Morskiye Sezony plans to fine-tune its production processes there until the Vitsebsk plant opens. Pollock for fillets, mince and other products will be imported from Russia. There are all kinds of opportunities for that.
Ludmila Niaronskaya also has a fishing business in Russia. It owns half of Soyuznye Rybnye Promysly, based in the free port of Vladivostok.
It may not pay income tax on its principal activity for five years from the date of incorporation. In 2023, 73.7% of the company’s income was not subject to income tax. Incidentally, the aforementioned Dzmitry Dziatlau, grandson-in-law of Aleksandr Lukashenko, is listed in the 2023 report as a member of the board of directors of Soyuznye Rybnye Promysly.
“Excessively favourable terms are only given to special people. Obviously, Lukashenko and his inner circle are such people. They are treated much like Russian oligarchs. None of the presidents of states friendly to Russia are granted such conditions”, stressed Ilya Shumanov, director general of Transparency International – Russia in Exile and director of the NGO Arktida, speaking to Buro.
Soyuznye Rybnye Promysly, a company co-owned by Ludmila Niaronskaya, catches fish on its vessel, “Porfiry Chanchibadze,” and leased fishing vessels. For the first time, Belarus received a quota for 50,000 tons of pollock in the Bering and Okhotsk Seas in 2023. Last year, the fish quota was increased to 51,000 tons.
“They [Belarusians] are now provided with the same opportunities as the Japanese and Koreans, as they have now been removed from there [the Far East]. This could well be an initiative by the Belarusian side. Lukashenko has discussed these issues on several occasions in personal meetings with Putin”, a Russian fish industry expert who wished to remain anonymous told Buro.
Fish catch in Russia. Source: vestnikapk.ru
Belarus is subject to a quota that obliges it to engage in joint fishing endeavours with Russia. Russian company Izumrud is Ludmila Niaronskaya’s partner for Soyuznye Rybnye Promysly. Buro discovered that this company is linked to influential Russian businessmen, the Rotenbergs.
PUTIN’S FRIENDS
The closed-end investment fund Severnaya Egida – Strategicheskiy, owned by Sofia Noginskaya, manages Izumrud.
Russian media described the woman as holding the assets of the influential Rotenberg businessmen. A massive leak of files from their company revealed that Russian billionaires used closed investment funds to hide their ownership of assets after personal sanctions were imposed.
Ekaterina Dolzhenko is the director of Izumrud. Her previous employer was Riolis that runs the Gusyatnikoff brand of chic Russian cuisine restaurants in the centre of Moscow. The restaurant was said to belong to the Rotenberg family.
Speaking to Buro, Ekaterina Dolzhenko called the information that the influential Rotenberg businessmen are behind the Izumrud company she runs a rumour.
“Just located next to each other”, the Izumrud director said with a chuckle.
Soyuznye Rybnye Promysly declined to comment on the Rotenbergs’ involvement in the fishing joint venture.
“This is a typical scheme of the Rotenbergs: they themselves stay under the radar; there are always nominees who used to work with them and now participate in the fronting of their businesses”, explains Ilya Shumanov.
Boris and Arkady Rotenberg are not only oligarchs who made their fortunes under Vladimir Putin, but they are also two of the Russian president’s oldest friends. They got to know each other in their youth when they wrestled in a Leningrad sports club. Their friendship lasted many years, and when Putin came to power in 2000, the Rotenberg brothers became part of his inner circle, according to the OCCRP description.
Apparently, through this connection, the Rotenbergs made their multi-billion dollar fortune: they amassed huge profits from government contracts. In 2008, Arkady bought five construction and repair companies from Gazprom. He combined them to create Stroygazmontazh, Russia’s leading construction company in the oil and gas sector. Now, it is one of Gazprom’s leading contractors and receives many lucrative contracts without having to bid for them.
“Not only are the Rotenbergs old friends of the Russian president, they are also the biggest beneficiaries of the Russian economy”, said the director general of Transparency International – Russia in Exile.
According to the US Treasury Department, the Rotenbergs’ friendship with Putin won them contracts worth more than $7 billion to build facilities for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Stroygazmontazh also won another major project – the construction of a bridge between mainland Russia and the annexed Crimea. Forbes estimated Arkady and Boris Rotenbergs’ wealth at $5.4 billion in 2024. They are currently sanctioned by the US and EU.
Vladimir Putin honours Arkady Rotenberg for the construction of the Crimean bridge. Source: svoboda.org/TASS
“Nobody denies that the Rotenbergs are in the fish business. They gobble up everything that brings money”, a Belarusian businessman familiar with the situation told Buro.
