A former Belarusian government official turned regime critic vanished during a yacht trip in Turkey, with new evidence pointing to possible Russian involvement.
The 47-year-old Anatol Kotau flew to Istanbul on August 21, 2025, and texted his wife upon landing. He later headed to the coastal city of Trabzon, where security cameras captured his final known image at the marina border control. The dissident, wanted in Belarus, Russia, and other former Soviet states for alleged anti-state activities, had been living as a refugee in Poland since fleeing the Lukashenko regime.
Investigators from the Belarusian Investigative Center, Deutsche Welle, and OCCRP pieced together the events using surveillance footage, travel records, and satellite images. The yacht carrying Kotau and three other passengers likely was intercepted off Abkhazia, a breakaway Georgian region with a major Russian military presence. Sources claim Kotau was removed from the yacht and taken aboard a patrol boat. Satellite imagery shows a boat resembling a Russian coast guard vessel leaving an FSB base nearby just before the alleged interception.
The passenger manifest reveals two Russian men were on board, including a local official from the ruling United Russia party. Both disembarked in Abkhazia instead of returning to Turkey. Another Belarusian man, Yury Puzikau, left the yacht just before Kotau boarded. Records show Puzikau had worked for a company owned by a former Belarusian KGB member, Yury Serykh, who had personal ties to Kotau. The pair were photographed together and Serykh was on the guest list for Kotau’s 2020 wedding celebration.
Belarusian authorities deny holding Kotau, and Russia’s FSB claims no knowledge of his whereabouts. No government or individual named in the investigation responded to requests for comment.
Kotau rose through the Belarusian government ranks, from the foreign ministry to the presidential administration and the National Olympic Committee under Lukashenko. He resigned days after the disputed 2020 election, citing the government’s violent crackdown on protesters. In exile in Poland, he ran a Telegram channel exposing state secrets and criticizing the regime. A Belarusian court sentenced him in absentia to 12 years in prison in 2024 for extremism and conspiracy.
Friends say Kotau hinted at maintaining contacts with high-level Belarusian officials and was secretive about his travel plans. Before the trip, he told several people in the exile community they could soon return home. His friend Ruslan Khazin believes Kotau is still alive, arguing that if the regime wanted him dead, it could have been done more easily in Warsaw.
The yacht, named the Shells, sailed from Trabzon with Kotau and three other passengers. It never reached its stated destination of Sochi, Russia, instead heading toward Abkhazia. After the alleged interception, the two Russian passengers entered Abkhazia, and the yacht returned to Trabzon two days later with only the female passenger, Qahira Eynalova, on board.
Polish and Turkish authorities have not opened investigations into the disappearance, with Warsaw citing jurisdictional issues and Ankara noting Kotau had left the country when the missing person report was filed. Legal experts argue Poland has grounds to investigate, as the operation may have begun there.