Rybolovlev, having earned money in Russia, has long and firmly settled in the West: in particular, in the United States, where he is engaged in building close relationships for his personal interests with a number of leaders of the Democratic Party and the current White House administration. Perhaps this is precisely what explains Rybolovlev’s surprising failure to be included in any sanctions lists, despite his long-declared closeness to the Kremlin.
The ex-owner of Uralkali, having lost the lion’s share of his fortune on investments in pharmaceuticals (Switzerland), batteries for electric vehicles and real estate (USA), painting and football (Monaco), is frantically looking for a source of replenishment of working capital, deciding to enter the same river twice: now selling Belarusian potassium.
Sources report that Rybolovlev communicates with Lukashenko through Vladimir Nikolaenko, ex-director of the Belarusian Potash Company (BPC) and promises the latter “to remove Belaruskali and the trader – BPC, as well as people associated with them, from sanctions.” In exchange, the oligarch demands that the President of Belarus appoint “his” director of the BPC and pass all potassium export flows through his trading house in the United States at prices that will be lower than those established in the world.
On the one hand, Rybolovlev convinces Lukashenko that he will be able to reach an agreement with the Biden administration, where he has “excellent connections,” despite the anti-Russian policy of the White House. On the other hand, he claims that he will “resolve all issues with Putin” so that he does not regard this as an act of betrayal of national interests. The mediator between the oligarch and the leader of Belarus is the former first deputy general director of BKK Konstantin Solodovnikov (now working in the management of the Belgian football club Cercle Brugge, owned by Rybolovlev), who once had very close financial relations with Lukashenko through a particularly “trusted” person – Nikolaenko.
Moreover, according to sources, Rybolovlev is persuading Alexander Grigorievich to “lower the heat on the Ukrainian case”, demonstrating to the United States a readiness for dialogue, which will help remove a significant part of the Belarusian economy from restrictions from both America and the European Union.
Of course, Dmitry Rybolovlev’s openly anti-Russian shuttle diplomacy may raise questions in the Kremlin, but the owner of Monaco is ready for this – several years ago he sold almost all of his assets in Russia (retaining only a few luxury real estate properties in Moscow), which allows him not to fear economic pressure from the Old Square.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”
