How Belarusians Are Making Money in Kazakhstan’s Media Market

Studying Kazakhstan’s PR and marketing industry, Orda.kz noticed an interesting trend: after 2022, the industry began filling with new agencies, many arriving from Russia and Belarus, where the environment for business has become difficult. 

One company stood out. It is run by media managers from Belarus who left home and now work with Kazakhstan's advertising budgets while in Poland and Estonia.

Lion Com KZ LLP was registered in Kazakhstan on May 19, 2022. The company operates in advertising and publicly refers to itself as Zenith Lion Com Kazakhstan. Its founders claim to work with well-known brands, among them HP and the Russian marketplace Ozon.

Growth has been rapid. Since opening, Lion Com KZ has paid 435,158,082 tenge into the state budget. In 2022, it transferred roughly five million, but by 2025, the total exceeded 180 million.

According to Kompra.kz, payroll contributions alone could be around 406 million tenge — a level comparable to major industry players — even though the team itself is not very large.

Initially, the company was registered in Aqtobe. The first director was Natalia Rodionova, and the founder was listed as Dinara Danabayeva. On July 28, 2022, the ownership changed to two foreign companies: VONDEL MARKETING OU and LION COM Spolka z Ograniczona. 

On October 21, 2022, the company’s legal address was moved to 53, Mynbayev Street, Bostandyk district, Almaty, and after that, the company went through several leadership and legal address changes:

• February 13, 2023 – Tatyana Smolkova became head of the company
• September 20, 2023 – replaced by Sergey Kim
• March 4, 2024 – the position passed to Alena Rozhnovskaya
• July 29, 2025 – leadership transferred to Lyudmila Mikhalevich

The legal address was also changed several times within Almaty:

• October 20, 2023 – 101 Tole bi Street, Block E, 2nd floor (Almaly district)
• May 5, 2025 – Koktem-1 microdistrict, Building 15A, 8th floor (Bostandyk district)

In 2023, Tribune published a detailed interview about the launch of the company, speaking with Zenith Lion Com chairman Alexander Shevelevich and Zenith Lion Com KZ director Tatyana Smolkova.

They explained what the company plans to do in Kazakhstan, which services it intends to offer clients, and what new approaches it hopes to bring into the country’s advertising and media market.

They also highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of Kazakhstan's advertising sector, listed the qualities needed to succeed in the industry, and recalled how they first entered the world of advertising themselves.

The founders of Lion Com have vast experience in the advertising industry. Almost all of it is tied to the global advertising corporation Publicis. We represent and service network clients under the brands Starcom, MediaVest, Leo Burnett, and Spark Foundry in Belarus. And we must admit, we do this quite successfully — client evaluations of our work regularly rank among the best in the world. Thanks to this success, we received a proposal from Publicis to expand cooperation, including expanding our geographical coverage and developing a new brand, Zenith,  Shevelevich said in the interview.

Lyudmila Mikhalevich became head of the company in 2025 after moving to Kazakhstan in 2024.

She describes her experience in the country this way:

During my time in Kazakhstan, I have become convinced that this is a truly ambitious and creative market, full of energy and opportunity. Leading such a talented team, gathered within our agency, is both inspiring and, of course, a challenge. Solving unconventional, complex tasks set by our respected clients is a great honor for me and a genuine pleasure.

Zenith is an international advertising corporation that is part of Publicis Groupe — one of the world’s largest French advertising agencies headquartered in Paris, with an extensive global network. However, for Kazakhstan, the officially listed branch is not LION, but Publicis Groupe Kazakhstan.

Lion Com KZ, meanwhile, states that it falls under the company's Eurasian hub. Along with Almaty, regional offices also operate in Tashkent and Tbilisi.

Estonian, Polish, and Dutch Links

Now let’s focus on the two foreign companies listed as Lion’s founders. The first is VONDEL MARKETING OU. It is worth noting that a company with this name previously operated in Kazakhstan, but was dissolved in 2023.

Its main founder was Alexander (Aliaksandr) Vasilevich, and its director was Vsevolod Krutko, a well-known marketing specialist in Belarus. We will speak about Vasilevich below.

There is little public information about its tax payments — it is only known that the company paid 61,000 tenge into the Kazakh budget in 2015. In its later years, the company was managed by Sergey Vorozhun, who is also listed as the director of VONDEL MARKETING OU.

The Estonian company was registered on October 10, 2011. Its legal address is Tallinn, Maakri tn 19/1-7k, while its actual office is located at Pärnu mnt 12. The company is registered as a full-cycle advertising agency (code 73111), but in practice functions as a financial and operational hub (Headquarters) for the group’s international contracts.

It is the oldest entity within the holding’s European structure.

According to financial reports, VONDEL MARKETING OU maintains a stable turnover of more than two million euros per year. Revenue amounted to 2,135,293 euros in 2023, rising to 2,296,313 euros in 2024. However, the last reporting periods (2022–2024) closed with small operating losses (between 1.5 and 3.3 thousand euros), unlike 2021 when net profit reached 256,823 euros.

Initially, the company was connected to the HEPTA brand (formerly HEPTA GROUP OÜ), associated with a well-known Belarusian advertising group that later appeared in several investigations by Belarusian law enforcement agencies.

The ownership structure now leads to the Netherlands: according to filings, the main beneficiary is Vondel Marketing B.V. The group also has a registered branch in Lithuania and a subsidiary, Vondel Digital OÜ, in Estonia.

The Polish entity LION COM Spółka z ograniczoną odpowiedzialnością (LION COM Sp. z o.o.) entered the market on May 4, 2022 — almost simultaneously with the launch of a Kazakhstan-based branch.

