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Uralkali CEO placed under home arrest

Vladislav Baumgertner is allowed to meet with his mother

Vladislav Baumgertner, Photo ITAR-TASS/EPA/Uralkali Press Service

Vladislav Baumgertner, Photo ITAR-TASS/EPA/Uralkali Press Service

MINSK, September 26 (Itar-Tass) - The Uralkali potash company's CEO Vladislav Baumgertner was taken from custody and placed under home arrest on Thursday, his Russian attorney Alexei Basistov told reporters.

According to the lawyer, the Uralkali CEO is not in custody now, but in a rented flat chosen for him by the Belarusian State Security Committee (KGB) in one of Minsk's districts. He remains under KGB officers' surveillance 24 hours a day.

His mother who arrived by plane in Minsk on Wednesday, hoping to visit her son when he was in custody, is allowed to see him, Basistov said.

The lawyer hopes Baumgertner will return to Russia soon.

The Uralkali potash producing company's CEO was arrested in Belarus last month on charges of power abuse over a Russian-Belarusian business conflict.

Baumgertner has been detained in Minsk August 26. The Belarusian Investigative Committee inquires into criminal cases filed by the country’s Prosecutor’s Office under articles connected with authority abuse and abuse of office by employees of Belarusian Potash Company – Chairman of Supervisory Board Vladislav Baumgertner, Supervisory Board member Oleg Petrov, First Deputy CEO Konstantin Solodovnikov, Financial Affairs Deputy CEO Igor Yevstratov, Head of Freight Department Dmitry Samoylov and other staff members.

“Reasons for initiation of criminal cases became files that indicate on the abuse of office that led to substantial damage to Belarus’s national and governmental interests, as well as losses to Beloruskali OJSC and Belarusian Potash Company CJSC,” the Investigative Committee’s representative noted.

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