Businessman Alexander Zaitsev’s son starts car business in Belarus
Buro discovered that Raman Zaitsau, son of Lukashenko’s “moneybag” Alexander Zaitsev and writer Volha Hramyka, co-owns Luxury Motors Group, the official representative and exclusive distributor of the Chinese automobile brand Shineray in Belarus.
The organisation is registered in Minsk’s business centre, Nemiga-City, where the offices of companies linked to Alexander Zaitsev, Aliaksei Aleksin, and Mikalai Varabei are located.
In addition to Raman Zaitsau, who has a 50% stake in the company, the other shareholders in Luxury Motors Group are Pavel Sadounikau (40%) and Aliaksandr Hurski (10%). Pavel Sadounikau also owns another company, Luxury Motors Plus. This company is the official GEELY dealer in Belarus with two showrooms in Minsk.
Luxury Motors Group was established in June 2023. Initially operating as an official representative and exclusive distributor of Chinese Shineray cars in Belarus, the owners subsequently expanded their operations.
In September 2024, Pavel Sadounikau, co-owner and part-time director of the company, informed myfin.by that the company was launching a series assembly of Shineray cars in Belarus:
“The commissioning batch has been fully assembled, and the certification process is now complete. Additionally, we have obtained a crucial document verifying Belarusian production: the Certificate of Own Production”.
The cars are assembled at the Unison plant, which previously assembled Iranian Samand cars in Belarus. Unison is going through some difficult times. It ended the year with a net loss of 4.4 million Belarusian rubles, earning only 126 thousand rubles in 2023. In 2024, in addition to Shineray, the plant started assembling cars for another Chinese brand – Sinotruk.
The decision to assemble cars is linked to “certain preferences” given by the state for Belarusian assembly, which will affect the final cost of the vehicle.