The Moscow Times - 07.11.2003

The Moscow Times

Belarus PM Axed for 'Lying' About Debts

Combined Reports 


MINSK, Belarus (Reuters, AP) -- Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko dismissed his prime minister and part of the Cabinet on Thursday, accusing them of lying about the government's debts to collective farms.

Lukashenko dismissed Prime Minister Gennady Novitsky, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Popkov, Agriculture Minister Mikhail Rusy and Anatoly Kuzma, the president of the government's food production and distribution agency.

Lukashenko said the ministers had lied in telling him that the government had paid its debts to collective farms.

"I made this decision because the Cabinet does not work as it should, because of its ineffective operations, its failure to fulfill the president's demands regarding the social protection of the population and also because of its falsification and distortion of facts," Lukashenko said in televised remarks at a Cabinet meeting.

"Nobody will be forgiven for deceiving the president," he added.

Lukashenko had repeatedly threatened to get rid of his Cabinet over its inability to spur economic growth.

The leader, whose popularity is largely based on his frequent pledges to pay wage arrears to teachers, farmers and other agricultural workers, made the announcement at an emergency government meeting on wage payments.

Lukashenko, who was first elected nine years ago Thursday, tolerates little dissent in his former Soviet republic. Over the years, he has dissolved an opposition parliament, extended his term in a disputed referendum and won re-election in a vote that international organizations said was neither free nor fair. He has resisted market reforms in Belarus, leaving intact much of the Soviet-style planned economy, including collective farms and food subsidies.

Novitsky, Lukashenko's fourth prime minister, was appointed in October 2001.

"In the absence of the necessary organization in the government and the lack of discipline and efficiency, when there is a lot of talk and no action ... I have decided to sack Novitsky, Popkov and Rusy," Lukashenko said. He appointed Deputy Prime Minister for Industry Sergei Sidorsky as acting prime minister, presidential aide Roman Vnuchko as deputy prime minister and Zenon Lomot as agriculture minister.

Foreign investment in Belarus since 1991 has totaled about $30 per capita and Belarus is seen as one of the most difficult former Soviet states in which to do business.