Six facts about Andrei Shved — the former Prosecutor General who has now become the Chairman of the Supreme Court

Photo: sb.by

Born in Polesia, father died in a car accident

The future Prosecutor General was born in 1973 in Hlushkavichy, Polesia.

This village is surrounded on three sides by Ukraine: even the only car road from the district center in Lelchitsy passes through Ukrainian territory. Such a peculiarity arose during Soviet times, when borders were quite conditional. Andrei Shved's father, Ivan, came from this village — he was the director of the local school.

His mother, Zinaida Budnik, who was born in the Mogilev region, also came there by assignment. The woman was also a teacher and taught mathematics.

Andrei Shved's grandfather, Vasily, was from Ukraine, from the neighboring village of Budki-Kamyanski in the Rivne region.

In the 1970s, Shved's family planned to move to eastern Belarus. One of the trips there in the late 70s ended in tragedy — Shved's father's car crashed into a logging truck. The man died and was buried in his homeland in Hlushkavichy.

His mother soon left with three small children. They settled in the village of Lenina, Horki district, near the very Russian border.

Led the investigative group after the subway terrorist attack

Shved is a graduate of the BSU Law Faculty (graduated in 1996), he began his career in the Minsk prosecutor's office. From 1998 to 2006, he served in various positions in the Prosecutor General's Office.

From 2006-2010, he was head of the legal department at the Security Council. Afterwards, he worked as the First Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee, and Chairman of the State Forensic Examination Committee. On September 9, 2020, Shved was appointed Prosecutor General (where he remained until December 19, 2025).

Shved was part of the investigative group that probed the murder of Oleg Bebenin, editor of the opposition website «Charter-97», in 2010. And when an explosion occurred on April 11, 2011, at the «Kastrychnitskaya» station of the Minsk metro, claiming 15 lives, Shved was put in charge of the joint investigative group.

Owns a house in Drazdy-2

In the mid-2010s, Shved received land in the elite Minsk district of Viasninka, which is called the second Drazdy. He was then the youngest among the Viasninka official-newcomers.

Moreover, as a security official, he most likely received a preferential loan for construction — at just 5 percent per annum. He moved into the luxurious cottage from a modest cooperative apartment.

Павялічыць

Shved's house, 2015. Photo: «Nasha Niva»

Sister is an official, brother is at «Medtekhnotsentr», son graduated from BSU Law Faculty

Shved's sister — Anzhela Rajemskaya — works as the Deputy Head of Lahojsk District.

Anzhela Rajemskaya. Photo ok.ru.

Brother Aleh — Deputy Director for Financial and Economic Development at «Medtekhnotsentr».

In 2018, the State Security Committee detained more than 50 businessmen and people from the medical field, including Deputy Minister of Health Ihar Lasitski. Officials took bribes for favorably resolving issues of equipment and medicine procurement, and also conducted non-competitive tenders.

The «Belsat» TV channel then reported that Aleh Shved, at that time the head of the company «Medtekhnotsentr», was also detained in connection with the case. In the text version of the report, the journalist made a mistake, writing that a security official was directly behind bars. Both Shved brothers then appealed to the Minister of Internal Affairs Ihar Shunievich with a complaint, which resulted in a criminal case for defamation and a search of the TV channel's office. Aleh Shved claimed he was never detained. The case ended in nothing.

In later investigations by other journalists, it was alleged that Vasili Zharko contributed to the career of Aleh Shved (until the late 2000s he was a minor official in Petrykav in Polesia, and in 2011 he suddenly became the head of a large state-owned medical procurement company).

Aleh Shved. Photo produktgoda.by.

Andrei Shved's wife is from Lelchitsy.

Their son Kiryl graduated from the BSU Law Faculty. He defended his diploma on the topic «Dactyloscopy: concept, subject, possibilities». He is married and raises a small daughter.

Kiryl Shved. Photo vk.com.

Engaged in the «genocide of the Belarusian people»

In 2021, Shved became obsessed with the idea of the «genocide of the Belarusian people».

The Prosecutor General's Office conducted excavations, interviewed living witnesses of the war, demanded reparations from other countries, and accused Western officials of hiding Nazi criminals. Shved himself wrote several books on genocide over a couple of years, for which he even received a literary award. It appears that this matter was a personal initiative of the Prosecutor General to try and link history with politics. He even put a photo from «Nasha Niva» of the August 2020 protests on the cover of his book.

Павялічыць

It even came to trials of the deceased. For example, Uladzimir Katruk — a Ukrainian who passed away in 2015 — was convicted and found guilty of burning Khatyn.

Additionally, Andrei Shved calculated the damage inflicted on Belarus during the Second World War. This amounts to 43 and a half thousand tons of gold, or 2 trillion 300 billion dollars.

Decides which Belarusians can return to their homeland

Shved was an active opponent of releasing political prisoners. With his consent, the amnesties that took place after 2020 practically did not affect political convicts.

In 2023, Andrei Shved headed the so-called «commission for return» — a collective body of officials and propagandists, created to review applications from Belarusians who left the country due to persecution and wish to return.

The commission stated that during all this time, they received 323 appeals. They reviewed 70 cases, and allowed 30 people to return. However, some of those who returned later faced criminal charges.

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