Karabas-Barabas and His "Сontrabass"

Lukashenka is the leader of a smuggling gang.

Some time ago, we noticed an incredible resemblance of Lukashenka to the anti-hero puppeteer Karabas from the fairy tale of the glorious Pinocchio. However, the Belarusian "hero" is much more ambitious in his atrocities, writes the Minsk Semiboyarschina Telegram channel.

The very topic of privatization of the national heritage of the Belarusians is not so simple. Lukashenka and the company have built multi-million dollar corruption schemes around each industrial flagship. First of all, they are connected with smuggling. It explains why Lukashenka is so reluctant to see independent and real investors in the industry.

Let's take GrodnoAzot, one of the biggest enterprises in the country, as an example. Today GrodnoAzot is the biggest hub for smuggling cigarettes into the EU. Weird? Not at all. Packaged cigarettes are hidden in wagons with exported bulk fertilizers. They are usually placed in the middle of a railroad coupling (photos attached). The tightening of customs control on the border with the EU forced state smugglers to make the scheme more sophisticated. The use of the state enterprise GrodnoAzot was agreed upon personally by Lukashenka. The scheme has been patronized by KGB head Tertel for many years. The new general director of Grodnoazot, Ihar Lyashenka, faced the task not only to "master" $1.5 billion for the "modernization" of the new nitrogen complex, but also to ensure the flow of cigarette smuggling on an industrial scale.

The EU countries receive mostly cigarettes under the brand of the Grodno-based Neman tobacco factory.

Colleagues from the Busel telegram channel covered the topic well. Let us add. Inter Tobacco is a new manufacturer of Belarusian cigarettes. It deals with smuggling schemes. Alexey Oleksin owns and runs it under " the supreme blessing". The company produces excise-free cigarettes from the tobacco mixture of the Grodno factory without any control. By Lukashenka's order, even the raw tobacco is supplied to Belarus without customs duties and taxes stipulated by the norms of the Eurasian Economic Union. Oligarch Oleksin opened a network of tobacco shops "Tabakerka" all over Belarus exclusively to launder smuggled money and concealing the excessive production of tobacco products. Total revenue from cigarette smuggling generates up to $2 billion a year. Straightforward: Lukashenka is the head of a smuggling gang.

Let us recall that over 13 billion in tobacco products are smuggled annually to the EU and Russia without paying VAT and excise taxes. The share of illicit cigarettes smuggled from Belarus on the Russian market has increased from 50% to 58%. Tax losses in Russia alone amount to $1.5 billion annually. Moreover, tobacco factories of Oleksin pop up like mushrooms after a spring rain on the Russian territory. Raw materials and equipment are delivered from Belarus.

Thus, having captured the market of its eastern brother, the Belarusian smuggling is confidently approaching its main target - China. The Russian tax authorities and law enforcement agencies will soon face a whole new set of acute challenges. When the Belarusian Karabas-Barabas drives his cigarette "smuggling" into the possession of "friend Xi," a China-Russia political conflict is unlikely to be avoided.