"Suspected Belarusian arms dealer returned to Minsk after several years in Malta"

Reference ID
07MINSK811

Created
2007-09-21 11:19

Released
2011-08-30 01:44

Classification
CONFIDENTIAL

Origin
Embassy Minsk

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SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/21/2017
TAGS: KTFN EFIN PREL PINR BO MT
SUBJECT: LUKASHENKO’S ARMS DEALER BACK FROM MALTA?

REF: MINSK 696

Classified By: Ambassador Karen Stewart for reason 1.4 (d).

Summary
——-

¶1. (C) A Minsk businessman claims suspected Belarusian arms
dealer Vladimir Peftiyev just returned to Minsk permanently
after several years residing in Malta. The move, if true,
suggests Lukashenko may have transferred ill-gotten assets
elsewhere. End summary.

Major Weapons Trader Returns to Minsk?
————————————–

¶2. (C) Minsk businessman Mark Lvovich Chernyak told Acting
Pol/Econ Chief on September 18 and 19 that Vladimir Pavlovich
Peftiyev, the ex-husband of one of his employees, serves as
an important moneyman for Lukashenko. (Note: Peftiyev headed
the company Beltekheksport in the 1990s, supposedly reporting
directly to Security Council Chief Viktor Sheyman. At the
beginning of Lukashenko’s reign, newspapers implicated
Peftiyev in illicit weapons deals. End note.)

¶3. (C) Peftiyev, who Chernyak said is about 45 years old,
resided in Malta for five to seven years and may have
obtained dual citizenship. Once or twice a year Peftiyev
would fly back to Minsk, where government security would meet
him at the airport and escort him directly to the President’s
residence. According to Chernyak, even Peftiyev’s children
merit protection by government security.

¶4. (C) Chernyak said recently Peftiyev returned to Minsk
permanently, enrolling his young children who don’t speak
Russian into a local daycare. His previous visit to Minsk
was in February or March. Chernyak suggested Peftiyev’s
homecoming meant Lukashenko no longer maintained business
dealings or bank accounts in Malta.

Comment: Money Coming Home, or Going Elsewhere?
——————————————— —

¶5. (C) While Chernyak mused that the alleged Maltese money
might now be salted away in Venezuela, no one knows the true
source of money paid to privatize Veltelcom or smaller firms
(reftel). If illicit Lukashenko-controlled funds really did
leave Malta recently, they just as easily could have been
repatriated to Belarus.

Comment Cont’d: Hell Hath no Fury Like a Merchant Scorned
——————————————— ————

¶6. (C) Chernyak said he wanted to help because Lukashenko and
his cronies were ruining the country both politically and
economically. He also said the Presidential Administration
forced him to hand over prime real estate in 2001. Despite
this run-in with authorities, Chernyak still employs over
1,000 persons, but he could not help but explain that the de
facto GOB seizure of his property deprived him of millions of
dollars in rents every year. His anger rose when he
mentioned that from his office in the Panorama building he
can see Lukashenko’s motorcade going to work at 9:00, and
leaving for the hockey arena to call it a day as early at
3:00. While Lukashenko used to play hockey once a week,
Chernyak says — and others in Minsk have observed — that
the motorcade now visits the arena every workday.

STEWART