Despite Belarusian and Russian athletes being banned from sports in Lithuania, a family linked to an oligarch in Vladimir Putin’s inner circle has been living on the Baltic coast, as well as sponsoring and taking part in equestrian events. LRT Investigation Team reports.
Aleksandra Maksakova is a Russian Olympic and Grand Prix equestrian athlete. Together with her husband, another Russian athlete Yegor Shchibrik, they are employed as riding coaches at the Sportinių Žirgų Investicija on Lithuania’s Baltic coast in Palanga. Due to their employment status, they both have residence permits in Lithuania. Yegor Shchibrik, together with his mother, also owns real estate in Palanga.
Although the website of the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) says the athletes live in the Netherlands, they often stay in Lithuania. A horse named Bojengels, with whom Maksakova competed at the Tokyo Olympics and other international competitions, is also registered in Lithuania.
The horse was registered in Lithuania with Sportinių Žirgų Investicija in March 2022, just days after the FEI banned Russian athletes and horses registered in the country from taking part in international competitions.
The company that re-registered the horse in Lithuania is owned by members of the same Shchibrik family living in Russia – Maksim and Olga Shchibrik. Yegor is their son.
Maksim Shchibrik holds a high position in Russia. He is the vice president of the Russian Copper Company (Russkaya Mednaya Kompaniya AO), whose main shareholder is the oligarch Igor Altushkin. According to registers, Shchibrik also manages other companies in Russia and Cyprus.
For some time, only Ukraine had imposed sanctions on the oligarch Altushkin. However, the situation changed on May 19 when Britain introduced personal sanctions against the oligarch and the Russian copper company.
When the sanctions were announced, he was funding a military unit fighting in the Luhansk region against Ukraine, the Ural Battalion. According to the Moscow Times, which cites sources in Russia, he started looking after the battalion following a closed-door meeting between Russian oligarchs and Putin in September 2022.
At this meeting, according to The Moscow Times, they were told to gather and finance volunteers to be sent to Ukraine. This was also previously reported by the head of the Bellingcat research project, Christo Grozev.
Testing waters in Lithuania
Maksakova and Shchibrik have been representing the State of Palestine since late 2022,
According to the register of the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI). They were forced to compete under a flag other than Russia’s following the bans placed on athletes in the wake of Ukraine’s invasion, the Eurodressage sports news website reported earlier this year.
"Yegor Shchibrik and Aleksandra Maksakova had applied with the Lithuanian Equestrian Federation (LŽSF) for the opportunity to represent Lithuania in international competitions. On October 15, 2022, the LŽSF board rejected this request," Gintarė Šakytė, secretary general of the LŽSF, told LRT.
In May this year, Maksakova announced that she had decided to retire her horse Bojengels, even though it could still compete in international competitions.
LRT sent questions to Shchibrik and Maksakova through their employer, Rimantas Miceika, head of the company Sportinių Žirgų Investicija. LRT also sent questions to the company's shareholders, Maksim and Olga Shchibrik, to the same address. LRT did not receive any replies, while Miceika asked not to be mentioned in this publication.
"I don't have such a horse. I have answered everything, I will not comment any further," the businessman said when asked about registering the Russian athlete’s horse. After written questions and an extract from the FEI register showing that Bojengels was registered in Lithuania with his company, Miceika said that he would ask the FEI for information.
Shchibrik-sponsored competitions
Laimondas Skėrys, a businessman and owner of the Horsemarket stables, provided more information about the Shchibriks.
"We had a business relationship, [which ended] about three years ago. They didn't invest anything, they just kept the horses with us. And we used to go to competitions together,” said Skėrys. “Then they bought their own stables in the Netherlands and they've been there for about three years with all the horses. They have registered horses in Lithuania, but they are all in the Netherlands.”
He said he could not say anything about Bojengels, the horse re-registered in Lithuania.
According to Skėris, the Shchibriks use a Lithuanian company to buy the horses because the law does not prohibit it. However, he said re-registering horses was not a common practice.
“They have had that company for a long time, they did not set it up specifically to carry out some scheme. They buy horses using that company," Skėrys said.
Although he claims not to have dealt with Shchibriks for three years, last August his company organised the international competition FEI Jumping World Cup Kunkiai. The public announcement of this competition names Shchibrik and Sigitas Paulauskas, president of the LŽSF, as the presidents of the event, while Shchibrik’s spouse Olga is named as the honorary president.
When asked why he organised a competition sponsored by a Russian businessman following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Skėrys said he had initially postponed the competition, but eventually decided to hold it.
"Obviously, it was a big issue. Morally, we should not have done it, but how were the athletes responsible who were looking forward to this competition and wanted to take part in it? That competition was already going on before the war, and [Shchibrik] was a sponsor. It was in memory of his daughter, who died tragically,” said Skėrys.
“There are Russians who condemn the war and there are Russians who support it. This Russian is condemning the war in every way. They even wanted to get Lithuanian citizenship because of it. Of course, nobody gave it to them," he added.
Sigitas Paulauskas, president of the LŽSF, could not be reached by phone and replied by SMS that he was away. He did not answer LRT questions in writing either.
Šakytė, the secretary general of the LŽSF, said the federation did not organise any international competitions in Kunkiai, and that Paulauskas was not involved in competitions held last year.
Skėrys, who organised the international competition in Kunkiai, is a member of the federation's board.
"The event information you have sent is misleading – it does not refer to 2022, but to four separate events in the first half of 2021, which were held by different organisers, sponsors, partners, and presidents, and which were not organised by the Lithuanian Equestrian Federation,” said Šakytė.
In October 2021, the LŽSF approved two international events for 2022.
Due to the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, only one, the FEI Jumping World CUP Kunkiai, was actually held, but Russian and Belarusian athletes were not allowed to compete.
"The Lithuanian Equestrian Federation (LŽSF) does not and has not organised any events in Kunkiai," the federation said in a written reply.
The LŽSF name was included among the organisers, because the federation provided the FEI with a timetable for international competitions in Lithuania.
"Before the war, in October 2021, the LŽSF forwarded to the international board of the FEI information about the international events planned in Kunkiiai. That is why the LŽSF is mentioned among the organisers of the event," said Šakytė.
According to Šakytė, the horse registration process is organised and managed by the FEI.
"According to our information, the re-registration process of the horse in question was carried out by the Dutch Equestrian Federation, which administers the horses according to where they are kept, taking into account the athlete's nationality and place of residence,” Šakytė said.
In a written comment, Lithuania’s Ministry of Education, Science and Sport said it had clarified information with the LŽSF, which assured that no athletes from Belarus or Russia took part in the federation’s events since February 2022. There have also been no sponsors from the two countries.
"Since the first days of the Russian war in Ukraine, the ministry has been urging the country's sports federations and organisations to break off all sporting ties with Russia and Belarus, not to attend competitions in those countries, not to welcome their athletes in Lithuania, and to help Ukrainian athletes to continue their training in Lithuania,” the ministry said.
“This position has not changed. However, sports federations, being independent organisations, have the right to decide how they organise events and, at the same time, take responsibility for their actions and the possible consequences of those actions, eg public evaluation, prestige and popularity of the sport, evaluation of foreign colleagues, sponsors' attitude towards the support of the sport, state funding, etc,” it added.
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