Leanid Zaika: Little Time Left for Lukashenka

The economist advises not to pay any attention to the "words" of the cockroach.

At the "meeting on the work of the economy in 2020 and the projects for the country's development forecast for 2021," Aliaksandr Lukashenka released a new portion of crazy ideas.

One asked Leanid Zaika, economist, political scientist, candidate of economic sciences, developer of the Strategy for Belarus programme, to assess them, reports myfin.by.

Ridiculous words

- What does the divergent guidance on plans for next year mean?

- Lukashenka does not just say, "Guys, whoever fails to implement my plans will be fired", he says, "Guys, I stay. I do not care about the Kremlin and Putin! I give the task and I will supervise its implementation".

This is a well-known method of party nomenclature since Malenkov and Khrushchev, but not Stalin. He did not resort to such nonsense. There is nothing new. He is going to do something in 2021, although he is not interesting anymore.

As a scientist, I can assess these "plus" plans. They will not be fulfilled!

Justification is the dynamics of the world economy and social problems. Point two, Belarus is so small on the world economic map that it is ridiculous to make any decisions about the pace of development under conditions of general deglobalisation. Third, I recommend ignoring these words, because Lukashenka will have little time left (until the end of 2021).

Prices - stop! One-two!

- Should the Belarusians, as Soviet people in an era of stagnation, expect constant prices?

- One of his assistants wrote about "a mechanism for holding down prices in all directions and parameters" and "the practice of price control".

One can observe fools among them.

The prices for refrigerators, washing machines and all other goods are determined by the world market and not set in Belarusian rubles at all.

And if someone, for example, the head of the Minsk General Economic Crimes Department, keeps an eye on them, it will not affect their level in any way.

Local-style absurdity

- The "accumulated surplus" of the budget will be "swallowed up" as early as this year (unless it has already been destroyed by distributing billions of rubles to chronically unprofitable enterprises). But is it realistic to perform one more task - the surplus budget-2021?

- Things regarding the budget, and what the "parliament" or government usually writes, is so minor that one should not treat it as a serious document. There is no need to believe this absurdity.

As long as Russia gives us oil, we refine it and speculate. It helps to reduce its deficit somehow. The Kremlin is still tolerant. The development of the situation will depend by 90% on Putin's readiness to tolerate Lukashenka.

Robots and cleaners

- Should parasites, "alcoholics, prostitutes and drug addicts" who have been "wandering on the streets" for four months now wait for soon employment?

- "To register all the parasites wandering around and make them work"? It is the wrong way to put it! Lukashenka is concerned about his future. It depends on how quickly we can replace the "mechanical" workforce with machinery and robots.

What does he say to officials? "Guys, you don't do anything, don't create new jobs - but instead of one cleaner, for example, put two, and keep acting this way". If he had been familiar with modern trends, on the contrary, he would not have created such jobs but would have replaced unskilled labour with robot-based jobs.

What is the result?

- How should one treat a PR event?

- In general, one can briefly describe this hilarious session: "Imitation work". After all, Lukashenka is no longer the president. He is out of breath.

He gathers his "active adherents" and "sets tasks". All these people feel that it is over.

The discussion of prices for refrigerators, the creation of a surplus budget have nothing to do with the future of Belarus.