Leanid Zaika: It's “main moderniser” who must be jailed

The director of Borisovdrev wood processing plant is not guilty of failure to upgrade the plant.

Economist Leanid Zaika, the head of the analytical centre Strategy, discussed the arrest of Borisovdrev's general director with charter97.org.

“I don't think this poor director was the main moderniser. If the modernisation is not effective, the main moderniser, who is a person from the government, must be jailed. The modernisation in Belarus is 13.5 million dollars that will be wasted this year. The other matter is that Uladzimir Maltsau, who has been taken into custody, did everything 'for the sake of people', like other directors,” the analyst said.

The economist underscored all company directors in Belarus are potential prisoners.

“I have a friend who heads a university and has 100 million rubles a month. I also know the director of a small enterprise with a salary of 60 million rubles. They are not poor people, but they must be ready to be jailed if they agree to do this work,” Leanid Zaika said.

It was reported yesterday that a criminal case was opened against Uladzimir Maltsau, the general director of Borisovdrev plant. He was taken into custody, his property was seized.

On November 8, 2013, Lukashenka visited Borisovdrev plant for the second time to see how his instructions on the plant's modernisation were being fulfilled.

He was infuriated to find that his orders were ignored.