Lukashenka orders his proxy to increase role of presidential property department


The role of the Belarus President Property Management Directorate may be strengthened in the near future.

“The role of the property management directorate [in the national economy] needs to be increased. This is the main task,” Alyaksandr Lukashenka said at thursday’s meeting with Viktar Sheyman, Head of the directorate.

According to the presidential press service, the performance of the property management directorate and affiliated enterprises in 2017 and the prospects for the coming period were discussed during the meeting. It was noted that the affiliated enterprises showed good dynamics; the profitability in the agricultural and industrial sectors increased. The head of state was also updated on the directorate’s plans to develop new lines of activity.

The directorate takes control of dozens of organizations: national parks, nature reserves, hotels and resorts (including, in Crimea, the Baltic states and Caucasus), cultural and leisure facilities, industrial and agricultural enterprises. In total, it owns more than 400 real estate assets and over 100 organisations. Its head Viktar Sheyman reports directly to Lukashenka.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka (L) and Viktar Sheyman (R), 8 Feb 2018

According to political analyst Alyaksandr Klaskouski, the directorate is a kind of a top ranking business empire possessing a great deal of money.

“Lukashenka hates charismatic and independent people next to him but at the same time, it is of critical importance that his minions should be superloyal so that they would not face a moral dilemma after receiving any order,” the expert told Belsat about Viktar Sheyman.

Opposition groups and human rights organizations accuse Sheyman of organizing death squads responsible for killing president Lukashenka’s political opponents Yury Zakharanka and Viktar Hanchar, businessman Anatol Krasouski and cameraman Dzmitry Zavadzki. In 2006 he was placed on a list of persons banned from entering the European Union and the United States.

ІІ, belsat.eu

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