Lukashenko explained to ministers who cannot be forgiven

On Monday, Alexander Lukashenko held meetings with the economic and social blocks of the government, during which he announced his personnel decisions. The President appointed a new deputy prime minister of the social block, as well as the Minister of Communications and Information. The president instructed them and those who retained their posts to prevent the outflow of people from the regions, increase the role of small and medium-sized businesses in the economy, and also told officials not to forgive public people who behaved inappropriately.

Alexander Lukashenko started his working week with two meetings with members of the government at once. During these meetings, he announced new appointments and formulated the tasks that he sets for the heads of departments.

Most of the ministers retained their posts, including the security forces, as well as Foreign Minister Maxim Ryzhenkov, whose possible replacement was discussed by opposition information resources.

There were two new appointments: Vladimir Karanik became Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the social block, and Kirill Zalessky became Minister of Communications and Informatization. Decisions on the deputy prime ministers in charge of industry, construction, transport, as well as the agricultural and forestry sectors have not yet been announced. The ministers of these blocs have also not been appointed.

It is worth noting that the new Social Deputy Prime Minister is not a career official. Vladimir Karanik is an oncologist. In 1996, he graduated from the Grodno State Medical Institute. He was Minister of Health from June 11, 2019 to August 22, 2020. Then he was appointed chairman of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee. From this position, he returns to the government.

Kirill Zalessky became the new Minister of Communications and Informatization. Until recently, he was Deputy Head of the secretariat of the Supervisory Board of the Hi-Tech Park.

After making the appointments, Alexander Lukashenko began to set priorities for the government as a whole. Addressing First Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Snopkov, the president stressed: “The main task for this bloc and Nikolai Gennadievich personally remains economic growth, and this is primarily investment.” And he stressed that he plans to see investment growth of “about a third” over the next five years.

The Head of State also drew attention to a rather painful problem for Belarus. “We definitely need to pay attention to the outflow of people from the regions. In no case should this outflow be allowed. Wage differentiation should be reduced. People should receive salaries in the regions about the same as in Minsk,” Lukashenko demanded.

Despite his well-known love of Soviet approaches and practices, the president ordered an increase in the share of small and medium-sized enterprises in the economy. However, it is planned to solve the problem using standardization and unification methods, in particular, through the mandatory transfer of all individual entrepreneurs to small businesses. “This is what Snopkov and the group he heads insisted on. By 2030, the small and medium-sized business sector should form about half of the economy. This is also his suggestion,” the head of state stressed.

But when talking to the social block, the president started talking about high things – about the criteria for forgiving employees who have violated the law somewhere and somehow. However, it was clearly not some kind of domestic offenses that were meant, but anti-state acts. “Another thing is that there are some relatives, friends, acquaintances. “I think they are very talented,” I quote some ministers. Therefore, they must work. Despite the fact that they are actually enemies of our state and are sitting under a broom for the time being. There are enough of them in your structure. More than anywhere else. This should not happen,” the head of state stressed.

And then he specified who exactly he considers unacceptable to let out “from under the broom.” “We have gone through this period with you. One must be able to forgive. You have to be able to. If possible. But if a person has violated, violated the law, deliberately done it, what kind of forgiveness can there be? I say this in this circle because how can you forgive public people? All public people – healthcare, education, media, culture, sports… All are public. And if you violated the order somewhere, the law, if you opposed the state, the whole nation saw it. You are public people,” Alexander Lukashenko warned menacingly.

At the same time, he recalled that the new social deputy prime minister had to endure from those who, apparently, were not worthy of forgiveness. The President noted that when Vladimir Karanik was still working as Minister of Health, opponents “attacked and jumped, tore his clothes.” And he stressed: “It’s not going anywhere. Everyone remembers. Because he was telling them right to their eyes what he thought and what they didn’t like.”

And then he suddenly turned to the Minister of Culture Ruslan Chernetsky: “Therefore, Ruslan, if you have any vacillations there (well, he can make a movie in cinematography, no one else…), you need to stop it. You are a statesman. They should be like you. That’s the whole conversation,” the Belarusian leader stressed. In other words, talent is probably not a reason for condescension. Political literacy is a priority.

In this regard, of course, the newly appointed Minister of Information, Marat Markov, was not left without parting words. However, the head of state has no doubts about his literacy.