Journalists identified Russian companies that take, process and export agricultural products from the occupied territories

Russians export and sell at knockdown price rapeseed from the occupied part of the Kherson region to processing plants in Belarus, and export the products from there, a joint investigation by the Belarusian Investigative Centre, the Ukrainian hackers’ association KibOrg, and the Radio Liberty project Schemes found out.

The journalists found out that in 2023, Russian companies exported 4.9 tonnes of rapeseed from the occupied part of the Kherson region to Belarus.

The largest importer was the Russian Torgtrade LLC, which accounted for 2.6 tonnes of exported rapeseed. Vadym Alekseev, director of Torgtrade, confirmed to journalists the facts of rapeseed exports from the occupied part of southern Ukraine, as recorded in Russian documents, and complained about bribery at Russian checkpoints.

The company was registered just in 2022, but within a year it had revenues of approximately €2.16 million. Tamerlan Berikkhanov, the owner of Torgtrade and a former official of the Grozny Finance Department in Chechnya, is related to the influential Chechen Isaiev family, which includes, among others, the deputy head of the Russian Federal Treasury.

Berikkhanov told journalists that his company processes rapeseed at its plant, the Trial Expert, in Belarus. The plant co-owner, Ihor Yakubovich, told one of the journalists that the plant supplies oil from the seeds exported from the occupied part of Ukraine “to different countries: Israel and Malaysia. Also here in Belarus, people buy a lot”.

The journalists also identified several other suppliers of rapeseed from the occupied part of the Kherson region to other enterprises in Belarus. These are Agrotrade LLC, registered in the same year, 2023, owned by Ukrainian collaborator from Crimea Anton Tikhomirov, Russian Veles-Agro LLC, and private entrepreneur from Barnaul, Russia, Alexey Lukianchenko.

They also pointed out that Ukrainian rapeseed was sold at prices significantly below market prices: $330-350 per tonne versus €450-460 on the European market.