The pool of honorary consuls has expanded

Since the start of 2023, Belarus has welcomed five new honorary consulates from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Oman, Sri Lanka and Vanuatu.

The primary purpose of the Honorary Consulate institution is to promote bilateral trade between countries. Unlike regular consuls, honorary consuls do not deal with citizenship and visa matters.

An honorary consul is entitled to certain immunities, guarantees, and privileges. For example, the person may not be subject to administrative or judicial liability for any activity carried out in that capacity. However, consular protection does not apply if the consul has broken the law in another role, such as a businessman.

Consular premises are exempt from taxes and fees. Honorary consuls also receive consular cards from the MFA and are entitled to diplomatic licence plates for their official vehicles. Meeting high-ranking officials or top business people is more accessible for someone with such a title.

Buro has been investigating the backgrounds of the new appointments, and today, we are sharing what we have found out about them, how they are connected to Aleksandr Lukashenko, and why they were put in their posts.

Serbia

In March 2023, the Serbian government announced that Živorad Smiljković would become the honorary consul in Belarus.

Smiljković is the head of the Slovenian company Riko’s representative office in Belarus. The company has been working in Belarus for over twenty years, providing a range of services, including technology, energy, the environment, logistics, and construction.

Jivorad Smil'kovich

Živorad Smiljković Source: newsgomel.by

Riko has been really busy recently, working on multi-million dollar projects to construct and reconstruct power substations in Belarus.

Serbian publication Danas quotes diplomat and former Serbian ambassador to Belarus Srećko Đukić, who calls Smiljković “a capable businessman in all these impossible conditions in Belarus, with all these sanctions”. Đukić believes that Smiljković is a man who “knows Belarus inside out” and is also familiar with the Serbian establishment currently in power.

But Živorad Smiljković is not only connected to the Serbian authorities. Buro found that in July 2017, Smiljković returned to Minsk on a business jet with Dzmitry Lukashenko and his wife from the Italian city of Cagliari in Sardinia, where Hanna Lukashenko was celebrating her birthday.

In 2019, he also flew to Sion, Switzerland, for a fortnight with the family of Lukashenko’s middle son. They took a state aeroplane from this ski resort back to Minsk.

One of the co-owners of Riko, Janez Škrabec, is a former honorary consul of Slovenia in Belarus. His government removed him from this position following the events of 2020. He has repeatedly spoken out against the EU’s sanctions against Russia and Belarus.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Bosnia and Herzegovina Honorary Consulate was headed by Belarusian politician and businessman Uladzimir Halaburda. Belarus has not announced the date of the consulate’s opening. All we can say for sure is that the website for the new Honorary Consulate appeared in July 2024.

Halaburda used to sit on the Minsk City Council and has served there for at least three terms.

However, Halaburda is not only a politician but also a well-known businessman. In the late 90s, he founded Optimed, a vision correction clinic. He was also deputy director of Ingrida Nafta from 2007 to 2014. At various times, co-owners of the company were Lukashenko’s “moneybag” Alexander Zaitsev and businessmen from Lukashenko’s entourage – Artur Zubaryk, Liudmila Niaronskaya, and Sviatlana Harayeva.

Today, Uladzimir Halaburda is one of the owners of InnoTech Solutions. The company develops and implements software for business, economics, information protection, and special-purpose products. In recent years, the company’s employees have published a number of scientific papers on various topics, primarily related to Belarus’s energy complex. Additionally, they have contributed articles on “ethical hacking” and “Python programming for hackers”, which were featured in the magazine Khaker.

In 2022, the company was integrated into the Geoinformatsionnye Sistemy Upravleniya holding company, with Agat – Sistemy Upravleniya assuming a management role. In April 2024, InnoTech Solutions became subject to U.S. sanctions because Agat – Sistemy Upravleniya supplies its products to the Belarusian army.

Oman

Vasil Matsiusheuski, Belarus’s former First Deputy Prime Minister, has been appointed Honorary Consul of Oman.

From 1998 to 2010, Matsiusheuski worked at the National Bank of Belarus. His responsibilities included supervising gold and foreign exchange reserves, attracting foreign investment, and managing international activities.

