Belarusian embassy in Moscow in possession of several luxury cars

Two luxury cars featuring vehicle registration plates of the Belarusian embassy in Russia have been photographed in Moscow.

The photographs posted on photo-sharing website instagram.com depict a Bentley and a Porsche Cayenne that have red diplomatic license plates and registration identifiers starting with "150," which means that they belong to the Belarusian diplomatic mission.

The Russian online database of license plates indicates that the vehicles belong to the Belarusian embassy and so do two other Porsche Cayennes.

In an interview with BelaPAN, Andrey Savinykh, spokesman for the Belarusian foreign ministry, acknowledged that the embassy`s fleet includes a Bentley and a Porsche Cayenne. He claimed that they had been purchased by Belarus` honorary consul in Russia with his own money.

Mr. Savinykh said that the appointment of honorary consuls was a common practice throughout the world, and that Belarus had 56 consuls in other countries.

He refused to name the consul who had bought the expensive cars for the embassy. "I cannot do this without the consul`s consent, given the scandalous nature of the news," Mr. Savinykh said. "In a week or two I will ask the consul if he doesn`t mind making this information public."

According to the website of the Belarusian embassy, Belarus has four consuls in Russia, namely, Igor Makarov, Igor Neverkovich, Aleksandr Krupodyorov, and Vladimir Shuglya.

Mr. Makarov is a billionaire who owns Russia`s Itera Group. Mr. Neverkovich is director of Belaya Rus, a health resort center located in the Black Sea coastal city of Tuapse and run by the Presidential Administration of Belarus. Mr. Krupadyorov is a former chairman of the board of Kolskaya Mining and Metallurgical Company who is currently a member of the Murmansk Regional Duma. Mr. Shuglya is a former director of the company that runs the Mangazeya trading house in Tyumen.

When reached by BelaPAN earlier in the day, a representative of the foreign ministry`s press office denied that the Belarusian embassy had any Porsche Cayennes or Bentleys. "Our diplomats do not drive such cars," he said. "They`re simply too expensive for the embassy."