Lukashenko’s potato racket sparks outrage from regime opponents

[ad_1] Alexander Lukashenko’s cussed grip on the Belarusian economic system plunged the potato-happy nation right into a spud scarcity this spring.

Critics of the authoritarian ruler, who in January grabbed a seventh time period in energy, say he has warped the economic system with strict value controls on staples like potatoes — whereas encouraging residents to snitch on grocery shops that flout regime guidelines.

The bounds, launched by Lukashenko in October 2022 as he aimed to maintain costs low and stave off inflation, as a substitute made potatoes far much less worthwhile for farmers to provide.

Opponents say that choices made by Lukashenko’s workforce stunted manufacturing final 12 months and pushed many cash-strapped farmers to promote their produce to neighboring Russia, humiliating the Minsk regime and crippling grocery shops anticipated to promote potatoes on a budget.

Paltry potato value will increase weren’t maintaining with rising prices for farmers and retailers, and the nation’s demotivated farmers in flip planted fewer potatoes. Belarus harvested 3.1 million tons of potatoes in 2024, down from greater than 4 million a 12 months prior.

“If you recognize from the historical past of the Soviet Union, when folks don’t have motivation, you can't actually power them to do work very effectively,” stated Lev Lvovskiy, tutorial director on the flagship Belarusian BEROC financial assume tank.

The irony: Lukashenko himself as soon as led a collective farm in Gorodets, within the east of modern-day Belarus, through the twilight years of Soviet communism.

The value controls instituted by Minsk made promoting to Russia a extremely worthwhile proposition. Potatoes price over twice as a lot in Russia as in Belarus in March, in accordance with BEROC information. And Belarus exported about 200,000 tons of potatoes to Russia in 2024, making it the No. 1 provider of the staple crop to its neighbor.

The monetary incentives of commerce with Russia aren’t misplaced on the federal government. Lukashenko himself has implored farmers to provide sufficient potatoes to feed each Minsk and Moscow. “We have to assist our Russian kinfolk. And in addition to, we are going to earn good cash from it,” he stated in Might.

Rotten potatoes

Because of the ensuing scarcity, nevertheless, the regime quickly banned the export of potatoes — together with to Russia — absent a license starting in December 2024. Many farmers have responded to the restrictions by labeling wholesome potatoes as spoiled, and continued to funnel them to Russia, Lvovskiy informed POLITICO.

The results of the upheaval: Small, scarce and typically rotten potatoes in Belarusian grocery shops, a phenomenon that escalated in March and April.

This exhibits how “Lukashenko and his administration can artificially create deficits of products that had been in monumental numbers earlier than,” stated Aleś Alachnovič, financial adviser to exiled Belarusian opposition chief Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

<img width="1024" height="632" src="https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/22/13140221-1024x632.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-6792390" srcset="https://www.politico.eu/cdn-cgi/image/width=1024,quality=80,onerror=redirect,format=auto/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/22/13140221.jpg 1024w, https://www.politico.eu/cdn-cgi/image/width=300,quality=80,onerror=redirect,format=auto/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/22/13140221.jpg 300w" /> The irony: Lukashenko himself as soon as led a collective farm in Gorodets, within the east of modern-day Belarus, through the twilight years of Soviet communism. | Belarus president press service

That’s not the regime’s line.

“We made changes to the federal government decision a number of occasions primarily based on the fact on the bottom. Thus, all adverse traits in commerce and in manufacturing had been nipped within the bud. Value regulation didn't trigger any imbalances. There's a ample quantity of products on the cabinets at cheap costs,” Ivan Vezhnovets, first deputy minister of antimonopoly regulation and commerce, stated in an announcement in March.

In an indication of simply how a lot the market strikes in accordance with Lukashenko’s needs, so-called washed potatoes — better-quality spuds not below the worth controls — remained on cabinets however at considerably larger costs.

To incentivize farmers to develop extra and promote domestically, officers jacked up the utmost value of the common potatoes in April.

And in late Might, the state reversed a ban on imports of sure foodstuffs, together with potatoes, from European Union international locations classed as “unfriendly,” to attempt to tackle the self-inflicted scarcity.

“Now, [availability is] getting higher,” Lvovskiy informed POLITICO.

However aside from massaging worldwide commerce, Minsk’s answer to the disaster in supermarkets has been to claim much more management.

Lukashenko in June urged that unnamed “sure people” had manufactured the scarcity to punish the federal government’s financial coverage.

“There have been loads of potatoes. However the provide was restricted so as to show the opposed results of the president interfering with pricing practices. However when [the State Control Committee] confirmed up with handcuffs and positioned them on the desk, potatoes grew to become out there,” he stated at a authorities convention.

In early Might, the regime’s State Management Committee launched a hotline for consumers to report grocery shops that both weren’t promoting potatoes or charged an excessive amount of.

“A part of the technique is simply to harass all these retail chains in [the] hope that they'd be so afraid of jail that they'd provide you with potatoes from pure air,” Lvovskiy stated.

It isn’t precisely a foolproof plan.

“We consider that it proves, as soon as once more, the inefficiency of the insurance policies that Lukashenko is pursuing, positively,” stated Vladzimir Astapenka, the Brussels-based consultant for worldwide and European cooperation in Tsikhanouskaya’s United Transitional Cupboard in exile. “However he tries to outlive. He tries to remain afloat.”