From 2014 to 2018, he served as First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus, in charge of the economic sector.

In 2018, Matsiusheuski assumed the role of Chairman of the Board at BelVEB Bank.

Vasilii Matyushevskii

Vasil Matsiusheuski. Source: tut.by

In March 2022, the Nasha Niva newspaper, citing its sources, reported that the entire bank management was detained by law enforcement but was soon released on bail. Further developments occurred rapidly. On April 26, BelVEB formally announced that Matsiusheuski was relinquishing his board chairman role. On the same day, Matsiusheuski met with Aleksandr Lukashenko, State Control Committee chairman Vasil Herasimau and First Deputy Prime Minister Mikalai Snapkou. Matsiusheuski resumed his role as Chairman of the Board on April 28, two days after the meeting with Lukashenko.

Following Prime Minister Raman Halouchanka’s visit to Oman in 2024, the appointment of such an experienced cadre as honorary consul was revealed.

“Among Oman’s key objectives are industrial development, the establishment of a manufacturing industry, agricultural production and food processing. From our perspective, we are interested in the development of logistics, the re-export of goods, the functioning of free economic zones, and the development of Oman’s oil refining and chemical industry. Therefore, the field for joint activities is huge”.

Vanuatu

Recently, businessman Aleksandr Kaldjiev became honorary consul of this faraway Pacific nation. His consulate’s website went live in November 2023.

The Republic of Vanuatu is located on 83 islands in the Pacific Ocean. It is best known for its affordable citizenship and offshore services.

Aleksandr Kaldjiev

Aleksandr Kaldjiev. Source: consulvanuatu.by

Aleksandr is co-owner of the Belarusian company Miruar, which is building an 8,000 square metre five-star spa hotel and several dozen two-storey villas right on the shores of the Minsk Sea. Another co-owner of the company – Turkish national Egemen Mustafa Şener – is believed to be the owner of the H Casino at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Minsk.

In 2022, Kaldjiev also became a consultant at Marketliga, a chain of duty-free shops owned by the National Olympic Committee and the Presidential Sports Club.

Sri Lanka

In January 2023, Sri Lanka’s Ambassador Janitha A. Liyanage attended the opening of her country’s Honorary Consul office in Belarus. A Belarusian doctor, Associate Professor of the Belarusian State Medical University, Dzmitry Ruzanau, headed the office.

Otkrytie pochetnogo konsul'stva SHri-Lanki v Minske

Opening of the Honorary Consulate of Sri Lanka in Minsk. Dzmitry Ruzanau is in the centre. Source: srilankaembassy.ru

He previously worked in the Belarus representative offices of many European pharmaceutical companies. In 2017, he was listed as an employee of Yury Chyzh’s Triplepharm.

Triplepharm, a generic drug manufacturer, was once owned by Yury Chyzh but now by his sons, daughter and former business partner Uladzimir Yapryntsau. In 2023, Yury Chyzh tried to regain company ownership through the court, but the court rejected him.

In 2021, Ruzanau was appointed director of the National Scientific and Practical Centre of Medical Technologies. In 2023, he was made Honorary Consul of Sri Lanka. This is probably connected with the interest of Belarusian medical schools in foreign students.

Our assumptions were confirmed. The recent meeting between Belarusian Foreign Minister Maksim Ryzhankou and Sri Lankan First Deputy Foreign Minister Aruni Yasodha Wijewardane at the BRICS summit touched on this issue.

A press release from the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said that “in the context of developing humanitarian interaction, the importance of training students from Sri Lanka in Belarus, especially in medical universities, was emphasised”.

In the past, Lukashenko's "moneybags" or businessmen from his inner circle were repeatedly seen among the honorary consuls in Belarus. For instance, Lukashenko's close friend Siarhei Tsiatseryn is the honorary consul of Georgia in Belarus. At the same time, Lukashenko's "moneybag" Alexander Zaitsev is the honorary consul of Zambia, and Pavel Topouzidis is the honorary consul of Greece and former honorary consul of Romania. Aliaksandr Mashenski is the honorary consul of Iceland.