Rumas at the Crossroads

The intrigue remains.

The intrigue around former Belarusian Prime Minister Siarhei Rumas remains. Will he decide to enter the big political stage and become a competitor to Aliaksandr Lukashenka? Meanwhile, the high-ranking official has to hide from the Belarusian authorities in Kyiv, says udf.

The former Prime Minister of Belarus, who left his post in June 2020, is now in Ukraine. Journalists managed to photograph him in the streets of Kyiv.

According to Nasha Niva, the former Prime Minister of Belarus has been living in Kyiv for a month. His wife, who still lives in Minsk, has been flying there from time to time.

According to the newspaper, Siarhei Rumas tried to find a job in London but failed. So, he had to settle in Kyiv. In Moscow, he could find a good place thanks to his government connections, but Siarhei Rumas is afraid to go there for fear of being arrested and extradited to Belarus.

As previously reported, the former prime minister's house was searched, while he and his family are still silent and do not comment.

February 3, several Telegram channels reported on the possible detention of the former Prime Minister of Belarus. Officially, neither the KGB nor the Interior Ministry confirmed the information. Rumas' phone was not available.

"He's not at home, guys. I will not give any comments yet; let me handle it," the wife of the former prime minister told reporters.

Later, she changed her "statement" in a conversation with tut.by, saying her husband was out of Belarus.

There is also information in the network about the possible detention of Henadz Sysoueu, former chairman of Belinvestbank, now the acting director of JSC Belarusian Forest Company (earlier, director-general of Borisovdrev).

According to TG (name deleted), "some top officials of Belagroprombank were detained yesterday in the Rumas case.

Former banker Siarhei Rumas headed the Belarusian government from 18 August 2018 until 3 June 2020. Raman Halouchenka took his position.

The former prime minister never spoke publicly about his attitude to the events after the presidential election. However, in August, the media published a picture from Facebook of the wife of the former head of government Zhanna Rumas. She had a picture on the roof of the Development Bank against a huge column of protesters in the background.

Now, this picture is not publicly available.

Many experts believe that Siarhei Rumas has become a threat to Lukashenka, because he may become the very compromise figure at the head of the country, which could please both Moscow and the West.