By the posh standards of the hotels and mansions scattered about the Black Sea ski resort favored by Russia’s elite, a nearby hillside complex that is nearing completion is nothing unusual.
Except for the people who are financing it.
The collection of buildings and terraced landscaping is perched on a slope above more modest homes, outside the village of Krasnaya Polyana.
It includes a 3,000-square-meter (32,000-square-foot) main house, that, according to architectural plans, features a swimming pool, a sauna, a fitness room, a bar, a cinema, a fireplace room with a grand piano, two guest bedrooms, and a master bedroom, among other amenities.
Also on the 10-hectare (24-acre) plot: three guest cottages, each 700 square meters (7,500 square feet) in area, each with a swimming pool, a bathhouse, a dining room and four bedrooms.
Then there’s the security system: a 2.5-meter-high blast-resistant steel fence; six perimeter guard posts, a weapons storage room, a drone suppression system, metal and X-ray detectors, thermal imagers, and even "means for monitoring the radiation environment and non-intrusive automatic detection of radioactive and nuclear materials."
The principal investors behind the complex, which is located about 2 kilometers from the ski resort itself and which drone footage and satellite imagery suggests is in its final stages, are politically connected Belarusians, many with direct links to strongman leader Aleksandr Lukashenko’s inner circle, according to findings by a consortium of news organizations, including RFE/RL’s Belarus Service.
The consortium includes the Belarusian Investigative Center, a collective of exiled journalists, as well as the Russian outlet Vazhniye Istoriye, the Ukrainian project Slidstvo.Info, and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. BelPol, a group made up of former Belarusian security officials, and two hacker activist groups KibOrg and the CyberPartisans, also helped in the investigation.
The style of construction was not unlike luxury chalets found in the ski slopes and mountains of France and Switzerland, according to Paval Radchenko, a Belarusian interior designer.
“They’re not pinching pennies here,” he told the Belarusian Investigative Center, known by its acronym, BIC. “That is to say, all the rooms are as large as possible to satisfy a person’s every wishes and desire. If they were any larger, it would simply be really inconvenient to use them.”
Playground For Russia’s Skiing Elite
Located in the mountains east of the Black Sea, the Krasnaya Polyana resort has long been favored Russia’s party-and-skiing elite—particularly as Western sanctions have made skiing in the glamor spots of the European Alps more problematic.
The region saw a flood of money and investment before Russia hosted the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Kremlin-connected business interests, including some of President Vladimir Putin’s childhood friends, earned massive contracts to build roads and other infrastructure, not to mention numerous real estate developments.
Lukashenko himself has skied at Krasnaya Polyana; in 2021, he was a guest of Putin's, and the two hit the wintry slopes together, as well as going snowmobiling.
More recently, Belarusians linked to Lukashenko have cashed in on development in the region.
Evidence of a resort complex possibly linked to Lukashenko being built near Krasnaya Polyana first emerged in early 2024 through reporting by BelPol and the Poland-based TV channel Belsat.
According to land-ownership records obtained by the BIC, the 10-hectare plot previously belonged to the government of Belarus. In 2021, Lukashenko signed an unpublished order selling the land to a private Russian company called Complex-Invest for almost $13 million, according to records shared with RFE/RL.
Six months later, however, the estimated value was halved -- to $6.4 million -- according to bank documents submitted by Complex-Invest as it sought new financing for the project.
Registered in Moscow, Complex-Invest’s listed owner was a retired Belarusian woman named Yelena Bortseva. She is the sister-in-law of Belarusian businessman Uladzimir Yaprintsev, a longtime ally of Lukashenko.
In July 2023, the CEO of Complex-Invest, Alyaksey Prudnikov, was summoned for questioning by Russia’s Federal Tax Service.
It was unclear exactly why he was summoned. According to documents seen by BIC, Prudnikov told investigators that the company’s financing was mainly in the form of bank loans and similar borrowing.
About six months later, in February 2024, according to corporate registry documents, the company’s ownership was transferred to Aleksandr Romanovsky, who previously worked for Lukashenko’s presidential bodyguard service.
Lukashenko’s Inner Circle
In power since 1994, Lukashenko has ruled Belarus as a singular, unchallenged leader, orchestrating elections that outside observers call fraudulent and building a police-state surveillance system anchored on security services that quash dissent.
Heavily sanctioned and isolated by the West, Lukashenko’s government has relied on Russia above all for trade and economic support. Its leading exports have included refined oil products – refined from subsidized Russian oil imports -- as well as agriculture exports, such as dairy products and fertilizer.
Among his closest allies to have benefited over the years is Viktar Sheiman, a former prosecutor-general.
Sheiman has been sanctioned by Western governments for his ties to Lukashenko, most recently by the United States in May 2022 for “gross violations of human rights.” His wife and adult son were also hit with a visa ban.
Sheiman and at least other five individuals and companies have invested in the Krasnaya Polyana project.
According to documents obtained by BIC, the top creditor or investor in the project is Regionalny Paradak, a Belarusian-registered company that has ties to Sheiman. Paradak’s private security company, called Gardservice, loaned Complex-Invest about $6 million.
Andrey Svirydau, a former deputy to Sheiman, lent another $1.5 million via a Cyprus-based company called Rostumel Holding Limited. Svirydau is also director of a business group controlled by Sheiman called Vektor Capital Group, which has been linked to a sanctions evasion scheme that includes a major Belarusian fertilizer producer.
Romanovsky, the former bodyguard, loaned Complex-Invest $4 million, in five separate crediting agreements, after the company was transferred to his name. The original source of Romanovsky’s funds is unclear.
Another creditor is a Russian company that was founded by the son of Lukashenko’s former chief of staff. The company, called MRIS Group, loaned Complex-Invest nearly $500,000.
The largest creditor, however, was a Chinese company called Winshun Trade Limited, whose owners were also closely linked to Sheiman. The company, which was reportedly involved in an unusual scheme to evade sanctions and smuggle poultry feet to China, loaned Complex-Invest more than $10 million.
Complex-Invest did not respond to e-mails and phone calls from BIC seeking comment on the project and its funding. None of the other entities listed as creditors for Complex-Invest responded to requests seeking comment.
