Raman Jakauleuski: Lukashenka went running to Ashkhabad for money

The sudden visit of the ruler to Turkmenistan is caused by the acute lack of finances.

The opinion comes from a political observer Raman Jakauleuski as he commented for the charter97.org web-site on the visit of the Belarusian dictator to Ashkhabad.

“As always Lukashenka is looking for money. But in my view, the current visit has two peculiarities. First, it was expected that the Turkmen president would come to the CIS summit. Before the summit we heard official statements that all the presidents with no exceptions accepted Lukashenka’s invitations to come to Minsk. However, among the ones who allegedly accepted the invitations there was not only the Kyrgyz president, who did not come for obvious reasons, but also the Turkmen, who generally skips such events on the regular basis”, - the political observer noted.

Raman Jakauleuski added that the opinion that the Turkmen president is reach with financial resources has been turning into a myth lately:

“The thing is that Turkmenistan started suffering difficulties with exporting its gas, to be precise – with the earnings from selling it. First of all, according to some experts, China is to blame. The thing is that China has built a pipeline in Turkmenistan for getting gas and started receiving it, but does not pay for it. This means that the Turkmen president is not getting the expected finances for that, whereas the Chinese explain that the very construction of the pipeline is the payment for the gas they are getting. Naturally, Berdymukhamedov’s financial capabilities could have rapidly dropped. Another issue related to the export of Turkmen gas concerns the fact that Russia has started strongly limiting its transit through its territory. This means that there are obstacles again. That is why Lukashenka, having flown, to Turkmenistan may face such explanations as the lack of money”. – the observer supposes.

Raman Jakauleuski believes that another issue that may be of interest in the bilateral relations is the export of agricultural equipment, which is piled up in MTW’s storehouses.

“I would remind that there was a special project for assembling three-wheeled tractors Belarus for harvesting in Turkmenistan. I would like to known in more detail what the fate of this project is as for today – how much equipment was shipped to Turkmenistan and how much was received for that in terms of payments. Once Ashkhabad was very accurate in payments and even made advanced payments, when it had financial resources. Due to the reasons stated above it is quite possible that it will no longer be able to help the Belarusian producer like that. Probably, all these issues are going to be solved on the bilateral basis on the presidential level”, - Jakauleuski said.

The observer also noted that this visit was not announced in advance, whereas usually it is known who goes where.

“Apparently this sudden visit is caused by the acute lack of financial resources, which Lukashenka is currently suffering, and this is obvious. May be he counts that the Turkmen president will offer him a large amount of money for a short term, like Azerbaijan once did, when Minsk had difficulties with Gazprom. If anything comes out of it, we will likely be notified. If not, we will keep hearing what does not correspond to the reality. Of course, it should be observed closely, who will be accompanying Lukashenka in this visit – this may also answer many questions. I think, if there is some delegation, there will be representatives of MTW and, probably MAP in it. By the way, the plane that the high guest will arrive in once belonged to the late Turkmen president, and after long years of absence from Turkmen lands the local will be able to see it again”, - Raman Jakauleuski concluded ironically.

We would remind that the Belarusian ruler has left today for an official visit to Ashkhabad, where the negotiations with Turkmenistan’s president Gyrbanguly Berdymukhamedov are scheduled both in the one-on-one and broad formats.