How Much Belarusians Paid For Dodon’s Plane

The Moldovan president used a special charter to fly away from Belarus.

President of Moldova Igor Dodon arrived in Minsk on a routine Belavia flight with a transfer in Moscow. It was economy class. All because in Moldova there is no "presidential air fleet", as well as no special aircraft intended for the flights of high officials.

"It started a long time ago, because the country is not rich, and, accordingly, I do not think that people would have reacted positively to this if all the leaders started flying on some private planes," - former Moldovan Prime Minister Vladimir Kulminsky explains to Euroradio. "And secondly, it is still not clear who has full power: the traditional struggle for the redistribution of powers between the parliament and the presidency is still going on in this country." In such a situation, it would be quite difficult to determine how many aircraft would be necessary ".

However, could they use at least business-class, not economy, when flying to Minsk?

Vladimir Kulminsky: "Now Dodon is flying economy class not to demonstrate his democracy, but to show everyone in Moldova that he is close to the people." He does not have any real powers now, and the struggle for power and for the authorizations in Moldova is just beginning. Everything will be decided in 2018 during the parliamentary elections, so people try to maximize their rating, their popularity among the population, to emphasize their modesty and democracy as much as possible."

In fact, for Europe, there is nothing surprising about the situation when a president does not have his own aircraft. For example, the presidents of Lithuania and Latvia also do not have airplanes and fly by regular flights. So, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite prefers Aeroservisas. Moreover, she also flies in the usual economy class. The President of Latvia most often uses the services of AirBaltic. In Poland, local authorities decided to abandon their own fleet, which was disbanded on December 31, 2011. Since that moment, all top state officials of Poland fly by LOT airlines.

The ruler of Belarus is another matter. Although there are at least four planes in the government fleet, Lukashenka cannot step as low as to fly economy class. Apparently, that's exactly why Igor Dodon returned to Moldova in a special charter - the plane "Bombardier" of the Belavia air company.

Who and why organized this expensive flight? The explanation appeared on Sunday in the evening air of ONT channel: "As a sign that the dialogue was successful, Igor Dodon left the hospitable Belarusian land by a special charter flight."

But how much did this special hospitality cost to the Belarusian budget? The journalists sent this question to the Belavia press-center. However, the domestic air company refused to inform a specific amount and said that "the cost of charter flights is a trade secret."

Nevertheless, according to unofficial information, such a charter flight can cost up to 40 thousand dollars.