Managers At Several Dairy Plants Arrested In Belarus

Arrests took place at leading state-owned enterprises throughout the country.

As Nasha Niva

Three unrelated sources informed Nasha Niva about the arrests of dairy plant managers.

It is known about arrests at the Lepel Dairy Plant, as well as at the Babushkina Krynka in Mahiliou - formally a private enterprise - where most stock is owned by the state now.

There have been arrests in other cities, but there is no reliable information about them yet. The meaning of the claims is still unknown.

Probably, we are talking about accusations of kickbacks from dealers for the supply of cheap products, as in the “sugar case”, for example, in which CEOs of sugar factories were arrested.

One of the main accusations, in this case, was that after the creation of the Belarusian Sugar Company, which was supposed to sell sugar, its leadership chose contractors through corruption schemes, and it was allegedly impossible to take the goods without a kickback.

As for milk, Belarus produces many times more milk than the domestic market consumes. The main players in the milk processing market are state-owned factories. They sell their products mainly to the Russian market.

The business of selling state products to foreign markets in almost all areas is traditionally opaque. In some cases, the regime rewards the right people for their loyalty with the opportunity to take cheap products from factories and sell them at high prices abroad.