ZUBR Upholds Entrepreneurs Protest :: Charter'97 :: News

The protest “Can’t Live Like That!” and “Stop violating businessmen’s rights!” will be held at 12 o’clock on July 29 at the crossroads of the Kuibysheva and Kulman streets in front of the entrance to the exhibition center “Parking”.

The regime unleashed in best Soviet style the purposeful harassment of the private business. The entrepreneurs undergo extremely harsh taxation, get fined and are extorted bribes by officials. Yesterday the authorities removed commercial kiosks from Minsk streets. Today the entrepreneurs trading at 27 fairs of Minsk are told to purchase cash-desks, though many can’t afford buying them. As a result, thousands of businessmen quit their jobs having no alternative sources of income. Those, who survive, lift prices on their commodity, making them unrealistically high for the consumers.

ZUBR movement protests against the deliberate annihilation of private business in Belarus. “We are grateful for the aid, which the small business renders to the democratic forces in their struggle against the dictatorship. We will engage in the entrepreneurial action of protest on July 29. We intend to continue fight for the entrepreneurs’ right for a decent life and normal working conditions,” – reads the appeal, circulated by the ZUBR movement ahead of the action.