Authorities trying to stop scientists fleeing abroad

Minsk counts on selling Belarusian weapons to Turkmenistan.

Last week the Belarusian dictator paid a visit to Ashkhabad, in which course among others an agreement was signed on sales of Belarusian drones to Turkmenistan and subsequent construction of an enterprise for their manufacturing there. A military observer Aliaksandr Aliesin expressed an opinion in an interview to the charter97.org web-site that by the means of such expensive projects the authorities are trying to keep scientists and experts in the country.

“We should not be led on by Berdymukhamedov’s outer simple-heartedness. It is actually a very prudent person endowed with eastern slyness. He would not buy something bad, despite them having a lot of extra cash. The thing is that Turkmenistan is a fairly large, desolate and low-populated country. It seems quite difficult to control the territory, borders, pipelines running through the territory, high-voltage transmission lines and other similar infrastructure objects by usual methods. That is why it is more efficient to monitor the territory, facilities and the state border by the means of drones. That is why, considering the fact there are around 10 organizations and enterprises in Belarus dealing with research and development in the field for quite a while and acknowledged abroad, Belarusian drones are quite suitable for carrying out these tasks”, - the expert noted.

The observer believes that this is not just an empty agreement for the sake of it, but a fairly serious prohect.

“The development is supervised by the Academy of Sciences, which is also responsible for the program of creation of drone complexes, scheduled up to 2015. A number of prototypes have already been created: Grif, Berkut, Busel and Mosquito. But the problem is that for it to be commercially profitable, a large run is required. If many foreign orders emerge, this will be profitable both for the buyer and us, because the volumes of sales will increase. Besides the Academy of Sciences, the 558-th aviation repair plant, Minsk Civic Aviation Plant and Military Academy are the executors of the project. Apart from that there are private enterprises, KB INDELA, for example, which produces helicopter drones. That is why Belarus has the capabilities for delivering on this order and making money”, - Aliaksandr Aliesin is convinced.

The expert emphasized that it is better and more profitable to trade on that that on the old hardware, for example than selling old tanks to the Africans.

“This advances the military and civil science. This way it will be possible to pay good money to our developers for them not to flee abroad. It is not a secret that a whole range of experts, especially in the field of software engineering and electronics, have left or are going to leave. Truth be told, there is the inverse process as well, but the balance is still not in our favor”, - Aliaksandr Aliesin summarized.

We would remind that Aliaksandr Lukashenka paid an official visit to Turkmenistan last week.