Olena Kazak, the intensive-care doctor who has accompanied Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko for years, has taken control of a nationwide pharmacy chain involved in state medicine contracts.
Belarusian media reported on 13 August 2026 that Kazak had expanded her business interests across the medical and beauty sectors, with the transfer of ownership of the Ligmaton company providing the clearest sign of her growing commercial influence. The case illustrates how loyalty to the Lukashenko regime can bring privileged access to valuable assets while most Belarusians face a deeply weakened economy.
A pharmacy network changes hands
Ligmaton, which operates pharmacies across Belarus and takes part in state procurement of medicines, was transferred into Kazak’s name in August 2024, according to an investigation by Zerkalo. The company had previously belonged to Georgy Topuzidis, the son of businessman Pavel Topuzidis, and to his mother, Galina Petrovich.
Petrovich remained Ligmaton’s director after the ownership change. Kazak, meanwhile, joined the company as an employee in July 2024, shortly before the company was registered in her name. The sequence gives the transfer particular significance: the doctor was not merely entering the private healthcare market, but acquiring a business with an established national pharmacy network and access to public contracts.
The company’s participation in state procurement means that the value of the asset extends beyond its shops. Public medicine contracts provide an important route to revenue and influence in the healthcare sector. The transfer therefore demonstrates how commercial opportunities in Belarus can be distributed through personal connections rather than open competition and ordinary market principles.
From the presidential entourage to business
Kazak has accompanied Lukashenko on his travels since 2016, according to the report. Her role as his personal intensive-care doctor places her within the leader’s close circle and helps explain why the ownership change has attracted attention.
She was also recognised in Minsk in 2020 among people cutting white-red-white ribbons after large-scale protests. The ribbons had become a visible symbol of opposition to Lukashenko’s rule. Her presence among those removing them has been cited as evidence of her public loyalty to the regime, rather than simply her professional relationship with the president.
That loyalty has now been followed by a substantial commercial opportunity. Kazak’s growing interests in healthcare and beauty businesses suggest that access to the presidential entourage can translate into control of profitable private assets. In this case, the beneficiary is a doctor whose position is closely tied to the country’s ruler, while the business acquired is connected to a strategically important sector and state purchasing.
A wider picture of privilege
The episode points to the way the Lukashenko system rewards those who remain dependable to the leader. As Belarus passes through economic stagnation and the decline of several industrial sectors, the financial wellbeing of much of the population remains at a critically low level. Against that background, the rapid expansion of a presidential doctor’s commercial interests is difficult to view as an ordinary example of entrepreneurial success.
The central issue is not only who owns Ligmaton, but how ownership is allocated and what access follows from it. A pharmacy chain operating nationwide and competing for state medicine contracts is an asset with both commercial and institutional importance. Its transfer to a member of Lukashenko’s trusted circle exposes the corruption of a regime in which business assets are distributed according to personal devotion and service to the dictator, rather than transparent rules.
The case also leaves open the question of how far Kazak’s business expansion extends beyond Ligmaton and whether further assets or public contracts will emerge as part of the same network. What is already clear is the contrast between privilege at the top of the system and the economic insecurity experienced by ordinary Belarusians.
Should state-linked businesses in Belarus be subject to greater public scrutiny when they pass into the hands of people close to Lukashenko?
