Outcome of Uralkali situation in Belarus will be favorable for Russia - Kremlin administration chief
MOSCOW. Oct 1 (Interfax) - Russian presidential chief-of-staff Sergei Ivanov has said he anticipates that the situation surrounding Russia's potash miner Uralkali in Belarus will have a happy ending.
When asked what might happen to the Customs Union, former by Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, "amid the Uralkali controversy", Ivanov said that "nothing is going to happen [to the organization]".
"Belarus will remain a member of the Customs Union. As far as this issue is concerned, I believe it will have quite a favorable outcome for the Russian side. Blackmail won't work with Russia," he told Russia's newspapers Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Komsomolskaya Pravda, RBC-Daily and Gazeta.ru.
Baumgertner was arrested in Minsk late last month and charged by the Belarusian Investigative Committee with abuse of office under a law that demands a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Besides Uralkali, Baumgertner holds a senior role at Belarusian Potash Company. He and other top BPC managers were accused of illegal business that allegedly inflicted damages of about $100 million on BPC and Belaruskali, which are state-owned companies.
Baumgertner was put in a detention facility of the Belarusian State Security Committee (KGB) from where he has been released to be put under house arrest.
