Forsal: Minsk tells tall tales to IMF

Poland is sure the Belarusian authorities have little chance of getting a loan from the IMF.

Though all previous privatisation campaigns failed, Minsk continues to make new attempts. Belarusians don't trust the authorities any more and sell unstable Belarusian rubles, Polish economic website Forsal.pl reports.

In its efforts to receive western money Belarus resumes the old rhetoric counting on acceleration of privatisation. Minsk races against time while people fear a new devaluation of the national currency.

The more the authorities assure that no devaluation is possible, the less ordinary Belarusians believe them. People exchange rubles for dollars and euros. The proportion of foreign currency deposits of individuals rose from 62% to 66% from July 1 to October 1. Belarusians bought foreign currency worth 320 million dollars only in September. The fall of the national currency affects its stability. The Belarusian ruble has never been so weak.

One dollar costs 9,170 rubles now, which is 7% more than at the beginning of the year. It's a slight growth, but economists say it resembles the situation two years ago, when attempts to delay the devaluation led to imbalance in the currency market and a rush to currency exchange offices. The government had to adjust the exchange rate increasing it daily from 5,712 to 8,680 rubles per dollar. Even the pro-governmental newspaper Respublika remembers it however laying the blame on the problems with the US federal budget.

In this situation Minsk begins to apply for foreign aid that supposes receiving a loan from Russia-controlled Anti-Crisis Fund of the Eurasian Economic Community (ACF) or from the International Monetary Fund. The first variant is easier, but it will doom Minsk to further dependence on the Kremlin. The second variant implies carrying out real reforms. Delegations of both organisations are expected to visit the Belarusian capital by the end of the month. Belarus counts more on the IMF loan. Minsk already cooperated with this organisation. Belarus received 3.5bn dollars in 2009-2010 from this source and simplified customs procedures, reduced taxes and simplified company registration procedures.

Some promises can be heard now. Deputy minister of economy Dzmitry Halukhou, who belongs to a group of young educated technocrates, spoke about changes in priorities of state-owned companies from quantity to quality of production. It would be a revolution, because the country's industrial giants still work by the Soviet rule “the more. the better”.

In other words, two new refrigerators with defects cost more than one fridge that works well. The Belarusian authorities published a list of 85 companies ready for privatisation. Among them are the Mozyr oil refinery and the BATE plant, the owner of the same-named football club. However, all previous privatisation campaigns failed due to lack of western investments.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Lukashenka: USA was created by freedom-loving bandits

The US was created by bandits who thought only about their purses.

He made this statement at a meeting with students of Arkadz Kuliashou Mahilou State University, Rosbalt news agency reports.

“This country, America, is perhaps slightly more than 300 years old. You know what a nation it is. You know how it was formed,” Lukashenka said. By America the graduate of Mahilou Pedagogical Institute (now university) probably means the USA rather than the continent.

Lukashenka said the western countries often criticised him and he sometimes regretted his critical remarks addressing his critics. He recalled, in particular, his recent remarks about US president Barack Obama, whom he called a descendant of former black slaves obsessed with the idea of exceptionalism of the American nation and imposing his will on the rest of the world. “You know who crossed the ocean. They were bandits, but they loved freedom. They didn't want to know anything except for their purses. They only wanted to go to a bank (or where they go in such cases) and take money to build a house and something around the house,” Lukashenka said about the European settlers who founded the USA.

He added that about 50 million people in the US “are dying in a ditch” without medical aid. This terrible social injustice is impossible in post-Soviet Belarus, the head of state is sure. He reminds that the US authorities don't care about social problems, including the healthcare reform proposed by Obama. Speaking about the reform that provoked disputes in the US Congress Lukashenka said: “Obama raised this question about medical aid to over 50 million of Americans dying in a ditch, because no one will come to you if you are ill. He said the right thing about health insurances. Did it pass? No, it didn't.”

We remind that Aliaksandr Lukashenka mentioned “slave roots” of the American president commenting on the US policy towards Syria in early October: “Obama surprises me. Not so long ago black people were slaves in America, and now they talk about some kind of exceptionalism. I never thought that a person, who originated from these poor groups, would be able to use such rhetoric in the world. This is inadmissible and extremely dangerous.”

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Lukashenka: European home is bursting at the seams

Despite globalization future belongs to sovereign states and individual nations.

Lukashenka made the statement as he met with students of the Mogilev State A. Kuleshov University on 17 October, BelTA has learned.

In his speech the head of state remarked that the mankind is living through a global shift of civilizations. The laws of social relations and moral standards that once looked unshakable gradually lose their power. “The information revolution has disintegrated all the space and time barriers. Economic processes across the globe reached a supranational level a long time ago. The man now can reproduce the greatest of all secrets – the birth of life – and can clone living beings,” he said.

The globalization of manufacturing and capital entails very serious transformations in the spiritual sphere. “We see centuries of moral foundations gradually crumble. We see moral anomalies become standards. National and cultural differences between nations disappear. A global English-language neoculture based on American standards and examples is born,” noted the head of state.

“The question most often asked today is whether sovereign states, individual nations and peoples will be able to survive for a long time in the modern world or whether they will have to become a thing of the past?” added Lukashenka.

He remarked that the road of the Belarusians towards statehood had been long. “The independent state of our own gives us freedom and freedom is what every person and every nation strives for, freedom to live in our own God-given land, freedom to choose our own way, freedom to honor our own traditions, our past, freedom to control our present and build our future,” said the head of state.

