Thirty pieces of silver
Buro got with data on the salaries of key employees of Muzykalnaya Mediakompaniya, a production center where the position of general producer is held by Aleksandr Lukashenko’s daughter-in-law, better known as a songwriter under the pseudonym Hanna Sialuk.
Hanna Lukashenko is not listed as an employee of Muzykalnaya Mediakompaniya and does not receive any income from it. However, the company regularly pays royalties to the top managers of the production company, namely director Andrei Huzel and deputy director Tatsiana Kulakova, sister of Hanna Lukashenko.
Andrei Huzel (third on the left) and Tatsiana Kulakova (second on the right). Source: Instagram account @muzmedia.by
Andrei Huzel is a man with considerable experience in the field of production. He has worked as a concert director for Belarusian performers Sasha Nemo and Larysa Hrybaliova, collaborated with Alexander Rybak and even owned his own production center Grand Music.
Huzel is currently engaged in searching for future stars of Belarusian pop music in state enterprises. For this work in 2022, Andrei Huzel received from Muzykalnaya Mediakompaniya about 31.5 thousand Belarusian rubles.
In 2023, the volume of work at the production center increased, resulting in a notable growth in Huzel's salary. In total, the producer received slightly over 94,000 Belarusian rubles from Muzykalnaya Mediakompaniya. His monthly salary ranged from 6,162 to 9,878 rubles, while the average salary in 2023 across the country was 1,902 rubles.
Hanna Lukashenka, the general producer, offers a more modest estimation of her sister's talents. In 2022, Tatsiana Kulakova was employed by Muzykalnaya Mediakompaniya for a period of approximately three months, during which she received a little more than 16,000 Belarusian rubles. In 2023, Kulakova earned approximately 79,500 Belarusian rubles. Her monthly salary ranged from 4,360 to 9,878 rubles, which is to say that her earnings were, on average, 3.5 times greater than the average monthly income in Belarus.