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Sole Trader: “State Racket” Inspires To Mass Protest

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Today every small business is facing bankruptcy.

Chairman of the Homel Region Executive Committee Uladzimir Dvornik has been recently awarded by Aliaksandr Lukashenka with the Order of Motherland of the third degree. That way the Belarusian ruler praised Dvornik’s outstanding achievements in public activities aimed at improving the welfare of the citizens and strengthening the power of the country, Belsat reports.

Whilst handing out orders in Minsk, Mozyr activists started to collect signatures for a petition addressed to the same Uladzimir Dvornik. The head of the region is asked to pay attention to the desperate state of the sole traders, and not to ignore Tatsiana Dupanava’s case.

“We are all in mourning for the tragically deceased person, Homel resident Tatsiana Dupanava, a sole trader. We will find ourselves in a similar situation, if the regulatory authorities start their inspections. The whole society and we, sole traders, have learned to own cost the economic crisis, that was persistently remained silent about before the presidential elections,”Valery Barkavets, a representative of Sadruzhnasts Trade Union from Mozyr, noted.

Tatsiana Dupanava is widely spoken about at Belarusian markets. The Homel sole trader jumped from the 8th floor the day before the trial. Shortly before the death her goods had been confiscated and she had been imposed unaffordable fines for alleged violation of trade rules.

“Personally, I'm already at the limit, not to commit the same thing. But I can’t do that for the sake of my child,” – Mozyr sole trader Sviatlana Ramanava says.

After the sole trader’s tragic death, inspections with confiscations, which sole traders call “the state racket,” continue with the same intensity. And every small business is facing bankruptcy.

“They came round to the market and went to a definite sales point. If there was not enough documents, they seized everything, carrying away bags of goods,”Iryna Kriukava, a local trader, says.

“We are working and shaking in our shoes – what is next? And it's not a life, it not a work. We are people. We are Belarusians. We are the people, who the government cares so much about in the newspapers or in words. Let them care in deed,”Valery Filin says.

200 signatures were collected in Mozyr in just a day. Next signatures will be collected not only in neighboring towns of Homel region, but throughout Belarus, for the authorities not to apply the laws and decrees that simply kill entrepreneurship in the crisis.

“It’s almost impossible to fulfill the conditions specified in the Decree №222 and №48,” – sole trader Pavel Kalesnikovich says.

Yesterday the “house of representatives” accepted in the second reading the amendments to the Administrative Code and reduced the fines for violation of technical regulations of the Customs and the Eurasian Economic Union. But the “deputies” left the seizure of 100% of the sole trader’s goods for the absence of certificates.

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