A Cypriot company owned by the mother of wanted businessman Vitalii Bobyr provided loans to a Russian firm building the Krasnaya Polyana resort complex — the Russian residence of self-proclaimed Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
This is according to a joint investigation by Slidstvo.Info and BRC.
Construction of Oleksandr Lukashenko’s residence near Sochi
In 2024, the Cypriot company Rostumel Holding Limited provided a loan of one and a half million US dollars to the Russian company Kompleks-Invest, which is the initiator of the construction of the residence. Its co-founder is Oleksandr Romanovskyi, a former employee of Oleksandr Lukashenko’s Security Service. According to the former director of Kompleks-Invest, the company is financed exclusively from borrowed funds.
Investigators have established that most of the creditors are companies associated with Lukashenko’s inner circle. Among them is Rostumel Holding Limited. This company is owned by 72-year-old Iryna Bobyr from Lviv.
She is the mother of Vitalii Bobir, a businessman who has been wanted by the Security Service of Ukraine since May 2023. According to reports from the security service, Bobyr supplied Rolls-Royces and Maybachs to Belarus and Russia in circumvention of sanctions. In addition, Vitalii Bobyr is involved in the transshipment of sanctioned Belarusian mineral fertilisers in the port of St. Petersburg. This was mentioned in an investigation by the Skhemy project.
In March 2023, as part of criminal proceedings, a court in Kyiv seized items found during searches of Vitalii Bobyr’s premises: documents, equipment and seals belonging to two dozen companies from Ukraine, one from Belarus and two from Cyprus. One of them was Rostumel Holding Limited. In correspondence on one of the confiscated phones, Bobyr claimed that his godfather was a high-ranking Belarusian official, ‘the second most powerful person in Belarus.’ It is highly likely that this was one of Lukashenko’s closest associates, Viktor Sheiman, the former head of the Presidential Administration of Belarus.
Oleksandr Lukashenko and Viktor Sheiman. Photo: The Insider
In response to questions from Slidstvo.Info journalists about the financing of the Krasnaya Polyana complex, Vitalii Bobyr said: “I don’t understand what you’re talking about. My mother does not own any company.” Investigators were unable to speak with Iryna Bobyr.
Three VIP cottages on the territory of Oleksandr Lukashenko’s future residence near Sochi (the Belarusian leader has three sons)
Journalists managed to obtain video footage of the residence’s construction from a drone. According to the documentation, the complex consists of a main house (3,000 square metres), three cottages (700 square metres each, each with a swimming pool and bathhouse), and buildings for security and staff. The fence is designed to prevent tunnelling. The main house is designed to accommodate a wheelchair (the media reported on the self-proclaimed Belarusian leader’s knee and back problems).
Layout of the Krasnaya Polyana land plot
In April 2024, activists from the Belpol initiative revealed that the Krasnaya Polyana hotel complex is to be Oleksandr Lukashenko’s future residence. The facility is located in a mountainous area, 40 kilometres from the Russian resort city of Sochi.
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The investigation was prepared in partnership with the initiatives Rabochy Rukh, BelPol, and Cyber Partisans, as well as the outlets Istories.Media, Radio Svaboda, OCCRP, and KibOrg.
