Top Belarusian businessman circumvents sanctions and sells goods to EU. But how?

Aliaksey Zhukau is one of the most successful businessmen in Belarus. He was once awarded a contract by Lukashenka himself.

Zhukau  is the creator of the largest holding in Eastern Europe for the production of rollers, gates and aluminum profiles under the brand name "Alutech".

After the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Zhukau sold his entire business to the German Hörmann Group, which was involved in the supply of sanctioned goods to Europe. 

The "Biuro" investigators, together with German publications Paper Trail Media and Manager Magazin, and with the support of Russian publications Viorstka, CyberPartizan and OCCRP ID, reveal how Aliaksey Zhukau circumvented Western sanctions and sold his companies' products to the EU.

Euroradio  has summarized this text.

According to the Biuro, a week after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union banned imports of steel panels, gates and doors from Belarus.

Soon the ban on imports of metallurgical products from Russia also came into force, but steel panels, gates and doors were not subject to sanctions. That is, some products of Alutech could not be exported from Belarus to the EU, but Russia was not affected by the ban.

According to the "Biuro", from June to December 2022, the Russian company Alutech-Siberia supplied the Czech company Alutech Systems S.R.O. with steel panels, doors and gates produced by the Belarusian company Alutech Gate Systems.

These goods were not supposed to enter the EU, but a loophole in the sanctions legislation made it possible. The total statistical value of the delivered goods is over 5 million dollars.