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Uralkali Board of Directors ready to cooperate with Investigative Committee on CEO case

“The company has no information that would compel it to change its stand regarding Baumgertner", Voloshin stated

MOSCOW, November 7 (Itar-Tass) - The Board of Directors of Uralkali, a major world producer of potash fertilizer, is ready to give assistance to the Russian Investigative Committee in the case of the company’s Director-General Vladislav Baumgertner and other company’s officials, says the statement of Aleksandr Voloshin, the chairman of the company’s Board of Directors.

“Meanwhile, the company has no information that would compel it to change its stand regarding Vladislav Baumgertner", Voloshin stated.

The company has not received the answer to its request to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for measures for prompt release of the company’s Director-General Vladislav Baumgertner, even though the time allotted for the answer expired, a source in the Uralkali press service told ltar-Tass.

In late September the company’s staffers sent an address to the Belarusian President, signed by 6,000, asking him for measures for the release of the company’s director-general. The address was delivered on September 2, which was confirmed by the express mail delivery service. Under Belarusian laws, such addresses should be considered within 15 days, in cases requiring additional studying and verification within four weeks, unless legislative acts stipulate it differently.

In late July 2013, the Uralkali company, a major world producer of potash fertilizer, announced its withdrawal from the joint venture Belarusian Potash Company BKK, and on August 26, Uralkali Director-General Baumgertner, after the talks with Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich, was detained in Minsk and was later taken into custody. In late September, the measure of restraint for him was changed to house arrest.

Russia’s Investigative Committee instituted criminal proceedings against Baumgertner and asked Belarus to extradite him to Russia, and Moscow’s Basmanny Court ordered his arrest in absentia.