Yuri Chizh

Logozhesk, Belarus

28.03.1963

Yuri Chizh was born in the village of Soboli (Brest region).

He founded a company “Triple” in 1992. He started working in the construction materials sector. Later on, subsidiaries in various spheres (construction, retail, oil supplies and production of carbonated drinks) began to appear. In 2012, Yuri Chizh controlled 40 companies in about 20 industries. 

In 1999-2019, Triple owned 57% of shares of the Football Club Dynamo-Minsk CJSC. During his leadership of Dynamo, Chizh became famous for frequent dismissals of the team’s head coaches – a total of 33 of them were replaced in 1999-2019. The company was also engaged in the construction of a skiing complex in Logoisk. And in 2003 it opened the first ProStore hypermarket.

In March 2016, he was detained on suspicion of tax evasion on a large scale. After compensation for damages – was released. Since February 2017, he left the post of CEO of Triple. 

Since spring 2021, he has been in custody under a new criminal case for tax evasion. According to some reports, he was released in September 2022. In February 2023, Chizh was sentenced to three and a half years in prison, but was released from serving time due to an amnesty and the time he spent in custody in 2016 and 2021-2022.

Part of the business was registered to Chizh’s children, but the actual management was handled by Yuri himself. After his incarceration, Chizh’s family took over the entire business, but did not develop it, and on the contrary, some of the assets are being sold off, with several companies preparing for bankruptcy. Thus, the company “Triple” is now in bankruptcy proceedings.

His ex-wife is Svetlana Chizh, and they are raising sons Sergei and Vladimir and daughter Tatiana. In spring 2023, Yuri Chizh confirmed in an interview that he had divorced his wife and was in conflict with his family; it was previously reported in 2022 that he had applied for a son and daughter-in-law shortly after his release from the pre-trial detention center.

Some large objects in Minsk are associated with Chizh: the house “U Troitsky”, the building of the former hotel “Kempinski”, the skiing complex “Logoisk” and the hockey palace in Bereza.

Master of Sports of the USSR in Greco-Roman wrestling