Company Belonging To Businessman Close To Lukashenka Sued In Russia
- 25.03.2025, 12:19
The case involves a sum of 1.7 million Russian rubles.
The Karelian plant Amkodor-Onego, part of the holding of businessman Aliaksandr Shakutsin, who is reportedly close to Lukashenka, is facing another lawsuit. This time from Russian Railways.
One of the largest Russian holdings is demanding that Amkodor-Onego pay off its debt. The statement of claim, which involves a sum of 1.7 million Russian rubles, has been accepted for consideration by the Arbitration Court of the Republic of Karelia.
The amount of the claim is relatively small, but the demand of Russian Railways has been added to the list of claims of Russian counterparties against one of the largest Belarusian manufacturing enterprises in Russia.
As the portal “Belarusians and the Market” has already written, at the beginning of 2025, among those who filed lawsuits against Amkodor-Onego were Ilim-Group, the largest Russian producer of pulp, paper and cardboard, the Petrozavodsk company “E2”, and the Union of Forestry Industrialists of the Komi Republic. The total amount of their monetary claims at that time was about 380 thousand dollars in dollar equivalent. At the moment, Aliaksandr Shakutsin's plant has settled with the Union of Forestry Industrialists of the Komi Republic, and a court decision was made on the claim of the Ilim Group to return funds to the Russians in an even larger amount than was stated in the initial version.
In October 2024, the Federal Tax Service of Russia even blocked the accounts of Amkodor-Onego for tax arrears. At that time, it amounted to 30.8 million Russian rubles (over 300 thousand dollars), which served as a reason for suspending operations on the company's accounts in VTB, Gazprombank, Sberbank and the Bank for Development and Modernization of Industry.
The Amkodor-Onego company was created in 2018, when Aliaksandr Shakutsin bought out the property complex of the Onega Tractor Plant. At its expense, using its own funds and funds from a special federal program, a plant was built to produce various types of logging equipment - forwarders, harvesters, log loaders, tractors, etc. Amkodor-Onego heads the special division Amkodor-Lesmash, created within the structure of the Amkodor holding.
According to the business plan, by 2028 the enterprise should reach its design capacity for the production of 500 units of equipment. It was expected that at least 400 jobs would be created there.
According to the Amkodor-Onego report, in 2023 the plant employed just over 100 people. The company more than doubled its revenue (to over $15 million) and made its first profit. Its size was about $180,000 equivalent.