The former senior banker of Belarus has worked as a presidential aide less than a year. He lost his position of the head of the National Bank at the highest point of the 2011 financial crisis. Mikalai Korbut has been relieved of his post of head of the Department of Presidential Affairs. He started being in the office on December 4, 2009.
In April 2011 Prakapovich underwent a cardiac surgery and was on sick leave over a month. Before the retirement Aliaksandr Lukashenka told reporters: “Piotr Prakapovich will not return to the National Bank because I want him to live. He is a man committed to our Motherland. Prakapovich will be employed in the state to his maximum after medical rehabilitation,” Lukashenka added.
According to the presidential press office, Piotr Prakapovich will be responsible for ensuring that key economic targets are met and for overseeing the implementation of the national budget and efforts to modernize the Belarusian economy.
It is noteworthy that Piotr Prakapovich repeatedly made promises not to devaluate the Belarusian rubel. “While I am the chairman of the National Bank, there will be no single-stage devaluation. We have enough experience, accumulated over 15 years, and this experience suggests that this is a bad decision for the Belarusians. As it’s a bad decision, we’re not going to implement it . <…> There won’t be even 5% devaluation,” he said on March 17, 2011. On May 24, 2011 the national currency was devaluated by 54%.
Belsat
