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Mikalai Autukhovich: If Lukashenka fails to maintain ruble rate before “elections”, it will be even worse in future

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Mikalai Autukhovich: If Lukashenka fails to maintain ruble rate before “elections”, it will be even worse in future
Photo: svaboda.org

The state will live only on collected fines.

From the country that produces, Belarus has turned into the country that takes everything from people. Vaukavysk-based businessman and former political prisoner Mikalai Autukhovich said it in an interview with charter97.org, commenting on the economic situation in Belarus.

– The Belarusian ruble has again been devalued, and queues in exchange offices returned as it was in 2011. What did cause this situation, in your opinion?

– We should also recall the ruble fall of 2008. If we distract all “zeroes” that the authorities added to the national currency, the dollar rate will be enormously high.

We have been living by “social programmes” instead of market laws. We have been going into debts, into a deep hole, and it will take a long time to get out of there. We don't even know the bottom of the hole. We are falling deeper and deeper.

Today's fall was expected. It was possible to forecast it when Aliaksadnr Lukashenka began to ask for loans. It was clear that he needs loans to support the ruble rate. He didn't receive loans, and it appears that he doesn't have the gold and foreign currency reserves he once boasted, so he had to allow the ruble to float freely.

The government failed to hold the ruble rate even ahead of the “elections”, and this is a very sad sign.

– Does it mean that the situation isn't going to improve?

– Why should it? Everyone understands that if all key plants don't work, the country can't earn money. The state budget receives money only by confiscating something, collecting fines and arresting property of businessmen. These are revenues of the country's budget.

Officials were given a free hand: I have trials one after one because officials were given too much power. They issue many fines, but I don't want to pay fines for nothing. I go to courts. I sued the sanitary service and the social protection fund. I will have a trial in a lawsuit against the ministry of transport, which wants to fine me 20 basic units but doesn't say for which violation.

All government bodies extort money to fulfil their plans. I see that the road police in Vaukavysk hunt trucks with Polish registration plates to collect money for the budget. Tollbooths are installed on regional roads to collect money for using these roads.

We practically don't have economy. I know from my own experience what it means to suspend the work of a company. It is easy to stop it, but re-launching requires huge money. To re-relaunch our industry, we should first find sales markets, which we don't have now. How can we make forecasts now?

I don't see that the government has any plans. I don't know how long they will be able to further deceive people, but they won't be able to get out of the deep hole. When the authorities are replaced, we will at least see the depth of the hole. We don't know it now.

People understand it and make savings: some buy pasta, some buy salt. People see that if the authorities failed to maintain the ruble before the “elections,” it will be even worse in the future. They understand that no one will care about people after the “elections”: the authorities will just press, twist arms and extort the last money. The state will live only on collected fines. From the country that produces we have turned into the country that just takes everything from people.

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