Body found on Cyprus beach identified as missing Russian businessman once detained in Belarus
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Authorities in Cyprus said Wednesday a body discovered last month on a beach along the country’s southern coastline has been identified as the former chief executive of Russia’s largest potash company who had been detained in Belarus in 2013 on charges of harming the Belarusian economy.
Police on a British military base in Cyprus said DNA analysis confirm the body is that of Vladislav Baumgertner, 53, who went missing from his home in the coastal city of Limassol on Jan. 7. Baumgertner’s body was found a week later on Avdimou beach.
An investigation into the circumstances as well as the cause of Baumgertner’s death is ongoing, according to the British Sovereign Base Areas police. Baumgertner’s relatives have been notified. Avdimou lies inside one of two military bases on Cyprus that the U.K. retained after the island gained independence from British colonial rule in 1960. The bases have their own police force and courts.
Baumgertner was the CEO of Uralkali when Belarusian authorities placed him under house arrest in September 2013 after a dispute between his company and its Belarusian trading partner escalated.
He was released two months later and extradited to Russia where prosecutors launched a criminal probe against him on abuse of office charges.
At the time, analysts had attributed Baumgertner’s arrest to retaliation for Uralkali’s decision to pull out of a joint venture.
Uralkali and state-owned Belarusian Potash Co. had been exporting the commodity — a key ingredient in fertilizer — through a joint venture that at the time accounted for about a quarter of the world’s potash.
Uralkali pulled out of the trading venture after accusing the government in Minsk of allowing the state-owned company to export potash independently.
Uralkali’s withdrawal left Belarusian Potash Co. with virtually no qualified staff and raised fears of a price war. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed that Uralkali and Baumgertner’s actions harmed his country’s economy.
Baumgartner had been living in Cyprus for several years. He had reportedly been staying in an apartment above his place of business in Limassol that thousands of Russian expatriates have made their home.