Kommersant: No ransom paid for Baumgertner

The Russian company’s CEO would be extradited only after the damage he had done to Belarus was compensated, Alyaksandr Lukashenka claimed at a meeting with CIS mass media editors-in-chief on October 21.

Lukashenka was satisfied with the change of the main Uralkali shareholder, the Russian newspaper thinks. The shares that belonged to Suleiman Kerimov were bought by Mihail Prohorov’s ONEKSIM group and Uralchem owner Dzmitry Mazepin. This native of Minsk is considered to be close to the Belarusian leader.

Baumgertner was released “on a top non-corporate level”, representatives of Uralkali noted privately.

Photo: Associated Press