In just three years, Alena Sauchanka, a secretary without a university degree raising a young child, became a co-owner of a strategically important business and began acquiring high-value real estate. Her rapid rise may be explained by ties to Viktar Sheiman. The investigation was produced by the Belarusian Investigative Center in cooperation with Rabochy Rukh, with support from the Cyber Partisans and the Ukrainian hacker community KibOrg.
In 2005, 26-year-old Bobruisk resident Alena Sauchanka joined the privately owned Interregional Crushing and Screening Plant (MDSZ). The plant, founded in 2004 by businessman Mikalai Kruk and his business partner, operated alongside the state-owned Granit enterprise, one of Europe’s largest crushed stone producers.
Before joining MDSZ, Sauchanka had worked only as a secretary at a private medical equipment company. Nine months after being hired, she became the owner of a 40% stake in the plant.
The BRC found documents and evidence indicating that during this period she maintained close ties with Viktar Sheiman, a longtime close associate of Aliaksandr Lukashenka.
State databases contain a record of Sauchanka’s son, Uladzimir, who was born in 2002. The child’s father is listed as Viktar Uladzimiravich Sauchanka, but no such person exists — the father’s details are not linked to any valid passport.
The investigators note that this is how documents are often prepared for the children of senior officials. The father’s first name and patronymic are genuine, while the mother’s surname is used as the child’s surname. In Sauchanka’s case, the father’s first name and patronymic match those of Viktar Sheiman.
The BRC identified additional links between Sheiman, Sauchanka and her son. In 2009, seven-year-old Uladzimir and his grandmother Zoya Sauchanka flew by private jet from Minsk to Simferopol and back with Viktar Sheiman and his trusted associate Aliaksandr Ramanouski. Apart from them, only the flight crew was on board. In 2009 and 2012, Alena, her son and Sheiman traveled together to the United Arab Emirates. In 2021, airline tickets to Cuba were booked in the names of Sheiman, Uladzimir Sauchanka and Mikhail Pushkarou (another alleged son of Sheiman). The booking for Uladzimir was later cancelled.
In 2022, Uladzimir Sauchanka took COVID-19 tests together with Viktar Sheiman, Hanna and Mikhail Pushkarou at the Republican Clinical Medical Center, often referred to as the “presidential clinic.” The same year, Uladzimir traveled to Abkhazia in the same vehicle as Aleh Sakalou, an employee of GardService, a company linked to Sheiman.
“Neither the passport database record, nor the joint flights, nor the clinic visit alone prove that Viktar Sheiman is Uladzimir Sauchanka’s father. Taken together, however, these facts point to long-standing and close ties between them. Against this backdrop, Alena Sauchanka’s rapid accumulation of wealth no longer appears coincidental,” the BRC noted.
Two years after joining MDSZ, Alena Sauchanka exited the business. Around the same time, she acquired a stake in the Southern Industrial Energy Company and joined Hiperkom. In 2007, she became a co-owner of the company and also obtained a stake in another group company, Hiperkom-Prayekt. Sauchanka also became the owner of two commercial premises in the Niamiha City business center.
In 2008, Sauchanka came under investigation by the Interior Ministry. Two criminal cases were opened. The first concerned the alleged use of a forged diploma to obtain employment at MDSZ and Hiperkom. The second involved the allocation, without an auction, of four land plots in the village of Tarasava near Minsk to Sauchanka and the head of the Zhdanovichi trading house. The chairman of the Zhdanovichi village council was later found guilty of unlawfully allocating the land.
The investigation was led by Viachaslau Dudkin, head of the Interior Ministry’s anti-corruption department. After leaving Belarus, he told journalists that Sauchanka had attempted to explain her substantial income by citing interest-free loans and expensive gifts from foreigners. The reported value of these “gifts” amounted to at least $50,000 per month. According to Dudkin, the review of her income was halted after intervention by Viktar Sheiman and an “unequivocal order” from Lukashenka. The case concerning the forged diploma was closed, while the land plots remained in Sauchanka’s ownership.
By 2006, Sauchanka owned a house and a land plot in Raubichy, as well as two adjacent plots in Tarasava.
By March 2012, Sauchanka had withdrawn from all Minsk-based companies. The same year marked her last confirmed joint trip with Viktar Sheiman to the United Arab Emirates.
In 2013, Sauchanka received as a gift from an unidentified individual two nearly identical cottages, each measuring about 450 square metres, in Vialikaya Sliapianka near the National Library. At the time of publication, one of the houses was listed for sale for $640,000.
Between 2015 and 2016, Sauchanka purchased two more retail properties in different districts of Minsk. In 2019, she became the sole owner of Kuvyeradzyeu, the company that owns a shopping center on Adzintsova Street in Minsk. Another large residential complex where Sauchanka currently lives is located in the village of Shchomyslitsa near Minsk.
Sauchanka’s son Uladzimir studied at Switzerland’s Institut auf dem Rosenberg, the world’s most expensive private school, between 2017 and 2021. In 2025, one year of tuition cost $215,000. In 2022, Uladzimir Sauchanka was in Abkhazia at the same time as Viktar Sheiman. The trip took place while companies linked to Sheiman’s circle were involved in projects on Abkhazia’s Black Sea coast.
Journalists attempted to contact Alena Sauchanka by telephone. Using one number, the woman confirmed that she was speaking to a journalist but then said the journalist had reached the wrong number and ended the call. Using the second number, she declined to confirm her identity. Other individuals named in the investigation either did not answer phone calls or declined to comment.
