Shakutsin vs Sanctions Manufacturers left Belarus and Russia market, but the equipment remains

Based on customs consignment notes for 2023, which BIC studied with the help of Verstka journalists, SV Maschinen GmbH exported machinery from the EU to Russia. The machinery was supplied by CNH Industrial, an American-Italian company, Amazone, a German company, Vaderstad AB, a Swedish firm, Samson Agro, a Danish enterprise, and Deere&Company, an American company. The latter company also officially withdrew from Russia after the Ukraine invasion.

In 2023, the BIC launched several investigations into the activities of Lukashenko’s EU and US-sanctioned “money bag” Alexander Shackutin. Ten months after the first publication, our editorial team received an email from SV Maschinen GmbH, the German company mentioned in the investigations. It contained a letter, signed by Vitali Vorotnitski, the company’s managing director, that claimed that we have published incorrect information about the current shareholder structure of SV Maschinen GmbH. The company supplies Belarus and Russia with machinery from Western manufacturers who have announced their withdrawal from these markets.

According to the BIC investigation, the company is linked to Shackutin – and this is not disputed. However, the subjects of our investigation have provided clarification on the current distribution of shares in SV Maschinen GmbH.

The bottom line is this. The German public register contains two documents about the owners: the list of founding shareholders from 2014 and the articles of association from 2020, which show a different shareholder composition. Both documents list Alexander Shackutin as a beneficiary. However, the managing director of SV Maschinen GmbH claims that the current composition of the founding shareholders is in line with the data specified in the 2014 document and not the 2020 articles of association. The letter signed by Vitali Vorotnitski, director of SV Maschinen GmbH, explains that the articles of association, dated 2020, refer to the original shareholders and not the current ones. In other words, the composition of shareholders remains the same as in 2014 and has not changed in 2020 following the imposition of sanctions against the “moneybags” of Aleksandr Lukashenko.

In our investigation, based on the 2020 document, we claim that the composition of the shareholders has been renewed against the background of sanctions. Therefore, we have added a clarification to all texts where such a claim appears. However, this does not change the main point of the investigation: the company remains linked to Alexander Shackutin.

Based on the most recent documents available to us, the shareholders of SV Maschinen GmbH are Alexander Shackutin, Igor Subbotin, Yaroslav Buyalskiy, Valentin Yahorau, and Vitali Vorotnitski.

The letter from SV Maschinen emphasizes that Alexander Shackutin is not the majority owner of SV Maschinen GmbH. Additionally, since the imposition of sanctions against him, he has not received direct personal money transfers from this German company, despite remaining its co-founder. An audit-related document was provided as proof.

The BIC team acknowledges that although Alexander Shackutin’s share is not a majority, when combined with the shares owned by individuals connected to Shackutin through other business ties, the total will exceed 50% of the company’s ownership. These people include:

Igor Subbotin, who owns 28% of the company, is a long-time business partner of Alexander Shackutin, whom we detailed in one of our investigations. Reportedly, both of them used to work at the Minsk Tractor Plant. They started doing business together in 1997. Since then, they have been partners in at least 11 Belarusian and foreign firms.

Yaroslav Buyalskiy, who owns 14% of the company, and Shackutin, according to the latter, “once worked in the Central Committee of the Leninist Young Communist League of Belarus, even sharing an office for some time”. In 2005, Buyalskiy co-founded and CEO Prommedinvest, which is now known as Saleo – Holding Management Company. The company is owned by Shackutin, Subbotin, SV Maschinen GmbH, Lithuanian EM System, and others. Buyalskiy remained its CEO until 2014 and co-owner until 2018. Subsequently, he became a full-fledged partner of Shackutin and Subbotin in at least nine different firms, including  Tekhpromimpeks, PMI Engineering, Amkodor-Tsentr, Amkodor-Service, Soyuzslavprom, Amkodor-SZ, UAB EM System, SIA Anulatrans and SV Maschinen GmbH.

Vitali Vorotnitski, who owns 15% of the company, worked as a department head at  Spamash in 2007. Shackutin has been a co-founder of this firm since 2003.

Valentin Yahorau, who owns 15% of the company, according to his LinkedIn profile, has worked as Business Director of SV Maschinen GmbH since 2010. In 2007, he also worked at Spamash.

Vitali Vorotnitski’s letter claims that SV Maschinen GmbH was originally owned by Yahorau and Lithuanian EM System. In the summer of 2014, the Lithuanian company EM System, co-founded by Shackutin, Subbotin, and Buyalskiy at that time, stopped being a shareholder and was replaced by its owners: Shackutin, Subbotin, and Buyalskiy. A new name has also been added to the list – Vorotnitski, in whose name the e-mail was sent to our editorial team. Two of our inquiries sent earlier to SV Maschinen GmbH were not answered by the company.

The letter also requests that the allegation in the investigation concerning SV Maschinen GmbH’s cooperation with Amkodor be refuted. However, there are no such claims in our publications.

The equipment shipped by the Shakutsin-related firm is produced in Austria, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Poland, the United States, Belgium and Denmark. It is shipped to the Russian regions mainly via Brest directly to the purchasing companies. Before mid-July 2022, deliveries were mainly made via Kaliningrad.

Shakutsin and Subbotin worked together to privatise Amkodor in 2001. 

Subbotin was once an assistant to Shakutsin when he was a member of the Council of the Republic and, as per tribuna.com, Subbotin served as Shakutsin's deputy in the Belarusian Tennis Federation. 

The two businessmen were partners in several companies, including LLC Amkodor-Tsentr, LLC Amkodor-Servis, LLC Techpromimpeks, LLC Iskamed, SV Maschinen GmbH, SIA Anulatrans, and UAB Em System. [*][*][*][*][*][*]