Russia not ready to pay $100 mln to Belarus as bailout for Baumgertner

On Monday, Alyaksandr Lukashenka made a statement that Vladislav Baumgertner would be transferred to the Russian side after compensation of the damage that Belarus suffered.  "I'm not bloodthirsty, I am not saying we should send them to prison or something. Let them recompense the damage until we suffer more," Lukashenka has said during the meeting with the directors of the CIS countries mass media.
 

However, an influential Russian newspaper Commersant, the Russian side is not ready to recompense the damage at such terms (the Belarusian investigators had calculated at least $100 million). Lawyer Yuliy Tai, who represents the interests of Senator Suleiman Kerimov (the "Uralkali" key shareholder), noted that the Belarusian leader had in fact "demanded the bailout for Baumgertner, unprecedentedly for the norms of law". He underlined that the compensation is usually paid after announcement of the sentence and its coming into force. "Nothing of the above has happened yet, so no payments should be made," - the Russian newspaper quotes the lawyer.

The Commersant refers to some anonymous source and claims that Moscow previously received an offer from Minsk to exchange Baumgertner for compensation of the damage of $100 million. It was underlined that this was not a great sum for "Uralkali" and the company was ready to pay in case there was an acceptable scheme, for example, as a recognizes". The Russian side considers that direct payment for the damage means admittance of guilt and confirmation of charges against Vladislav Baumgertner.

According to the Russian newspaper, the Uralkali CEO will most likely be released only after replacement of the main owner of the company. However, the process has been frozen, as Kerimov set the price for his package of 21,75% shares much higher than the market price and none of the contenders can afford it. So, the situation will probably stay the same for several months, and Vladislav Baumgertner will stay under the house arrest in Minsk for the whole time.

Photo - ria.ru