The head of Transparency International – Russia in Exile pointed out that Rotenberg companies often enter into partnership projects where they act as guarantors of their sustainability and receive a percentage for this. He also noted that the current head of Rosrybolovstvo, Ilya Shestakov, is the son of Vasily Shestakov, a sports official and former State Duma deputy, who in his youth wrestled in the same sports club as Putin and the Rotenbergs.
“This is another argument for why the Rotenbergs got some fish quotas – Rosrybolovstvo distributes these quotas”, said Ilya Shumanov.
BREST FISHERMEN
In addition to Soyuznye Rybnye Promysly, another joint Belarusian-Russian company – Soyuzryba – has been granted fish quotas in Russia.
Half of the company is owned by Santa Bremor, a company controlled by the influential Belarusian businessman Alexander Moshensky. SRPK, a Russian company with links to the Rotenbergs, owns the remaining 50% of Soyuzryba.
In particular, SRPK owns one-third of Torgovyi Dom ERTS, which sells shrimp throughout Russia. Other owners include Arkady Pinchevsky (1%) and the Moscow-based company Istochnik (33%). Pinchevsky previously worked in construction companies that were considered assets of the Rotenberg family, while Istochnik is controlled by a trusted associate of Russian billionaires – the aforementioned Sofia Noginskaya.
Alexander Moshensky denies Soyuzryba’s links to the Rotenberg family.
“To the best of our knowledge, the persons mentioned by you [the Rotenberg brothers] and any other individuals acting on their behalf are not among the founders of SRPK”, the Belarusian businessman informed Buro in an email.
He also emphasised that his Soyuzryba has no business ties with Arkady and Boris Rotenberg.
Soyuzryba is headquartered in Murmansk and fishes in the Barents and Baltic Seas. The enterprise has a fishing trawler, Brest.
“Under the quota allocation requirements, co-applicants may include Russian-Belarusian joint ventures that possess the necessary material and technical resources for their implementation. Soyuzryba fulfils these conditions. Quotas among Russian-Belarusian companies are distributed by the Belarusian Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Soyuzryba further fulfils the obligations associated with obtaining quotas, including their payment, in the same way as any other Russian fishing company”, explained Alexander Moshensky.
The fish caught in Russia are processed on board and in the Santa Group factories. The holding has a large fish processing plant in the Brest Free Economic Zone. Santa Bremor also bought a fish and seafood canning factory in Noginsk more than ten years ago. Soyuzryba has been successful since its inception – the company has never made a loss. This year, it will be able to catch almost 9,000 tons of sprats, cod, haddock and herring.
LUCRATIVE BUSINESS
Belarus is a landlocked country that entered an agreement on fishing in Russian waters in 2002. Initially, the quotas were rather small. According to the Russian edition of Forbes, Belarus has been granted the right to catch 75,000 tonnes of fish in Russian waters for free from 2005 to 2019. Rosrybolovstvo did not respond to our inquiry about the allocation of quotas for Belarus.
“We [Belarus] are like poor relatives here, receiving crumbs from the master’s table. We are happy with what we get. You don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”, said a Belarusian businessman familiar with the situation.
Belarus duly exhausted its fishing quotas, regularly asked for more and finally got what it wanted. This year, joint ventures in the Baltic, Barents, Bering and Okhotsk Seas will be able to catch almost 65,000 tonnes of fish. 85% of the allocated quotas have been made available in the Far East region, where Soyuznye Rybnye Promysly, co-owned by Ludmila Niaronskaya, catches fish. Belarusian companies were given the right to fish 6,000 tonnes of Pacific herring and 50,000 tonnes of pollock in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea.
These quotas can be sold on the black market – a tonne of pollock costs around $400, according to our source in the Russian fish market. If Soyuznye Rybnye Promysly were to sell on its quota, it could make $20 million. In 2023, the company had revenues of over $20 million. Net income figured up to over $3.6 million.
In general, tax incentives and favourable loans open up a wide range of opportunities for Ludmila Niaronskaya’s business. With government support, it can profitably catch fish in Russia and process it in Belarus. Lukashenko’s grandson-in-law, Dzmitry Dziatluk, can then earn a handsome salary in her companies.
“All the key profit-making industries in Russia are generally divided between clans, each directly linked to the Russian president or the Russian president’s inner circle. The Belarusian system mirrors that but is more strongly tied to Lukashenko and his family members. This is a kind of capitalism of friends, based on transferring part of the resources to the neighbouring community”, said Ilya Shumanov, director general of Transparency International – Russia in Exile and director of the NGO Arktida.
Ludmila Niaronskaya declined to comment by phone, and a representative of the Rotenbergs did not respond to our request for comment.