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Putin says that Moscow is dealing with Baumgertner case

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin made clear on Friday that Moscow was making efforts to "solve the problem" concerning the arrest of Vladislav Baumgertner, director general of Russian potash company Uralkali.

Asked by a reporter to comment on the arrest, Mr. Putin said that he had not spoken to Alyaksandr Lukashenka about the matter. "And this lull is connected with the fact that we want to solve the problem instead of bringing it into a stalemate, which can be done very easily if there`s uproar on the matter," the Kremlin`s press office quoted the Russian president as saying.

Mr. Baumgertner was arrested on August 26 as he was about to fly out of Minsk after a meeting with Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich.

Pavel Travulka, spokesman for the Investigative Committee of Belarus, told BelaPAN after the arrest that Mr. Baumgertner, who chairs the supervisory board of Belarusian Potash Company (BPC), was suspected of power abuse and so were Oleg Petrov, a member of the BPC`s supervisory board; Konstantin Solodovnikov, first deputy director general; Igor Yevstratov, deputy director general; Dmitry Samoilov, head of the freight department, and "other people." The four Russian executives also hold high-ranking positions at Uralkali.

A few days later, the Belarusian authorities instituted criminal proceedings against Russian billionaire and Uralkali`s top shareholder Suleiman Kerimov.

The case is linked to Uralkali`s July 30 decision to de facto quit BPC, its joint trader with Belarusian potash giant Belaruskali. Minsk claims that the collapse of the Belarusian-Russian potash sales cartel has caused Belarus severe economic damage. // BelaPAN