Raman Jakauleuski: Amount of ransom for Baumgertner increases along with inflation

Minsk does not make concessions in the case of Uralkali’s head.

Such an opinion came from a political observer Raman Jakauleuski as he commented for the charter97.org web-site on the prolongation of Vladislav Baumgertner’s arrest for two months.

“The events around the attempt to detain one of Uralkali’s managers and former BPC employee in Moscow and today’s news that Uralkali’s security service has reinforced the guard to prevent possible similar incidents show that the sides cannot agree. By the way, it is still not completely clear, whether those were Belarusian KGB agents or they acted jointly with the Russian colleagues. A suspicion arises that a possible delivery of a Russian citizen from Moscow could be a sort of a sacrifice to the housewarming table in the Independence Palace. May be, it was planned to make a greater impression on Vladimir Putin than he could get from the conversations in the polygon”, - the political observer believes.

At the same time Raman Jakauleuski does not see signs of Belarusian party as represented by its ruler makes any concessions.

“I would even say that Lukashenka behaves self-confidently in this case, and one may assume that he has support of certain circles in Moscow. This way or another there are such political systems in both countries that everything is decided by the host of the Kremlin and the host of the new Independence Palace. So the fate of the “captured German” looks sad. It is absolutely not necessary for Lukashenka to put Baumgertner in jail. He has already isolated Uralkali’s director general and now it is the matter of his ransom. Even the price was set – 100 million dollars. Although, Lukashenka recently spoke of 1.5-2 billion dollars, and, may be, the amount of the ransom grows together with inflation”, - the political observer noted ironically.

Raman Jakauleuski highlighted that the economic situation in Russia is not so rosy to pay the ransom.

“It is just that there is a great bargain and a game being played, which accumulates new incidents around it, like the one in Moscow. I think, there will be a lot of them. For example, Vladimir Ryzhkov, whether jokingly or seriously, said that it may go as far as to the Russian ambassador being taken hostage. If earlier we said that this or that was possible, then now it is obvious that Lukashenka behaves very self-assuredly. Although Putin once said that they had to give a hand to Belarus meaning not only the people, but Lukashenka. In our understanding “to give a hand” means help, but in the understanding of a judoist “a hand in given” before throwing the opponent on the floor”, - the observer summarized.

We would remind that Belarus’ investigative agencies have prolonged the investigation period in the case of Uralkali’s director general.