Pavel Latushka: Deputy Head of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus, Head of the National Anti-Crisis Management, Ambassador
I remember when I was an ambassador, I participated in a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister of Belarus. During this meeting, the Prime Minister (as far as I recall, it was Sergei Sidorsky) made the following statement to our ambassador in Italy: "If the Italians don’t want to invest in Belarus in shoe manufacturing, then we will ban the import of Italian shoes into Belarus".
These were the kinds of methods used by the government, or at least there was a declared readiness to apply them against foreign partners — potential investors — to lure them, drag them into Belarus. It’s obvious that such methods never worked and never will. But why am I telling this story? It’s related to the fact that today quite inconvenient sanctions have been introduced, which highlight the utter incompetence of Lukashenko.
Have you ever wondered why, when complaining about sanctions, the Lukashenko regime focuses primarily on consumer goods, rather than military industrial goods, or dual-use items, or furniture made by political prisoners for the Department of Corrections of the Ministry of Internal Affairs? Is it because he cares so much about the people?
Of course not. The reason is that these kinds of sanctions most clearly reveal his total incompetence. His worthlessness. His inability to produce even the most basic, primitive household goods, everyday consumer items. In other words, the economy that Lukashenko has been building for 30 years is incapable of producing what people need today. And much, if not most, of it is simply imported. That’s why Lukashenko is so concerned about it.
So what, in principle, can he produce, besides weapons and parts for Russia? Burning MAZ trucks? And we see how often MAZ trucks catch fire in Russia as well. What can he offer to the people?
The Belarusian light industry has been completely ruined over the past 30 years — long before any sanctions. "A competent manager"? What a disgrace. This is where the absurdity lies.
But, just like the regime itself, critics of the sanctions somehow prefer not to focus on this. Not on the fact that Lukashenko has taken North Korea as a model, a country also incapable of producing anything for its people. And in fact, it’s even more interesting there: the country that serves as an example for Lukashenko can’t even produce enough food to prevent its population from starving. Instead, it produces weapons. In such quantities that there’s enough to sign contracts with Russia, supplying it by the trainload.
An excellent role model, right? There’s so much to aspire to, so much room to grow! Instead of producing goods for people’s lives, produce things that take lives away. And at the same time, cry about unfair sanctions and threaten everyone around with nuclear weapons and "unacceptable damage".
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