[Translation prepared by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

"A company that was linked to Putin's godfather until early 2025 is transporting cargo from occupied Ukrainian territories to Belarus - BRC", 1 July 2025

The company, which until January 2025 was associated with former Ukrainian MP and Vladimir Putin's godfather Viktor Medvedchuk, transports cargo from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Belarus...

...in 2024, Belarusian enterprises received 674 railcars of cargo (metallurgical raw materials, coal and steel) from the territories occupied by Russian troops, and in the first quarter of 2025, another 30 railcars.

The carrier is the company "Florence"... Putin's godfather was reportedly connected to it through the company "Terminal", which was its owner until January 24 of this year. Now the owner in the documents is listed as AO "Aliot". It belongs to Timur Satdarov, who had a small business selling craft canned goods in Russia. At the time of publication, the investigators were unable to prove his connection with Medvedchuk.

"Florance" delivers cargo to the Belarusian border, where it is accepted by Belarusian forwarding companies, including the company "Avantrail". The raw materials and goods delivered to Belarus were intended for the holding company "BelAZ", the Osipovichi plant of transport engineering and the company "Keramin".

Viktor Medvedchuk is a former member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and from 2018 to 2022, he headed the political council of the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform – For Life (OPFL)...

In October 2021, Medvedchuk was placed under house arrest on treason charges. He escaped three days before the war but was captured in April 2022...