On the eve of the Russia-Africa summit, President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko met with Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. According to the Kremlin press service, the leaders discussed the development of partnership and interaction between the two countries within the Union State. However, on the sidelines and at informal dinners, the Belarusian delegation remembered one name – Roman Spiridonov and his excessive activity in the oil products trading market in the Persian Gulf countries. At the same time, representatives of the Belarusian KGB were extremely annoyed by the fact that they could not actually hinder Spiridonov’s activities in any way; he was saved by his lack of Belarusian citizenship.
As the Cheka-OGPU managed to find out, for several days now the sectoral ministries in Moscow that oversee Belarusian exports have been puzzling over how to solve this problem and get the Greek citizen Roman Spiridonov out of the way. Lately, he has been busy clearing the oil trading market to the detriment of the economy not only of Belarus, but also of Russia.
The essence of the claims of Belarusian traders against Spiridonov is simple: he seems to be telling his partners and counterparties abroad all the schemes and chains of supply of petroleum products from the CIS countries. In particular, the businessman is actively influencing the Saudi Aramco company, one of the largest oil companies not only in Saudi Arabia itself, but also in the world. To understand the scale, Aramco, according to its own data, accounts for up to 80% of the country’s budget revenues. And with leaks about the origin of Belarusian oil products, Spiridonov is trying to push aside competitors. For a Greek citizen, the main priority is to put his own Petroruss holding on multibillion-dollar flows, including sanctions, at any cost.
Russian-Belarusian relations are already suffering from Spiridonov’s activities, because Petroruss’s black methods of competition have already begun to raise questions on both sides of the border. Moreover, Spiridonov’s activities affect not only Belarusian oil traders, but also the Russian budget, because funds from the sale of oil by Spiridonov’s companies do not seem to return to Russia, but end up in the accounts of companies in the UAE, British Virgin Islands or Panama. The choice is quite wide: in all these countries, the Open Corporates service sees companies directly associated with Spiridonov – Petroruss Incorporated, Vismatic International Limited.
The only question is how long will Lukashenko watch as Belarusian oil products end up out of business. In addition, according to Energy Intelligence, Petroruss is developing the markets not only of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but also of China and India. That is, Lukashenko could potentially face difficulties in trading energy resources with these countries.
However, a Greek passport is unlikely to save Spiridonov’s business if the intelligence services of Russia and Belarus begin to understand the intricacies of his business empire, from which the trading partners of these countries suffer. It is unlikely that the leaders of the countries will allow such a development of events. Most likely, for international peace it will be easier to move Petroruss away in advance.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”