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Secret US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks puts Lukashenka’s personal fortune at $9 billion

A confidential US diplomatic cable from Minsk puts Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s personal fortune at $9 billion, said the British newspaper Guardian in a report published on December 17 with reference to WikiLeaks.

The cable suggests that Mr. Lukashenka is the wealthiest individual in Belarus and “comfortably tops a list of the country's richest 50 oligarchs,” which is dominated by his “cronies,” the paper said.

Sent on June 16, 2006 by George Krol, the US ambassador to Belarus between 2003 and 2006, the cable said that the embassy had recently received a list “purporting to show Belarus' top 50 oligarchs and their net worth.”

“An internet search found another, slightly older list that is nearly identical to the first,” the cable said. “Post cannot confirm the sources or exact information in these lists, but rates the information as being highly credible. These lists read as a ‘who's who’ of the Lukashenko regime, past and present. Those listed had the opportunity to enrich themselves, and evidence indicates that many did so.”

“Firstly, this is complete rubbish,” Pavel Lyohki, head of the Belarusian leader’s press office, commented to BelaPAN. “It is highly significant that the sources of the information were not disclosed. It is obvious that there could be no sources of such information. Secondly, Alyaksandr Lukashenka once wrote to the then US president, George Bush, that if any money belonging to the Belarusian president was found, he might take it all. Thirdly, I want to ask how it is possible to steal such a huge sum of money in Belarus. So that US diplomatic cable, if it really existed, is really fantastic nonsense.”