WHERE’S THE MONEY, MR.PRESIDENT? :: Charter'97 :: News

The problem of the shadow budget was first raised in the country in 1995-1996. The “Civil action” faction in the 13th Supreme Soviet forced the procuracy to hold investigation into the activities of the “Torgexpo” and the Esembaev’s fund. There emerged some remarkable facts. By his order the head of state set up a structure, which didn’t pay taxes, directing all the earned money into the so-called presidential fund. Taking into consideration the fact that “Torgexpo” once encompassed almost 25% of all country’s foreign trade, one can imagine how many hundreds of millions of dollars didn’t get into the state budget.

On April 23, 2002 Alexander Lukashenko publicly and wholeheartedly confessed of having committed law violations. He did that in the form of an open challenge to the National Assembly, the country’s public and all of the citizens. Seeking to justify the purchase of Mercedes cars for the local officials, he said the following: “Did I take this money from the budget or what? I didn’t take a penny out of there. Where I got it is my private business. I earned them legally. I didn’t rob anyone nor did I take them to myself. Same concerns sports institutions.”

Alexander Lukashenko unambiguously stated that he is the manager of astronomic sums. However, he doesn’t feel like telling the origin of the capital nor revealing the mechanism of its distribution. That’s the commercial secret. The absence of trustworthy information leaves room for the guessing. Where can one earn such fortunes in today’s world?

Those cognizant will say that this money can only be made through selling the opium poppy, but never the sugar beet. Or through supplying arms to Saddam Hussein’s cronies or Usama Bin Laden, but hardly through shipping seed drills to the poor African farmers. These are just my versions, though.

What changed in the financial sources over the years? Vodka-dollars turned into tank-euros. The Finance Minister Korbut honestly admitted that there’s no money from arms deals in the budget. In any normal society this one declaration would be more than enough for the incumbent’s resignation. All our attempts to have the law-enforcement bodies investigate into the spending of money, earned through arms sales, turned out futile.

The government doesn’t reject its implication in weaponry transactions. The “Red house” only claims that they don’t ship ammunition in breach of the UN-imposed sanctions. Indiscreet regime, actively communicating with the world on that, prefers to keep silent inside the country. Nobody has managed to refute the fact of illicit arms deals and consequent money-laundering. However, Alexander Lukashenko pledged to the National Assembly delegates that he would keep them informed as to the sums that can be earned through weapon supplies. But, trust me, this won’t happen soon. In the past during one of the Supreme Soviet sessions Alexander Lukashenko vigorously assured me that he would soon provide all data on the financial activities of the notorious “Torgexpo” firm. He fulfilled his promise just as he compensated the lost population’s deposits, attracted investors into the Belarusian economy or stopped the price-growth.

The United Civil Party holds the Belarusian authorities accountable for the uncontrolled spending of money, made through arms sales. Where’s the money, Mr.Lukashenko? Who and how spends them, Mr.Sheiman? Why isn’t it included into the state budget, Mr.Tozik and Mr.Korbut? These aren’t just questions to Savik Shuster’s popular talk-show “Freedom of speech”. These are the questions, posed to you by the very citizens of the Republic of Belarus.

When money is out of the budget, when their waste isn’t controlled by the parliament and the public, then this is stolen money, according to the law. This is the money, stolen from a teacher, a pensioner, a worker, a soldier.

Human rights violations, clampdown on the freedom of speech, monopolization of electronic media, annihilation of the regime’s opponents, the parliament’s dissolution, liquidation of the independent judiciary – are all but the follow-ups of the shadow budget’s formation. Let me put it this way: Lukashenko made the money the source of his power. By controlling the financial flows he turns citizens into lackeys, and the state institutions – into a decoration.