Stanislau Bahdankevich: Belarusians lose huge money due to Lukashenka

A former chief of the National Bank thinks authorities are responsible for the crisis in Belarus.

Stanislau Bahdankevich said it in an interview with ucpb.org.

– I think Russia was fighting mainly against Russian people. The huge devaluation of the ruble has hit savings of Russians in Russian rubles and created a big problem for those who took loans in foreign currency. It is an unconscious war against Belarus. It is a result of both the economic policy and Russia's aggression against fraternal Ukraine. It has led to such consequences and indirectly hit Belarus.

We really lost huge money due to the Russian ruble's devaluation. But it is also caused by our policy, the policy conducted by Lukashenka, who made Belarus strongly dependent on Russia, who didn't make structural changes when he had opportunities to do it with the help of Russian money, which he spent on consumption. I think the reason for the current problems is internal problems of Belarus and the regime rather than plots and intrigues of Russia.

– Can we say about physical and moral responsibility of the authorities?

– Surely. Lukashenka has been saying for 20 years he understands that economic relations must be diversified, but he has done nothing. He should have carried out a domestic economic programme that would meet Belarus's vital needs at the cost of domestic production. An import to GDP ratio of 70-75% is awful. It demonstrates that the current policy is absolutely wrong. Belarus has lost its economic and monetary sovereignty due to Lukashenka.

We have problems with sales. Why didn't he develop exports? I can understand the situation with imports. We bought Russian goods due to preferences, and it was hard to stop using them. But why did 95% of exports in many goods fall on Russia? Where is the so called multi-vector approach? The system of the Eurasian Union gives us nothing. The current crisis proves it – the amount of exports within the Eurasian Union has decreased.

Our interests include Russia, of course, but also Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic States. Our neighbours are our unions.