MINSK: Belarus’s strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko on Saturday sacked his prime minister and other key members of government following a corruption scandal that saw top officials arrested.
Prime Minister Andrei Kobyakov will be replaced by former development bank head Sergei Rumas, the president’s press office said in a statement.
Several vice-premiers as well as the ministers for economy and industry will also lose their posts.
“I won’t name names, but in our government we had the following situation — one program would be announced and then another program would be carried out,” Lukashenko said in comments released by his press office.
“I’ve never allowed this and I never will! What we have promised the people — with a government formed precisely with this program in mind — we must follow this program,” he added.
Over the summer a corruption scandal rocked the health service of the ex-Soviet nation.
Authorities arrested dozens of top health officials, medics and drug company representatives on suspicion of siphoning off millions of dollars in state funding.
Even the head of the security services in the country dubbed “Europe’s last dictatorship” called for an overhaul of the system in the wake of the arrests.
Other smaller instances of corruption and administrative failures have hit local and national governments in recent months.
Independent economist and director of the Scientific Research Mises Center, Yaroslav Romanchuk welcomed the government shake-up.
“It is good to replace these people, pillars of the old socialist economy,” he told AFP, adding that the new team were not “bogged down in corruption.”
“Sergei Rumas knows what the economy and finance are about, he’s an intelligent economist...we can hope for the start of economic reforms, as long as Lukashenko gives a mandate to carry them out,” Romanchuk said.
Political analyst Valeriy Karbalevich said: “Lukashenko has discovered the government wasn’t afraid of him, it clearly wasn’t carrying out his orders.”
The president “hopes the new people will be too scared to steal or sabotage his directives,” he added.
Lukashenko has ruled Belarus, wedged between Russia and Poland, with an iron fist since 1994.
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Belarus prime minister sacked over corruption scandal
Belarus prime minister sacked over corruption scandal
Russia hits Ukraine power grid with ‘massive attack’: operator
KYIV: A “massive attack” by Russian forces on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has caused power outages across the country, the state grid operator said on Saturday.
Russia has pressed on with its invasion of Ukraine in recent days despite the two countries holding US-brokered talks to end the nearly four-year-long war.
Ukrainian officials have accused Moscow of deliberately targeting energy infrastructure, causing outages that have left hundreds of thousands of people without lighting or heating in temperatures well below zero.
“Russia is carrying out another massive attack on the Ukrainian power grid facilities,” grid operator Ukrenergo said on Saturday.
“Due to the damage caused by the enemy, emergency outages have been applied in most regions,” it said in a statement on Telegram.
“Currently, the attack is still ongoing. Restoration work will begin as soon as the security situation allows.”
Ukraine and Russia have held two rounds of US-mediated negotiations in Abu Dhabi since January.
Kyiv and Moscow have agreed to a major prisoner swap but have made no breakthrough on the issue of territory, a key sticking point in negotiations.
Moscow has accused Ukraine of orchestrating the shooting of a top military intelligence general in the Russian capital on Friday, leaving him wounded. Kyiv has not commented.
Russia has pressed on with its invasion of Ukraine in recent days despite the two countries holding US-brokered talks to end the nearly four-year-long war.
Ukrainian officials have accused Moscow of deliberately targeting energy infrastructure, causing outages that have left hundreds of thousands of people without lighting or heating in temperatures well below zero.
“Russia is carrying out another massive attack on the Ukrainian power grid facilities,” grid operator Ukrenergo said on Saturday.
“Due to the damage caused by the enemy, emergency outages have been applied in most regions,” it said in a statement on Telegram.
“Currently, the attack is still ongoing. Restoration work will begin as soon as the security situation allows.”
Ukraine and Russia have held two rounds of US-mediated negotiations in Abu Dhabi since January.
Kyiv and Moscow have agreed to a major prisoner swap but have made no breakthrough on the issue of territory, a key sticking point in negotiations.
Moscow has accused Ukraine of orchestrating the shooting of a top military intelligence general in the Russian capital on Friday, leaving him wounded. Kyiv has not commented.
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