DNA analysis has confirmed that a body recovered from Avdimou beach on 15 January is a 53-year-old Russian man from Limassol who was reported missing eight days earlier.
UK Sovereign Base Areas Police officially identified the body as Vladislav Baumgertner, a Russian national who had been reported missing on 7 January 2026.
The Criminal Investigation Department of the UK Sovereign Base Areas Police is investigating the circumstances and causes of death.
The man’s relatives have been informed and authorities are continuing their investigation according to established procedures.
Baumgertner was the former CEO of Russian potash giant Uralkali.
Past criminal charges
In 2013, Baumgertner was arrested at Minsk airport and held in a KGB pre-trial detention centre after inviting a row with the Belarusian government over a potash cartel. Uralkali had declared that it would stop selling its product through the Belarusian Potash Company (BKK). The trader dealt primarily with Russian Uralkali and state-run Belaruskali, with both sides accusing each other of undocumented sales without the aid of BKK.
Baumgertner was arrested in Minsk in August 2013 for abuse of office. He was extradited to Moscow on November 22 and then placed under house. In late 2013, the Uralkali board dismissed Baumgertner as the company’s CEO.
The case was turned over to Russia in September 2014. In Russia, Baumgertner was charged with abuse of office. Charges against him were dropped in 2015.
The Belaruskali connection: Cyprus-based sanctions evasion
The disappearance of the former Uralkali chief has cast a fresh light on the complex web of potash logistics involving Cyprus. According to a report by Politico, the European Commission banned the import of Belarusian potash in March 2022 following Minsk’s support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Consequently, the state-owned giant Belaruskali rerouted exports worth approximately €2 billion annually from the Lithuanian port of Klaipėda to Saint Petersburg. An investigation by the Belarusian Investigative Centre (BIC) revealed that these new arrangements involve a Cyprus-based firm, Dimicandum Invest Holding.
Documents obtained by BIC show that in 2023, Belaruskali hired the Nicosia-registered company to move cargo from railway wagons to ships in the Russian port. The deal allegedly involved Belaruskali paying Dimicandum $68 million for 3.4 million tonnes of potash—a rate of $20 per tonne. However, BIC data indicates that the actual port service price was only $11 per tonne, suggesting the Cypriot intermediary was used to siphon off funds or bypass oversight at nearly double the market rate.