Businessman connected to Lukashenka's inner circle increased income in Ukraine and obtained Ukrainian passport
Armenian and Belarusian citizen Artur Grantz, a figure in investigations by Lithuanian and Ukrainian journalists into the development of duty-free trade at airports and Belarusian tobacco smuggling, increased his business income in Ukraine, noted "Radio Svaboda".
Artur Grantz
According to a ranking compiled by the Ukrainian resource Opendatabot, Artur Grantz in 2025 increased his companies' income by 6.28% — to 607,668,575 hryvnias (13,810,649 dollars in equivalent).
In the overall ranking of Ukrainian businessmen this year, he took 2,698th place, losing 91 points, and in the Kyiv ranking, he is in 730th place (losing 24 points).
In Ukraine, Artur Grantz owns 12 companies. He is the owner of only one of them; in the other 11, he is a beneficiary. The companies operate in several sectors simultaneously — duty-free alcohol trade, retail clothing, magazine and publication printing, computer services, restaurant business, and real estate rental.
This year, on March 30, the Lithuanian publication LRT published the results of an investigation, according to which Grantz finances the Lukashenka regime through the development of a network of duty-free shops and, at the same time, unhinderedly develops business in Lithuania. According to the investigation, he owns one of Vilnius's most expensive restaurants, HeJi, and the luxurious Esperanza Resort hotel in Trakai.
In 2024, the Ukrainian public organization "NON-STOP" attempted through court to initiate a criminal case against Artur Grantz for illegal trade in cigarettes and alcohol. According to activists, the businessman has become "the sole leader in cigarette sales through Duty Free systems" during Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. The organization called him the "king of contraband."
In Ukraine, Belarusian Artur Grantz lived on the basis of a residence permit, but in 2021 he left Ukraine for Spain, where he owns real estate. Now, as follows from the ranking of Ukrainian businessmen, he also has a Ukrainian passport. Previously, only his Belarusian and Armenian citizenships were known.
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