Revealing Story Of How Lukashenka Runs 'Business'

Both St Petersburg and Minsk are suffering.

The sad story began last spring when MAZ won a tender to supply almost 900 gas-powered buses (MAZ 203947) to St Petersburg.

The Prime Minister of Belarus, Raman Halovchanka, and the Governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Beglov, were in high spirits at the ceremony of handing over the first batch of passenger vehicles to the city on the Neva, writes Salidarnasts.

In the summer of 2022, however, officials were no longer satisfied. The media widely reported that two MAZ buses had caught fire in St Petersburg in June.

Aliaksandr Lukashenka had to react to the scandal. Of course, he tried to pretend that nothing terrible had happened. He is said to have had the following conversation with Governor Beglov:

- I said: what have you got there, you wrote that a bus caught fire. He said: 'No, nothing caught fire, it was just some kind of short circuit.

Deputy Prime Minister Pyotr Parkhomchik said: "There was a short circuit, the fire extinguishing system was activated. The bus is being repaired.

Lukashenka continued:

- "He (Beglov - note) says to me: Aliaksandr Ryhoravich, it's not even worth paying attention to. Well, our journalists know how to serve it. But I was worried: maybe something really exploded there. Especially since we have started to produce gas-powered buses for St. Petersburg. They have worked pretty good. Electric buses. The people of St Petersburg are satisfied with our equipment.

The Belarusian leader instructed his officials to fulfil all their obligations to St Petersburg.

At the same time, the possible cause of the MAZ bus fire was revealed to be the sanctions imposed on Belarus as a result of Lukashenka's actions. St Petersburg Deputy Governor Kirill Polyakov said:

- MAZ specialists believe that due to the pressure of sanctions and the disruption of logistical chains in the supply of hydraulic power units, tested flanges may have been replaced by others with similar technical characteristics, but without tested references. The inspection of buses in the Kolpino fleet carried out by the company's employees confirms this possibility.

However, this did not solve the problem. In October 2022, another MAZ bus caught fire in St. Petersburg.

Last February, Lukashenka returned to the company's problems. It turned out that despite the huge order, MAZ suffered financial hardships: the ruler was asked to restructure about half of the debt.

- Why doesn't he (the MAZ director) earn money? Lukashenka was outraged, but agreed to provide additional support to the company if financial conditions 'acceptable' to the state were clearly defined.

In June, another MAZ burnt down in St Petersburg. It was reportedly caused by a short circuit. The St Petersburg authorities could no longer pretend that everything was fine and admitted that 12 passenger buses, most of them MAZs, had burned down in the city last year.

On 2 August, the press service of the St Petersburg City Transport Committee reported that the operation of 137 MAZ buses had been suspended due to malfunctions that could cause a fire. The very MAZ 203047 St. Petersburg received under contracts concluded in 2022 ....

On the same day, the MAZ press service reported that the company's management "continues active cooperation" with the St Petersburg Transport Committee to return the vehicles to the city's routes: "Technical solutions and adjustment measures have been developed and adopted to eliminate the potential risk of fire". To sum up. Through his connections with the Russian leadership, Lukashenka made sure that Russian cities bought Belarusian buses. But there are obvious problems with their quality - they threaten the lives of passengers (one should not believe the words that "the citizens of St. Petersburg are satisfied with our equipment"). The production crisis is probably linked to the sanctions imposed on Belarus as a result of Lukashenka's actions.

As a result, both sides are suffering. The Russians, who have to buy equipment that is obviously of inferior quality, and the Belarusians, who are not getting rich by supplying to Russia.