About Belarusian Don Corleone

The Belarusian state is a notorious mafia.

As they say, you put your finger in its mouth and it will bite off the arm to the elbow. And it even won’t choke. The payment for hostels has increased significantly in Belarus. By some estimates, the prices have risen by 80%. If last year people paid 50 rubles, now the price for using a room with a common shower and a kitchen can reach 230.

The situation is no better for those who thought that they had been living in an apartment all their life, and at the end suddenly found out that they had been living not in an apartment, but in a hostel. People had been living, working, dreaming of a bright future, got apartments, lived there all their lives, and then suddenly the company, on whose balance sheet the house was, decided that it was no longer a house, but a hostel. So, people are not able to privatize their apartments.

And what's more, the residents will now have to pay twice, or even three times more. After all, the use of the flat is now included in the cost of utilities. The payment for electricity is generally 90 rubles per month. For this money you can buy everything for school for a child on the eve of September 1. All the complaints of residents are answered in the same way: if you don’t like it, leave.

And if you think that some capitalist has introduced such measures, you are mistaken. The initiative to raise prices for rent and utilities in the hostels belongs to the state enterprise Minsktrans, which was created by order of the Minsk City Executive Committee. In short, our Don Corleone can pull out money from one more category of people.

Juliya Sivets, Radio Racyja