This cross-border investigation reveals how a little-known businessman from the United Arab Emirates helped a sanctioned Belarusian regime insider move money and assets beyond the reach of EU restrictions by quietly building a real estate empire in Lithuania.
Reporting by the Belarusian Investigation Center in partnership with Lithuanian media outlet 15min.lt — with data support from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and Belarusian Cyber Partisans — traces a complex network of companies, proxies and property investments linked to Mohammed Ahmad Salem Khalifa Alzaraim Alsuwaidi, a UAE national with deep ties to Belarusian elites.
The journalists found that Alsuwaidi’s Lithuanian company Puiki investicija (“Great Investment”) acquired around 150 properties — including townhouse complexes and apartment blocks — despite its limited size and capital. Local suspicions arose that Belarusian money might be behind the purchases.
At the centre of the network is Viktor Chevtsov, a powerful businessman long seen as one of Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s financial “wallets”.
Though sanctioned by the EU and Switzerland in 2024, evidence suggests that Chevtsov’s business dealings continued abroad through associates embedded in Alsuwaidi’s Lithuanian ventures.
The investigation reveals how the two men’s partnership dates back to the mid-2000s “Venezuelan period” of Belarus’s foreign policy, when Chevtsov’s construction firm Belzarubezhstroy secured over $1 billion in contracts in Venezuela. Alsuwaidi co-owned the company and simultaneously controlled intermediary trading firms that handled Belarusian exports, placing him on both sides of multimillion-dollar deals.
In Lithuania, two long-time Belarusian associates of Chevtsov — Alexander Gribovsky and Vital Bandaryk — sat on the board of Alsuwaidi’s real estate firm. Both denied acting as proxies after reporters began asking questions. Shortly thereafter, the company overhauled its structure and removed all three men from official positions, though Alsuwaidi remains the ultimate beneficial owner.
The investigation offers a rare look into how Belarusian regime insiders use foreign intermediaries and property investments to shield assets and evade sanctions, raising questions about the transparency of European real estate markets.
When confronted, both Chevtsov and Alsuwaidi denied current business relationships, while company representatives either provided vague responses or threatened legal action.