Not only in Western Europe – also in Belarus people are suffering from the high inflation. According to the wishes of the local dictator Lukashenko, this should now be over: In order to stop inflation, he simply has price increases banned by decree.
The Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko has issued a decree prohibiting price increases in his country. “Any price increase is prohibited from October 6. Banned,” Lukashenko said, according to the state news agency Belta. The order applies with immediate effect so that nobody can use a remaining period to increase prices after all, said Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet republic with an iron hand for 28 years.
The 68-year-old instructed the Attorney General and the Chair of the State Audit Committee to oversee the implementation of the order and crack down on violators. “Immediate arrest and prosecution,” said the dictator. However, Lukashenko did not want to completely rule out the possibility that price increases would also be necessary in some areas in the future. However, this requires approval from the Ministry of Antitrust and Trade or the local administration.
According to Lukashenko, the current prices are already exorbitantly high. Therefore, the ruler advised the First Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Snopkov “not only not to raise prices from October 6, but, on the contrary, to find an opportunity to lower them.”
In addition, Lukashenko ordered his ministers to stop any attempts to exit the market against the background of the decree. “God forbid if a business closes or closes; an office, a restaurant or the like. God forbid if they leave the market,” threatened the ruler. “You will answer for it!”
A few days ago, Lukashenko ordered “everyone to be mobilized” to help with the harvest in the countryside. According to him, school children and students should also be used to harvest apples and potatoes. If you go to work for five or six hours, it’s “a joy for the parents and good physical training for the children,” said the 68-year-old.
Lukashenko is a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the Ukraine war, Belarus made its territory available to the Russian army for attacks on its southern neighbor. The country’s economy has been suffering from Western sanctions for years. These were already imposed after the brutal crackdown on peaceful protests in 2020 and were further tightened after the Russian attack on Ukraine.
According to the National Statistics Office, inflation in Belarus was 17.9 percent in August compared to the same month last year. Food prices in particular rose sharply. According to forecasts by Belarusian economic experts, the inflation rate could rise to as much as 19 percent by the end of the year.
