Brest Authorities Give Way To Finishing Construction Of Battery Plant, Opposed By City Dwellers

The “head” of the Brest regional executive committee made the decision a few days ago.

The order of Chairman of the Brest regional executive committee Anatol Lis to suspend the construction of the battery plant was declared invalid. An informed source has told tut.by about this, and later the information was confirmed by the press-service of the Accumulator Alliance.

Since the order is canceled, they will be able to start construction of the battery plant and carry out installation and commissioning works.

- There is no talk of launching production now, - said the press-service of the company.

The head of the Brest regional executive committee made the corresponding decision on September 25.

Important to note, the management of the enterprise addressed the regional executive committee on August 25 with a request to cancel the order to suspend the construction of the plant. CEO of the Accumulator Alliance Dzmitry Butau argued that the battery plant had received all the necessary permits: positive conclusions of the state environmental and construction expertise, as well as the permit for emissions.

Earlier Lukashenka promised the Brest residents that the fate of the plant would be decided by a “local referendum”. Whether or not it will take place is not yet clear. In the response, which was received from the regional authorities by the opponents of the construction of the battery plant on September 21, it was reported that the topic of the referendum “has not found further development on the part of the initiative group.”

Human rights activist Raman Kislyak said that activists continue to work on holding a local referendum. Last week they started forming an initiative group.

The construction of the IPower LLC battery plant caused a wave of discontent among the residents of Brest and several villages of the Brest region. They believe that the enterprise threatens their health.

On June 14, 2019, the Brest regional executive committee published on its website the order of Governor Anatol Lis to suspend the construction of the battery plant “until the identified violations are eliminated”.

On May 22, the battery plant near Brest, IPower LLC, was taken out of the control of the 1AK-GROUP Group of companies - 100% of shares in the authorized capital of IPower LLC were sold. As a result, the plant was renamed Accumulator Alliance LLC. 85% of the company share belong to Siarhei Kahanovich, and 15% to Dzmitry Baskau. The former has long been fond of ice hockey, took part in competitions with the participation of the dictator's team. The latter is the general director of the ice hockey club “Dynama-Minsk”.