There Was An Altercation With Officials At Lukashenko's Meeting

The dictator himself later unleashed an angry tirade.

There was an altercation at the conference call on the harvesting campaign, which Alexander Lukashenko convened on July 18. The head of the State Control Committee Vasily Gerasimov said that Vitebsk officials had concealed from him information about the staff shortage in agriculture, and they objected that this was not true. Lukashenko himself unleashed an angry tirade and instructed the chairwoman of the "council of the republic," Natalia Kochanova, to look into the situation, "Mirror".

While reporting to Alexander Lukashenko, the head of the State Control Committee, Vasili Gerasimov, said that "some regional executive committees have solved the staff shortage in an elementary simple way":

- Thus, the district executive committees of Vitsebsk voblast reported to Sergei Levkovich Levkovich, the first deputy governor, that all combines were staffed. He, in turn, forbade to give any information to the State Control Committee. At the same time, the region lacked 615 mechanics, of which only 168 had arrived on July 14 - a fifth of them. Including combine harvesters 43 - that's 30%," said the head of the department.

Lukashenko was surprised by this statement:

- I don't understand, how could you be forbidden not to give information? And where is this official who did not give you information?

Gerasimov specified that "the first deputy forbade his subordinates to give us information verbally". Lukashenko asked "where this first deputy is" and "why he is not walking around Minsk with handcuffs or is not in places not so remote.

Here the head of Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee Alexandr Subbotin, who participated in the meeting via video link, on the left hand of whom the very first deputy Sergei Levkovich was placed.

Subbotin sharply objected to Gerasimov, saying that the accusations voiced by him are not true:

- All information is in any access, in any format. We are not hiding anything, even, maybe, we show more than necessary.

Lukashenko instructed Kochanova to find out how things really stand with agricultural personnel in Vitsebsk voblast.

- Well, it's clear, they didn't give information to some regional head of yours. So there is a governor there, and he says it's not true. Well, did you address the governor? - He asked Gerasimov.

- I took the information, but some people think that if they hide something, the situation in the region will improve. I'll find the information in any case," assured the head of the SCC.

Lukashenko instructed Gerasimov to "take the toughest decisions" if the official's rightness is confirmed. And then he reprimanded him:

- One should do everything correctly, solve issues without any complaints and so on. If some official didn't give you information, I would think about his subordinate: why doesn't he get information? He should work in such a way that he doesn't even bring these issues to your attention.

- The subordinate found the information, and it's not about this fact. To be clear, you can't fix the picture in these ways. That's the point. And all these additions, distortions of information do not lead to anything good, because we then make wrong decisions," Gerasimov stood his ground.

On the other hand, Lukashenko said that "the cleaning has just begun" and "there are different kinds of malfunctions - maybe just a gear didn't arrive in time, but it's a trifle":

- You see, one should see the volume and scale of shortcomings when assessing. You should not just say "it's bad and that's it". You have to analyze and make appropriate conclusions," the dictator added.

He ended his tirade with a request to "tell the State Control Committee and our local employees to be very careful. Don't go around tearing your shirt and shouting that I'm the chief boss here.

It should be noted that earlier at the same meeting, the State Control Committee, the Prosecutor General's Office and the Interior Ministry complained to Lukashenko that some regions were poorly prepared for the harvesting campaign - for example, grain harvesters and grain drying complexes are defective.

- Grain harvesters are not ready for work in almost every third of the inspected farms of the republic. At the same time, some organizations have not even started to repair them due to lack of spare parts and mechanized personnel. A number of agricultural organizations have not prepared warehouses for receiving the harvest. Not everywhere properly taken care of the provision of equipment with fuel and spare parts, because of which there are possible losses of working time. Again, we can't overcome the additions. In 5% of inspected farms there were cases when machinery was ready for work only on paper. It's amazing who they are trying to deceive," complained Lukashenko.

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