Why Lukashenko Replaced The Ambassador To Russia

The regime has had problems in the Russian market.

After the ambassador to Russia Alexander Rogozhnik failed all plans for Belarusian exports, Lukashenko sent him to save Vitebsk region. And the new ambassador to Russia was already former Finance Minister Yuri Seliverstov. Because priorities change. And there is no stability in the world, writes planbmedia.io.

Before starting his diplomatic career, Alexander Rogozhnik was Minister of Industry. That is, a year and a half ago, the main thing was the ambassador's ability to sell Belarusian tractors in Russia.

Bearing in mind that the new ambassador became the Minister of Finance, one could conclude that now the main thing is the ability to correctly ask Russia for a loan. Or, at least, the ability not to pay back debts. As buyers of Belarusian government bonds were convinced, Yuri Seliverstov has a lot of experience in this.

But, in fact, no. In fact, the reason is that now it is not so easy to sell Belarusian tractors in Russia as it used to be. With the stagnating economy, there is not enough room for Belarusian tractors on the Russian market.

"We must not just sell the tractor, but also offer conditions to make it easy to service and credit," Seliverstov said after the appointment. - Traditionally, it has always been easier to supply some dealer with deferred payment and wait for him to sell it himself, find resources and pay us."

That is, we are talking about Belarus itself crediting the supply of its equipment to Russia. This approach has been used before, but given the drop in demand in Russia, it will have to be used more often now. As Alexander Lukashenko suggested at a meeting with the governor of Kirov region on Monday.

"Since we have a lower refinancing rate, loans are more affordable," he said.

There are some risks, though. First, Russian producers may not like it. Russian producers already accuse Belarus of unfair competition. That they are being forced out of their own market.

And, secondly, there are financial risks. That the loan will simply not be repaid. As of the end of the year, the accounts receivable of Belarusian enterprises, i.e. what they owe to Belarusian factories, amounted to 100 billion rubles. 11 billion of them are overdue debts. Over the year, the receivables have grown by 20 billion.

"We need guarantees. And we are ready to cooperate financially. First of all with the Russian Federation. We understand all this. But so that there would be no losses or less losses in this regard," said Lukashenko.

The problem is that no one can give any guarantees now. They can promise anything, but not the fact that they will fulfill it. And replacing the Minister of Industry with the Minister of Finance will neither increase the demand on the Russian market, nor the solvency of Russian buyers.

By the way, Seliverstov was quickly replaced as head of the Ministry of Finance. The Council of the Republic recalled from the Council of the Republic Vladislav Tatarinovich, a native of the Ministry of Finance. The tradition of moving the first deputy to the finance ministers was broken. It seems, not accidentally. The current first deputy in the Ministry of Finance is a woman. And female ministers are not accepted in Belarus nowadays.

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