Alexander Sokolov: We are on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border (Privalka-Raigardas checkpoint) because 6 employees of Grodno-Azot are political prisoners. We are here because we believe in working with workers at home to make sanctions work and achieve the freedom of political prisoners. "Rabochy Ruh", together with activists, detained cars with products of the Grodno-Azot enterprise, which is under the sanctions of the European Union!
products and showed us the documents, from which we learned the name of the gasket company, on behalf of which fictitious documents were drawn up. This firm turned out to be the Grikom Municipal Unitary Enterprise. We will definitely figure out what kind of enterprise this is.
You have no idea who turned out to be the director of Grikom, how this person is connected with the suppression of strikes at Grodno-Azot, and for what purpose this (in quotes show) "municipal" enterprise was created!
While the decision to introduce restrictive measures was being swayed in the European Union, the criminals at Azot were actively preparing for these measures, and on July 16, 2021, the Grodno Regional Executive Committee registered a legal entity-cover, the same PMC Grikom.
By a “coincidental” coincidence, Viktor Romualdovich Rusak, head of the HR department of Grodno Azot OJSC, was appointed Director of the enterprise, who on July 30, 2021 was allegedly “retired” from Azot with all honors, but in fact - transferred his trusted accomplice to a strategically important place. We managed to find an order to appoint a director dated July 27, 2021 - this is still 3 days before the dismissal from Azot!
Why Rusak? how did he earn such trust?
Vitya Rusak got a job at Azot as a locksmith back in 1989. A little later he became a master and stole stainless steel. Most likely, this is what allowed the Belarusian KGB to recruit him more than 20 years ago in order to obtain data to discredit the independent trade union at Azot. After such a manifestation of being controlled by the regime, Rusak’s career went along the “party line.”
Vitya received the position of head of the social development department, and, in addition, the chairmanship of the Lukashist “Belaya Rus”. These places involve responsibility for the waste of factory funds. Rusak always found how to steal and built a house in Grodno and an apartment in Minsk without any loans.
Vita's new career was in 2016. He became a member of the National Assembly. Well, in May 2020, he returned to Azot to the fictitious position of "construction manager" in anticipation of a warmer place, but this requires again showing his devotion to the dictatorial regime.
Elections 2020 and Vitya chairman of PEC 126, who consists almost entirely of Azot's administration. Rusak falsified the final protocol - he indicated only 207 votes for Tikhanovskaya and forged the signature of one of the members of the PEC, who was not at the polling station on August 9 at all. But 396 voters of this polling station confirmed in writing that they voted for Tikhanovskaya.
Voila! By order of August 10, 2020, Rusak was awarded the position of head of Azot's HR department for his devotion to the regime. The result is a horrendous shortage of personnel! After all, it was Vitya who signed the illegal orders to dismiss the strikers and handed summons to the punishers to the Azotovites.
We are sure that your organization also has such a Vitya. Take a closer look. But now let's get back to this padding firm, which he headed after his alleged retirement.
Initially, Grikom was in standby mode - there was practically no activity, but after the introduction of the fifth package of European Union sanctions at the end of 2021, Grodno-Azot began to use a previously prepared accomplice. PMC "Grikom" was created specifically to circumvent sanctions.
The scheme works as follows:
- OJSC Grodno Azot and PMC Grikom signed an agreement for the sale of goods, according to which, on behalf of Azot, Grikom sells its products on its own behalf. Accordingly, funds from transactions are transferred to Grikom's accounts, and subsequently transferred to Azot's accounts. Since the documentation is prepared by Azot specialists, Rusak only puts his seals and signatures, and receives a good salary for this! a new Specification for a previously concluded agreement is drawn up.
- Azot specialists are looking for clients, negotiating with them and offering a scheme of interactions through a sanction-clean legal entity.
For the fact that Lukashenka helped Putin prepare and carry out an attack on Ukraine from the territory of Belarus, Russia provided Belarus with a special price for natural gas. For Belarus, gas is temporarily supplied at a price ten times lower than the cost of gas in Europe. Since natural gas is a raw material for the production of nitrogen fertilizers, Grodno-Azot sets prices for its products below market prices, which attracts potential buyers.
In our case, according to the CMR invoice, kindly provided by the truck driver, urea produced on "Grodno Azot", heading to Serbia. It is worth noting that Serbia has joined the fifth package of sanctions of the European Union, which just included Grodno Azot, and should not conduct any type of activity related to this enterprise.
Despite this, the Serbian company DOO “Wakler”, registered only in May 2022, buys fertilizers, is it suspicious? And the cars of Serbian cargo carriers are loaded with nitrogen fertilizers directly at the loading points of the Grodno Azot plant! The proof of this is the loading certificates issued by Azot, in which drivers put their signature, which confirms the fact that Grodno Azot OJSC transferred its products not to the front company Grikom, but to the driver of the carrier company, which was provided by DOO Wakler.
Then the drivers receive all the documents necessary for road transportation with the details of the Grikom Municipal Unitary Enterprise as the owner of the products and the truck of the Serbian company loaded with carbamide produced by Grodno Azot OJSC successfully leaves Belarus for the territory of the European Union.
It should have happened this time, but it didn't! As a result of interaction with workers from Belarus, the trucks were stopped! Members of our team, activists and ByPol participants did not allow the products from the sanctioned enterprise to continue their journey across Europe, and the relevant authorities of the Republic of Lithuania decided to return these trucks to the territory of the Raigardas border checkpoint for additional checks and inspections.
But not everything was as simple as it might seem at first glance - the police who arrived at the border were not in the mood for active action and recommended, among other things , in a very civilized and polite manner, let the trucks through, as they had already passed the border and customs control.
But our perseverance played a decisive role - we refused to let the cars through, and the police were forced to assist us - The policemen helped to find the number of the duty officer of the customs service. After accepting our appeal, the officer on duty passed the information received to the relevant state bodies.
I would like to thank separately for assistance in covering the action from the spot Belarusian Investigative Center, the presence of a journalist helped to significantly speed up the decision-making processes of the responsible persons of various departments.
As a result, representatives of the border service soon arrived at the Raigardas checkpoint, who showed high professionalism and helped a lot in resolving this situation. The customs service, invited at the insistence of the border guards, and having received documentary evidence of the circumvention of sanctions, decided to detain the cars and send them to the customs control zone.
products of the sub-sanctioned enterprise "Grodno Azot", a pre-trial investigation of a possible violation of international sanctions has been launched. According to available information, the shipment of carbamide to Grodno-Azot for shipment to Serbia has been stopped at the moment.
This case can serve as a precedent for strengthening control over the implementation of international sanctions and in developing clear mechanisms for monitoring their implementation, as well as punishment shell companies.
Sanctions against Grodno-Azot were imposed not against the Belarusian people, but against the Lukashenka regime, due to the arrests and dismissals of workers who fought for their votes, for the triumph of justice and the freedom of the Belarusian people .
Belarusians, fight with us. Rabochy Ruh demonstrated in practice the strength of the labor movement, unity and cohesion and proved that even a small group of Belarusians can make such a “Serbian U-turn”.
Subscribe to our channel, join Rabochy Ruh and tell your friends and loved ones, together we can do anything. Long live Belarus!
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