According to official reports, in 2023 the company generated 6,074,731 zloty in revenue (about 1.4 million euros), with net profit recorded at 739,480 zloty. In 2024, the value of company assets increased by almost 45 percent.

The management board (Zarząd) of the Polish legal entity consists of three people. Chair of the board (Prezes Zarządu) is Alexander Shevelevich. The listed board members are Valeri Klimchenko and Piotr Papialushka.

The company’s main activity in the state register is "advertising agency services." Additional registered codes include software development and management consulting.

Access to Kazakh Television

Today, Lion Com is one of many founding members of the National Media Association, a union of legal entities that also includes major TV networks and advertising agencies in Kazakhstan — such as the Eurasia TV channel, the Khabar Agency, the Presidential TV and Radio Complex, as well as other national broadcasters and key media players on the market.

However, the arrival of the new company among Kazakhstan’s media giants was far from smooth.

On November 30, 2022, the Supervisory Council of the National Media Association (NMA) met to discuss what appeared to be a routine agenda item: whether to grant Lion Com KZ access to the TV Index database — the key system used for placing ads on national television.

The new company stated it was ready to comply with all requirements: pay the entry fee, purchase access to the 2023 data, and buy access for the remaining period of 2022. NMA head Kemelbek Oishybayev even presented an official letter from Publicis Group, confirming that from January 1, 2023, Lion Com officially represented Zenith in Kazakhstan and several neighboring countries.

The decision seemed straightforward — until the floor was taken by Nikolay Polyakov, who at that time represented Starcom Kazakhstan.

Polyakov argued that the admission of the new player had not been properly evaluated and could harm the entire industry’s reputation. He then presented a dossier prepared by his team on the founders of Lion Com.

According to Polyakov, one of Lion Com’s foreign co-founders had a criminal conviction in Belarus for tax evasion. He also announced his intention to send the dossier to the Belarusian KGB, and to the Kazakh National Security Committee, Competition Protection Agency, and Financial Monitoring Agency — to verify Lion Com for possible “unfair competition, money laundering, and fraudulent activity.”

Polyakov demanded that the issue be removed from discussion, that Lion Com be denied access to the TV Index database, and that entry into the NMA be tightened to “protect existing players.”

A heated debate followed. Oishybayev reminded the council that the association was a public organization, not a closed club, and had no legal grounds to refuse access to a company legally registered in Kazakhstan.

We could recommend that the NMA conference block access for foreign companies. But in terms of market conditions, that would be wrong. NMA is a public structure — if we shut the door to new members, we stop being a regulatory force for the market. Besides, many NMA founders also have foreign stakeholders. Yes, we should develop clear entry rules, but they must be transparent and fair for all market participants,
 he said.

There was also a financial factor. If the market were closed to newcomers, the cost of maintaining the expensive TV measurement system would fall solely on the older players. As participants pointed out, budgets are already tight.

Eventually, Lion Com KZ got what it wanted. The matter stalled at the next meeting, and only at the beginning of 2023 was the company finally granted access.

Belarusian Opposition Figures / Kazakhstani Businessmen

Now, as promised, a closer look at the people behind this business in Kazakhstan.

Aliaksandr Vasilevich is a well-known Belarusian businessman and media manager. He was involved in projects such as The Village Belarus and Vondel/Hepta (mentioned earlier).

Belarusian authorities accused him of supporting the opposition. In July–August 2020, he was first detained for participating in a protest demanding the release of Viktar Babaryka, a Belarusian banker and political figure.

He was sentenced to 14 days under Article 23.34 (violation of protest regulations). According to the report, he attended an unauthorized rally and chanted “freedom for Babaryka!”

After his release, he was detained again — this time on criminal charges of large-scale tax evasion. In September 2020, several Belarusian human rights organizations declared him a political prisoner.

On February 4, 2022, he was found guilty under Article 243 (part 2) and sentenced to three years in a general-regime penal colony. However, he was freed the same day due to time served — each day in pre-trial custody counted as 1.5 in prison — meaning he had already completed his term. He spent roughly a year and a half behind bars. According to local media, he left Belarus soon after. International organizations have stated that the case appeared politically motivated.

Alexander Shevelevich is a Belarusian advertising and marketing specialist with long experience across CIS markets. In Belarus, he worked with the Kryn advertising agency and took part in awards, industry panels, and professional juries.

Later, his professional path shifted — from Minsk to Kazakhstan — where he became one of the heads of Zenith Lion Com, positioned as a regional partner of the global Zenith network within Publicis Groupe.

He is involved in brand promotion, campaign development, and managing creative teams. Some pro-government Belarusian media reported that SMG and Publicis entities linked to him had been subject to inspections by security and tax authorities.

Sergey Vorozhun is a Belarusian marketing manager and long-time business partner of Vasilevich within the Vondel/Hepta group and Vondel Marketing OÜ. In the mid-2010s, he publicly appeared as financial director of VONDEL/HEPTA in Minsk, speaking to industry media about the agency and its culture.

He was listed in the Estonian registry as a member of the board of Vondel Marketing OÜ, through which international contracts were processed.

After Vasilevich’s arrest and the launch of the tax-evasion case, Vorozhun told Polskie Radio that authorities were most interested in the company’s payments involving international partners.

According to the anonymous Telegram channel “Yellow Leaks,” Vasilevich left Belarus after his release, and Vorozhun is mentioned as his business partner, also drawn into the pressure surrounding Vondel/Hepta.

Original Author: Artyom Volkov