How Lukashenka devalues ruble

The US dollar costs five times as much against the Belarusian ruble as it did five years ago.

Salidarnasts recalls Lukashenka's election promises and checks whether he has fulfilled them.

He promised to strengthen the national currency. “We will secure the stability of the Belarusian ruble rate, the absolute safety of bank account, the availability of bank loans,” Lukashenka said in his election promises.

During the 2010 elections the dollar cost 3,000 Belarusian rubles in accordance with the National Bank's exchange rate.

This is how the Belarusian ruble fulfilled Lukashenka's promise (below is the cost of 1 dollar in rubles as of December 31 each year):

2010 – 3,000 rubles

2011 — 8,350 rubles

2012 — 8,570 rubles

2013 — 9,510 rubles

2014 — 11,850 rubles

2015 (28 August) — 17,667 rubles

The US dollar has grown almost 6-fold against the ruble for five years when Lukashenka was “securing the stability of the ruble”.

Many remember 2011 and huge queues at exchange offices, where people spend hours in a hope to buy foreign currency. Many also remember Lukashenka's remarkable statement not to ask him about foreign currency and buy it on the black market.

Belarusians had to return to long-forgotten black market and foreign currency speculators, learnt how to exchange money using prokopovi.ch website, which was called by its founders in honour of National Bank chief Piotr Prakapovich, and got an opportunity to buy foreign cash only on presentation of the passport.

Holders of deposit accounts denominated in Belarusian rubles lost 1.3 billion dollars in May 2011 due to the record high devaluation and growing inflation. This is how the head of state fulfilled his promise about the safety of bank accounts.

As for the availability of loans, interests rates of 16-17% that were in January 2011 are now regarded as low. Interest rates were constantly changing during five years and even reached 55%.

In general, the promise to secure the stability of the Belarusian national currency appeared to be mere words.