A little-known Belarusian company reportedly collected about €20.3 million in dividends in its first year after taking a 10% stake in the local business of Russian online marketplace Wildberries. The payout has drawn attention because TD Kvadrat appears to have had little visible operating activity, while business links described in a journalistic investigation extend towards President Alexander Lukashenko’s family circle.
The available reporting does not establish who ultimately controls the stake or prove that any money was transferred unlawfully. It does, however, expose a sharp gap between a formal corporate structure and the people who may stand to benefit from one of Belarus’s largest digital retail businesses.
The investigation was published by Buro Media on 20 October 2026.
A large holding in a quiet company
According to the investigation, TD Kvadrat acquired its 10% interest in Wildberries’ Belarusian operations in March 2025. The marketplace is one of the biggest online retailers operating in the country. Its Belarusian business reported revenue of more than 9 billion Belarusian roubles in 2025, making a minority holding financially significant even without a controlling share.
TD Kvadrat is said to have received approximately €20.3 million in dividends during its first year. That sum amounted to almost a quarter of the profit generated by Wildberries’ Belarusian operation, according to the published reporting.
The company’s own public profile, by contrast, was limited. It did not appear to conduct an operating business on a scale that would obviously account for such returns. That is not, in itself, evidence of wrongdoing: companies can legally hold investments without running substantial commercial operations. But it makes the terms of the acquisition, the source of the investment and the ultimate destination of the dividends important questions.
Businessman Dmitri Kurnosenko was identified as TD Kvadrat’s formal beneficiary. Buro Media linked him to state projects, a photo and video surveillance system and the business environment around Dmitri Lukashenko, the president’s middle son. Those connections provide context for the company’s network, but they do not independently prove that the Lukashenko family owns the Wildberries stake.
A chain of political and commercial connections
The investigation also highlights Yevgeny Vasilyev, who is named as TD Kvadrat’s director and as the head of Wildberries’ work with government bodies. His roles place him close to both sides of the arrangement: the company receiving the dividends and the marketplace responsible for dealing with state institutions.
Journalists further described business links involving Vasilyev’s wife. She reportedly runs a restaurant business with Natalia Sadovskaya. Sadovskaya, in turn, was identified as a business partner of Vladimir Kulakov, the husband of Anna Lukashenko. Anna Lukashenko is Alexander Lukashenko’s sister and Dmitri Lukashenko’s wife.
Kulakov also reportedly spent 10 years managing a subsidiary of the Presidential Sports Club, an organisation consistently headed by Dmitri Lukashenko. Each relationship could exist as an ordinary commercial or professional connection. None proves hidden ownership, an illegal payment or a covert transfer of profits.
The significance lies in the accumulation of links. A formal beneficiary associated with state projects, a director responsible for government relations, business partners connected to the president’s family and a company receiving a major dividend stream form a network in which legal ownership and effective influence may not be the same thing.
That distinction cannot be resolved through personal associations alone. Public information about the ultimate owners, the conditions attached to the 2025 transaction and the route taken by the dividends would be needed to establish whether TD Kvadrat is simply an investment vehicle belonging to its registered beneficiary or represents interests held elsewhere.
Private returns against public pressure
The case carries political weight because the reported payout sits alongside broader economic pressure in Belarus. As households face reduced purchasing power and worsening economic conditions, a stake in a major online retailer is said to have generated tens of millions of euros for a company with little visible public activity.
That contrast does not prove that the arrangement was improper. It does raise a wider question about access to valuable businesses in a system where connections to state institutions and influential networks can affect who is able to participate in major commercial opportunities.
Wildberries is more than a passive financial asset. Its Belarusian operation occupies a prominent place in online commerce and produces billions of roubles in revenue. A 10% holding therefore offers both substantial income and a foothold in an important part of the retail economy.
If the relationships described by Buro Media also reflect the real distribution of control, TD Kvadrat would sit at the intersection of a lucrative private business, state-facing contacts and the president’s family circle. That remains a possibility rather than an established fact. The reporting maps the relationships and identifies the formal beneficiary, but it does not conclusively identify the ultimate economic beneficiaries or explain the legal basis for the dividend distribution.
Until those ownership and payment details become public, the €20.3 million payout will remain less a definitive answer to who controls Wildberries in Belarus than a measure of the opacity surrounding those positioned to profit from it.
