Dictatorship’s anti-crisis promotional campaign does not work

Discontent with the economic policy provided by Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues to grow.

Optimistic assurances of the Belarusian authorities about soon coping with the crisis do not seem to come true. The country has faced first strikes while banks impose new restrictions and wind down their business. Independent analysts think that further aggravation of the crisis in Belarus will spark protest moods and cause exodus , Kommersant daily runs.

Vitsebsk gave the first alarm bell for the Belarusian authorities. Workers of the local building company held a one-day strike on Friday demanding to increase payment in accordance with the inflation rate growth. Then players of Baranavichy football club went on strike. They refused to play until their salaries for June and July are paid.

Financial institutions of Belarus responded to the crisis. Belinvestbank, one of the country’s leading banks, forbade withdrawing money using its cards abroad since Monday. Belagroprombank, another big bank, began to close its exchange offices. The bank has already shut 30% of its exchange offices. Local economists explain this tendency with unprofitability – only foreigners not familiar with Belarusian realities visit exchange currency in banks. The rest prefer exchange operations on the black market.

The authorities raised utility prices 20% in September. The further growth is expected. Taking into account Lukashenka’s boasting about utility prices in Belarus, which are considerably lower than Russian ones, this step is likely to have a negative impact on the image of the authorities.

The leader of the legal aid centre, Aleh Vouchak, told Kommersant that deepening crisis sparks public discontent that may cause protest moods and provoke mass emigration from the country. Vouchak reminds that the average payment in Minsk is about 1.5mn Belarusian rubles (5,000 Russian rubles). He says many workers wait for expiration of their contracts to quit and go to Russia to work.

Realizing the potential danger of the current situation, the Belarusian authorities mobilized all media resources to fight against “trouble makers”. The official Belarusian propaganda says there may be signs of a small crisis in the country, but the blame lies entirely on the government, which fails to fulfill Lukashenka’s orders. Former Belarusian prime minister Mikhail Chyhir explained to Kommersant that “shifting the blame for his own decisions to officials” is typical for Lukashenka. Chyhir thinks that the country’s authorities have made all possible mistakes in economy for the last six months. The promises to improve the situation given by Alyaksandr Lukashenka today look like yet another deceit.