Belarusian army general under EU, US sanctions visits Zimbabwe amid discussions of "cooperation" prospects

By bne IntelliNews November 3, 2023

A delegation of the Zimbabwe Defense Forces travelled to Belarus this week on a visit amid reports of possible high level military hardware supply agreements between the Russian allies.

Meanwhile, a visit to Zimbabwe by Belarusian army general Viktor Sheiman this week has sparked speculation and concern in the southern African nation over the real motives behind it, according to NewsDay.

Sheiman, a subject of European Union (EU) and US sanctions over alleged human rights abuses and suspect business deals, was in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital on October 30. He was pictured shaking hands with President Emmerson Mnangagwa at the presidential palace in the capital. 

“We have embassies in each other's countries,” the daily cited Zimbabwe foreign affairs minister Frederick Shava as saying on November 2.

“They are here to follow up on the deals signed by the heads of State (Mnangagwa and Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko) in January especially in agriculture. They have good dairy technologies and our dairy farms can benefit from them.”

NewsDay, however, recalled that during a 2018 visit to the southern African nation, Sheiman claimed to have come to negotiate mining deals on behalf of the Belarusian government but it turned out that the deals were actually personal. 

The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) revealed that a company, Zim Goldfields, is secretly co-owned by Sheiman’s son Sergei and a Belarusian businessman named Alexander Zingman, with no stake for the Belarusian government.

Sheiman is a close ally of Belarusian leader Lukashenko, who is also a close Mnangagwa ally.

“Leaked documents from the Pandora Papers revealed that Sheiman and his family had secretly owned an offshore company involved in dealings with a Zimbabwean State-owned mining company,” NewsDay wrote.

The EU and US sanctioned Sheiman for his role in alleged human rights issues and the disappearance of Lukashenko's critics during his tenure as Belarus' prosecutor-general in 2004.

Meanwhile, according to a Belarusian news agency, BelTA, a delegation of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces was in Minsk on November 2 for discussions on “promising avenues of future cooperation.”

A conference dedicated to the advancement of military contacts between Belarus and Zimbabwe took place in the Central House of Officers of Belarus' Armed Forces, BelTA noted.

Read in IntelliNews Pro
Get IntelliNews Pro

Related Articles

Kenyan lawmakers move to regulate, tax cryptocurrencies

Kenya has set in motion plans to regulate and tax the fast-expanding cryptocurrency industry, a development that will result in about 4mn Kenyans being subjected to taxation. Parliament’s ... more

Three renewables-focused entities sign power purchase deal for Zambian solar energy project Ilute

Africa GreenCo Group (GreenCo), Serengeti Energy and Western Solar Power have signed a power purchase agreement  (PPA) for the 25-MW Ilute Solar PV Project (Ilute Solar) in western Zambia. ... ... more

Could the DRC become the Saudi Arabia of the electric vehicle age?

Perhaps no country has more to gain from the ‘clean’ energy transition than the Democratic Republic of the ... more

Follow Us On

Most Read

  1. LONG READ: The boomerang effect: sanctions hurt Europe more than Russia
    6 days ago
  2. Putin's approval rating up to 85% in November, Russians happy with the country's direction
    4 days ago
  3. Oil continues to flow to Israel via Turkey despite Erdogan’s vehement speeches on plight of Gaza
    1 month ago
  4. Top Ukrainian politician David Arakhamia gives seventh confirmation of Russia-Ukraine peace deal agreed in March 2022
    11 days ago
  5. Former Kazakh leader Nazarbayev confesses to polygamy with Miss Kazakhstan 1999
    2 days ago
  1. Oil continues to flow to Israel via Turkey despite Erdogan’s vehement speeches on plight of Gaza
    1 month ago
  2. Top Ukrainian politician David Arakhamia gives seventh confirmation of Russia-Ukraine peace deal agreed in March 2022
    11 days ago
  3. Russia overtakes Germany to become fifth biggest economy in the world in GDP on a PPP basis
    4 months ago
  4. Armenia marks new era with French military purchases
    10 days ago
  5. Lavrov confirms Ukraine war peace deal reached last April, but then abandoned
    2 months ago

Reports

SELECT `n`.`nid` AS `id`, `n`.`title`, 'bne IntelliNews' AS authors, 'bne IntelliNews' AS bylines, `wc`.`field_website_callout_value` AS `summary`, `smc`.`field_social_media_callout_value` AS `social`, `pd`.`published_at` AS `date`, `p`.`field_publication__tid` AS `publication_id`, `fm`.`uri` AS `image`, `fspcaption`.`field_story_photo_caption_value` AS `image_credit`, `fspcredit`.`field_story_photo_credit_value` AS `image_author`, `ws`.`field_website_sections_tid` AS `section_id`, `fdfs`.`field_subject_tid` AS `subject_id`, `db`.`body_value` AS `body`, `fm2`.`uri` AS `pdf`, `et`.`field_enable_tracking_value` AS `tracking`, `ht`.`field_head_tags_value` AS `headTags`, `bt`.`field_body_tags_value` AS `bodyTags` FROM `node` AS `n` LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_website_callout` AS `wc` ON wc.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_social_media_callout` AS `smc` ON smc.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `publication_date` AS `pd` ON pd.nid = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_publication_` AS `p` ON p.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_story_picture` AS `sp` ON sp.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `file_managed` AS `fm` ON fm.fid = sp.field_story_picture_fid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_story_photo_caption` AS `fspcaption` ON fspcaption.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_story_photo_credit` AS `fspcredit` ON fspcredit.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `workflow_node` AS `wn` ON wn.nid = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_website_sections` AS `ws` ON ws.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_subject` AS `fdfs` ON fdfs.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_body` AS `db` ON db.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_file` AS `ff` ON ff.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `file_managed` AS `fm2` ON fm2.fid = ff.field_file_fid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_enable_tracking` AS `et` ON et.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_head_tags` AS `ht` ON ht.entity_id = n.nid LEFT JOIN `field_data_field_body_tags` AS `bt` ON bt.entity_id = n.nid WHERE (n.status = 1) AND (n.type = 'article') AND (n.nid = 299644) AND (wn.sid= 3) AND (p.field_publication__tid IN (2465,2851,3184,3159,3266,3264,3270,3265,3267,3268,3269,3171,3168,3185,3170,1346,1345,3180,3175,3254,3249,1207,1208,3181,3231,3177,3186,3178,1003,3187,2975,3204,3198,3188,3202,3196,3250,3189,3160,3161,3312,3313,3173,3314,3315,3167,3259,3257,3263,3258,3260,3261,3262,3174,3316,3165,3192,3163,3282,3190,2811,3256,3317,3162,3318,3191,3297,3182,3179,3166,3319,3376,3320,3172,3255,3169,1008,3203,3197,3321,3252,3164,1307,3322,3183,3220,3176,3201,3323,1327,1020,1006,1009,1013,1014,1018,1005,1328,1010,1011,1002,1012,1311,1330,1017,1016,1019,1004,1001,1334,1335,1336,1015,1337,1338,1339,1340,1341,2496,2501,2517,2529,2506,2505,2524,2513,2526,2537,2489,2490,2520,2536,2488,2532,2500,2515,2503,2493,2527,2523,2510,2525,2498,2499,2528,2507,2487,2511,2521,2502,2491,2519,2497,2492,2514,2495,2509,2512,1629,3358)) LIMIT 1
Dismiss