Lukashenko promised a “hot frying pan” to a high-ranking official

Alexander Lukashenko had an important personnel day on Thursday. He appointed several heads of local executive and administrative bodies, ambassadors to different countries, a new deputy head of the presidential administration, first deputy chairman of the Board of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus, and even the CEO of the Belarusfilm film studio.

Alexander Lukashenko began Thursday by appointing the heads of local executive and administrative bodies. The president told the chairmen of the regional, district and city executive committees on the spot, without unnecessary words: “I’m not going to set any tasks for you: you know perfectly well, you’ve heard about them, why should we get smart here again. This five-year plan will not be easy. I would really like you to complete this five-year plan.”

But then he specified it anyway. He recalled that local authorities have now received a wider range of powers, and therefore bear full responsibility for literally everything in the assigned territory. Even enterprises at the national level should be in their area of attention.

“Don’t think it’s someone else’s. Your people work there, and you’re responsible for them. Therefore, you demand. To ensure order, cleanliness, wages, and sales of products. Don’t forget that this is your area of responsibility. Don’t wait for any instructions in this regard,” the president demanded. And he added even more sternly: “And what I said when I took office. We promised people. We promised, we have to do it. Die, but do it. Therefore, we will act in this direction.”

From the level of the “earth” and the needs of ordinary fellow citizens, Lukashenko moved to the international level and made appointments and reshuffles in the Foreign Ministry. He sent Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Ambrazevich to the Vatican as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to the Holy See. Lukashenko has repeatedly expressed his deep respect for the Pope. And in response, he did not say anything bad about the Belarusian leader, which apparently gives him hope that the pontiff can say a weighty word in establishing relations with the West.

And Igor Sekret, head of the Foreign Policy Department of the presidential Administration, was delegated to replace Ambrazevich at the Foreign Ministry. Igor Bely, the Ambassador of Belarus to South Africa and concurrently to Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia, will now also head the Belarusian diplomatic mission in the UAE and concurrently in Kuwait. Anatoly Glazov, the Ambassador of Belarus to Turkey, has been appointed concurrently as the ambassador to Iraq. A number of other appointments in this area were also undoubtedly important, but less impressive.

But the most striking personnel decisions on Thursday were the appointment of former Deputy head of the Presidential Administration Alexander Egorov as first Deputy Chairman of the Board of the National Bank, and Dmitry Matusevich, who until now had served as chairman of the State Property Committee, to his former position.

The president encouraged Matusevich: “The work here is no harder than yours today. But a hot frying pan, as I say. It’s not that simple. The work is not harder, but the power is greater and the responsibility is greater. And it is not known for whom and when you can get it, speaking like a man.”

But regarding the appointment of Egorov as deputy to former Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko, who now heads the National Bank, the president spoke in detail, but also metaphorically.

“Some people started talking here: well, Golovchenko and Egorov came here – they’re going to turn on the machine right now. They don’t have a machine. I have a machine over there behind my office, it’s already rusted. Nobody… listen, we are not the right country to turn on the machine today and start printing money. This will immediately lead to inflation tomorrow. That’s why you have to look around a thousand times. And no one is going to turn on any machines, because our situation is not the right one to turn on. The situation is more or less normal in the country.”

But it seemed to the president that more arguments needed to be added, especially against the background of the insinuations of the opposition. And he added: “Yes, we depend on the markets, the financial system depends, of course. But still, we’ve learned to keep the balance somehow. Therefore, of course, they want to excite the population that inflation will start tomorrow, we will begin to devalue our national currency and so on. We are not going to commit suicide.”

And he outlined another super-task: “Why Golovchenko and Egorov? We need to put this in order. Commercial banks – they shouldn’t be a country within a country.” Moreover, the president is confident that any freedom in this area is unacceptable. “It shouldn’t be that no one is subordinate to anyone, no one has any obligations to anyone. I’m sure it’s just that we’ve been given this idea. We didn’t accept it by and large. But there are these gaps in the banking system. The system needs to be manageable,” Lukashenko stressed.

But, of course, the Belarusian people are not alive with a single economy. The President is keenly aware of this and appointed Dmitry Semenov, who previously served as deputy head of the Department of Culture of the Minsk City Executive Committee, as General Director of the Belarusfilm National Film Studio. And, of course, he has a difficult task ahead of him, since the president has an extremely low opinion of the state of Russian cinema.