Kommersant: Lukashenka didn't get ransom for Baumgertner

The blackmailing campaign organised by the Belarusian ruler appeared to be unsuccessful.

The Belarusian General Prosecutor's Office satisfied the request for the extradition of Uralkali CEO Vladislav Baumgertner. As Russia issued an arrested warrant for him in absentia, Baumgertner was taken into custody after crossing the border. Kommersant's sources say a $100m ransom wasn't paid for the top manager.

As the Belarusian General Prosecutor's Office said yesterday, prosecutors satisfied the request of the Russian General Prosecutor's Office for the extradition of Vladislav Baumgertner, who has been under arrest in Minsk since August 26. According to the Belarusian prosecution agency, the decision was taken because the Russian Investigative Committee charged Uralkali's CEO in absentia with abuse of power (part 3 of article 33 and part 2 of article 201 of the Criminal Code) and the Basmanny district court issued am arrest warrant and placed him on the international wanted list.

The Belarusian prosecution agency emphasised that the request of the Russian colleagues complied with the requirements of the Minsk Convention of 1993 and the charges brought by Russia against Baumgertnre were similar to the charges presented by Belarus, so there were no obstacles for the extradition of Uralkali's top manager for further prosecution. Moreover, Baumgertner didn't appeal against the ruling of the Belarusian General Prosecutor's Office. Yesterday evening, Mr Baumgertner was handed over to Russian law-enforcement officers in Minsk who escorted him on a plane to Moscow.

It's worth noting that the decision on the extradition was taken three days after the official information appeared that Suleyman Kerimov Foundation sells its stake in Uralkali to Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim Group and co-owner of the company Dmitry Mazepin. The latter is considered to have close ties with Lukashenka who has been demanding to change Uralkali's stakeholders since the arrest of Vladislav Baumgertner considering this point and paying $100 million of compensation for the damage as key conditions for the release of the arrested top manager.

Uralkali's representatives do not comment on the release of Vladislav Baumgertner. Industry sources say neither the company nor its shareholders paid for the top manager or transferred $100m, the sum of the damage estimated by the republic, to Minsk. A source says it was a gesture of goodwill of the Belarusian ruler following a statement about a soon change in Uralkali's shareholder structure. Another sources adds that an agreement was reached earlier on a “higher non-corporate level”. Now, when the information about a new shareholder instead of Suleiman Kerimov was confirmed officially, Minsk fulfilled its promises.