Valer Karbalevich: Everything Looks Not So Rosy For Lukashenka

The dictator is stuck in a dead end.

One of the important topics of dictator Lukashenka’s speech at the so-called “All-Belarusian People’s Assembly” was summing up the results of his reign, writes political commentator Valer Karbalevich in his column for Radio Svaboda.

“It is important to note that the Belarusian authorities like to compare socio-economic indicators with the 1990s, but are reluctant to talk about the state of economic development over the past 10-13 years. And it’s clear why. Independent economists prove that since 2011, the average annual growth rate of the gross domestic product of Belarus has been about 1%. This is 2-3 times lower than the global average. In economic terminology, this state is called stagnation.

In other words, it is an economic impasse. This is the objective result of 30 years of management. If we also remember international isolation, loss of sovereignty, internal division, which is called the “cold civil war,” totalitarian tendencies in the political system, then the results do not look rosy at all,” notes Valer Karbalevich.