That was the order Lukashenka gave at a meeting with officials responsible for the implementation of the budget. The Belarusian authorities are concerned about the domestic budget, if the Kremlin limits the subsidies.
To compensate for the increase in prices for Russian oil, the head of Belarus Alyaksandr Lukashenka ordered officials to be more thrifty:
“There should be no purchases of cars, except for centralized ones. We have our own car manufacturing. No splashing out on all sorts of unnecessary journeys, traveling and business trips. Stop going to conferences!”
$ 10 billion is what, according to government estimates, the Belarusian budget will not receive in the six years. To close the gap by putting officials into “Geely” cars will not work.
Economic growth in Belarus (% of GDP):
2010 – 7.8%
2012 – 1.7%
2014 – 1.7%
2016 – 2.5%
2018 – 3.8%
Belarusians have been living in thrift mode for more than 6 years. Economic growth has slowed, wages have fallen.
“You want money — create a single state, as we agreed almost 20 years ago.” This is the meaning of the statements made by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak and PM Medvedev last week. However, the Kremlin has already rejected the alleged plans for incorporation of Belarus.
“The topic was not on the agenda in this wording. It was not discussed. There was no conversation about it,” says Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Russian president.
Political analyst Valer Karbalevich said why they brought up the half-forgotten Union state agreement:
“I do not think Russia really thinks that Belarus would agree to the creation of a single state and the actual destruction of sovereignty. I think that the real goal of Russia is to free itself from the oil grant “.
Russia’s economic growth (% of GDP):
2010 – 4.5%
2012 – 3.7%
2014 – 0.7%
2016 – 0.2%
2018 – 1.5%
The economic situation in Russia does not look better than it is in Belarus. Therefore, Kremlin reserves energy subsidies only for their own facilities. According to the ambassador of Russia in Belarus Mikhail Babich:
“When we talk about what the price of gas to Belarus should be in Smolensk, we must understand that Russia has a complex cross-subsidization model. And it is this model that forms the price of $ 70 for Smolensk in the framework of Russian legislation. But this does not mean that it is the prime cost.”
If Minsk does not want to become another Smolensk, it needs to learn to earn money on its own. Reforms start after money runs out, economists say. However, so far Minsk has shown neither the program nor the desire for them.
Alyaksandr Papko, belsat.eu
