Leanid Zaika: Combined Harvester to Reap Lukashenka Himself

It's better for the dictator to resign and do not bother the Belarusians.

When the authority is not able to solve problems of the economy, it has to deal with shamanistic rituals and calls for help of mystic "superpowers".

Lukashenka has recently come up with ideas about various "icons" that could prop up the decaying building of the authoritarian economy. And finally on September 1 he voiced the "triune" formula of "prosperity". It turns out that Belarus needs supercombined harvester, supervehicle and supertractor.

The dictator told students of the Minsk State Automotive College he visited on Knowledge Day about his "secret weapon". Can these "supers" really become the ground for the country's development? This question of Charter97.org was addressed to the head of the Strategy analytical center, economist Leanid Zaika:

- I'd like to note that a frequent use of the word "super" is used by boys of 8-12 years. They are fond of "superpower", superman" and other things invented by computer games and the Internet.

My son is as old as Kolya Lukashenka and I perfectly know this terminology comes from.

On the other side, I am flattered by the fact that Lukashenka talked about electromobiles based on the principle of those created by Elon Musk. For two years now I have been repeating that Belarus should abandon such nonsense of the 19th century as an agrarian economy or a tractor-combine "breakthrough".

Such things as 3D-production, information technologies and electric transport should have been done earlier. I am glad that the whole list of what should become the basis of the economy is taken from my works. The artist is always pleased when there are copies of his paintings.

Another thing is that Lukashenka is already late with focus on these three branches. Russia constructs unmanned equipment without any loud statements. Its also create combines working with GPRS and electronic cards. This is the future. It should have been done in Belarus not to find ourselves along with tractors and old men driving them in a historic gap.

So, the words are generally correct.

- Will it be followed by correct actions?

- It is questionable. It can be done if the Minsk Tractor Plant, Gomselmash and so on are not involved. It will require completely new industries and new enterprises.

Besides, such production will require new people in charge. The current Prime Minister Andrei Kabyakau is no good here. One has to get a broader picture: to create a supercombined harvester it is necessary to resign absolutely all officials in the government and replace them with a completely new team. New people should come to power.

- Are the authorities ready to such changes?

- We all watched the video when Lukashenka picked potatoes in his garden. He and his son Kolya do the same I did with students in 1970. I was surprised that 47 years later everything reminds of a vicious circle. The technology has remained: potato harvesting machine, purple bags, manual harvesting, and so on.

If Lukashenka uses such an old technology, it will be hard for him to focus on electric transport, IT-technologies, 3D printers and so on.

It turns out that he needs either to face changes, what is questionable, or to resign. And to grab Kolya with him.