According to Belarusian mass media, the security forces conducted a search all day, while the employees of the main office were not allowed to leave the building.

In the evening of the same day, there was information about the arrest of the director and owner of the "Island of Purity" network,

Viktar Ramuk

.

According to the Telegram channel "MotolkoPomogi", Ramuk was detained together with his wife

Oksana

.

It happened at the national airport.

It is not yet known whether Ramuk intended to avoid arrest after the search.

Official information from the SC or the Federal Security Service about the events on the "Island of Purity" was also not published.

We are talking about Ramuk and his business.

Plus a hundred stores in one year

"Island of Purity" is only one of the companies of the Romax group of companies.

In addition to the discounter of household chemicals, it also includes the manufacturer "Romax Factory" and the importer "Romax Trading Company".

And also the logistics company "Branch of the production company "Romax"", which is engaged in transportation from the countries of Western and Eastern Europe and in Belarus.

In fact, Romax owns the full cycle of production, transportation, import and sale of household chemicals in the country.

"Romax" has been operating in Belarus since 1998, but the network of its own stores "Island of Purity" began to develop in 2010.

At first, stores appeared only in Minsk and regional cities.

However, already in 2015, it included more than 100 stores, they appeared in almost every district center.

Four years later, the "Island of Purity" already had 550 stores, their number increased by a hundred every year.

The number of network employees exceeded 5,200 people.

In the same year, "Island of Purity" ceased to be exclusively a store of household chemicals, food products and a wide range of alcohol appeared there, which were often sold at lower prices than in other retail chains.

On this occasion, the company was rebranded, it began to be called "Island of purity and taste".

The only competitor of "Island of Purity" at that time was the "Mila" chain, which had 430 stores throughout Belarus.

The third chain, "Magia", owned by the Eurotrade company, had only 134 stores in 2019.

The pandemic, the events of 2020 and the economic crisis slowed down the growth of "Island of Purity", but it still survived.

According to information from the website of the company itself as of September 2022, it now has 650 stores.

The company even announced its intention to open its own chain of pharmacies.

Problems with the authorities and arrests of employees for participating in protests

The problems of "Island of Purity" with the authorities became known at the beginning of August, when the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation (formerly Mingandlyu. — RS) fined the network for increased prices.

The amount of the fine was relatively small - 16 thousand rubles, the company paid it off immediately.

The reason, according to the official version, was "appeals from concerned citizens" who saw the high prices of baby food and cereals in the chain's stores.

The state calls all these goods "socially important", their prices are regulated by officials.

In November 2021, "Viasny" human rights activists reported the detention of employees of the "Island of Purity" store for participating in the 2020 protests.

GUBAZiK arrested

Victoria Goncharova

and

Olga Malinovskaya

at their workplace in Malinovka, Minsk.

Malinovska was soon released, and Goncharova was accused of blocking traffic and placed in a detention center.

Roman Bandarenko, who died shortly after being detained by security forces at "Change Square" on November 12, 2020, also worked as an administrator at the "Island of Purity".

"Domestic producers are doing great"

Neither Viktor Ramuk nor his wife Oksana can be called very public figures.

Victor Ramuk with his wife Oksana

On the Internet, you can find a short video from the "Island of Purity" award ceremony at the "Choice of the Year" award in 2016, in which Oksana thanks the buyers.

At that time, she held the position of manager of the entire network.

In August 2022, Viktor Ramuk himself gave a short interview to the profile website "Office Life", where he evaluated the work in the conditions of the economic crisis and Western sanctions.

According to the businessman, Belarusian manufacturers are quite capable of replacing Western brands.

"Even now, domestic manufacturers of care cosmetics are doing a great job of supplying the network with products and are able to replace imported products in all categories," Viktar Ramuk was convinced two months before his arrest.

"In the segment of decorative cosmetics, Belarusian manufacturers, having achieved a high level of quality, have been the sales leaders on the domestic market for the past few years."

In the same interview, the businessman said that his company can replace the entire range of household chemicals, which have become difficult to import from abroad, with analogues of its own production.

Ramuk saw problems only in the supply of shaving tools - no one makes them in Belarus.

Neither Viktor Ramuk himself nor other representatives of the "Island of Purity" network publicly commented on the politically motivated arrests of company employees and the murder of Roman Bandarenka.

Secure communication


with our editors.

HERE