Lukashenka pointed out that “even in the so-called united Europe the desire of nations to attain self-determination has not waned”. As an example he mentioned Scotland, Belgium, and Spanish Catalonia. “Virtually no European country is satisfied with results of the construction of the common European home, which, as everyone knows, is bursting at the seams,” he said.

“This is why from the point of view of individual nations and sovereign states I may call myself a historical optimist,” noted Alexander Lukashenko. “Despite all kinds of globalization the notions of Motherland, Fatherland, the independence of one’s own land is still strong from my point of view”.

“Belarus has existed at the crossroads of Eastern and Western traditions for centuries and has accumulated unique spiritual experience. Our national idea is peace, accord, mutual aid in our large united family named the Belarusian people. We are accustomed to earning our living in our own land. We are kind-hearted to everyone, who lives alongside us and who comes with peace,” stressed Lukashenka.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Zmitser Dashkevich threatened with new jail term

A former political prisoner can be thrown behind bars for any violation of the rules of police supervision.
“I had to re-register yesterday from the Zavadzki district to the Pershamaiski district. I took the necessary documents in the Zavadski district police station and came to the Pershamaiski district. I talked to a police officer responsible for supervision. I told him about the police supervision in the Zavadski district. It's like a circus: they come to you at 20:02 for a check and say you'll go to jail if you are late two times more. The policeman said officers of the Pershmaiski district department don't do such things,” the politician noted.

Zmitser Dashkevich stressed when he talked to the chief officers of the supervision office, they said they had the right to check on him 30 seconds after 20:00 and even in the middle of the night with a special task group.

“I don't understand why they organise these provocations and threaten me with a jail term for being late for 30 seconds. I am going to apply to a prosecutor's office asking to talk to them or at least teach them to speak in a polite manner. I think a probability of violating the rules of police supervision is rather high,” the former political prisoner said.

Zmitser Dashkevich, 32, was released from Hrodna priosn N. 1 on August 28. He spent 986 days in prison on accusations of “malicious hooliganism”.

He and Young Front activist Eduard Lobau were detained in Minsk on December 18, 2010, a day before the presidential election. They were accused of beating two Minsk residents. The Young Front activists pleaded not guilty and said they didn't know the alleged victims, but the Maskouski district court found both guilty of malicious hooliganism on March 24, 2011. Dashkevich was sentenced to 2 years in a minimum security correctional colony; Lobau was given four years in a medium security correctional colony. On August 28, 2012, Dashkevich received an additional year in prison for “persistent failure to obey orders of prison officers”.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Assad thanks Lukashenka for support

In an interview to the ONT TV Channel Prime Minister of Syria Wael al-Halqi expressed gratitude to the Belarusian people and the country’s authority for provided support.

“I would like to thank Belarus for support, for standing together with Russia and giving a helping hand during the most difficult times for our country. On behalf of President of Syria Bashar Assad I express gratitude to President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenka for his stance in the issue. As for the situation in Syria, I would like to stress that there is no civil war here. Our army and people are fighting against international terrorism,” Wael al-Halqi said.

He emphasized that Syria pursues an open policy: “International observers can visit any facility they would like to. We are ready to get rid of chemical weapons within the agreement we are accomplishing. But the question is who are in the opposition. Those who seek to establish caliphate and follow the Shariat laws, those who cannot find common ground, those who do not think about the future of the motherland. Our official position is clear – we are for peace and freedom. We are ready for talks in order to put a stop to this chaos.”

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Lukashenka tells Kolia about Stalin and Hitler every evening

One can only feel sorry for poor Kolia.

The ruler said at a press conference for Russian journalists what bedtime stories he told his youngest son,” Interfax news agency reports.

“Every night when I get the kid to bed he says to me: 'Well, I cannot watch TV, but you must tell me a story. About war again?' – 'About war again.' I don't have stories any more. I have to tell stories about war every night. About Stalin, about Hitler, how they planned the operation. The kid, a third grader, wants stories about war all the year,” Lukashenka said.

The ruler said though his first degree was in history, he didn't know what to tell his son more, because of Kolia's keen interest in history.

“I started to tell him about the war with Napoleon, about the battle of Borodino, how they (the French troops – Interfax) were retreating. We fly in a helicopter over the Berezina River and I tell him about the French army: they drowned there, bridges were burnt and so on,” the ruler continued.

He underlined that the young generation should always hear about the Great Patriotic War.

“We need to preserve the memory (about the Great Patriotic War). The older generation – you and me – should not only commemorate our Victory, but also bring up our children and grandchildren telling them about the war,” Lukashenka said.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau

Three Belarusian political prisoners shortlisted for Sakharov Prize

The European Parliament is expected to announce the winner today.

Ales Bialiatski, Eduard Lobau and Mikalai Statkevich are among shortlisted candidates.

Other finalists are former CIA employee Edward Snowden and 15-year-old Pakistani campaigner for women's rights Malala Yousafzai, who was shot and seriously wounded by Taliban gunmen in 2012.

The shortlisted finalists for the Andrei Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2013 were selected by the EP Foreign Affairs and Development committees and the Subcommittee on Human Rights at a meeting on Monday.

The laureate will be announced today by Parliament's Conference of Presidents in Strasbourg and invited to the award ceremony on 20 November, also in Strasbourg.

Commentator Aliaksandr Krasnapeutsau