Today, during a public visit to one of the restaurants of the MAK.by chain (formerly McDonald’s), Aliaksandr Lukashenka was unable to place an order — the interactive ordering terminal refused to accept payment. Officials explained that the software, instead of the original American version, had been developed by a Belarusian company.
Viktoryia Danko, director and co-owner of MAK.by, gave Lukashenka a “tour” and led him to a self-service terminal. There she tried to place an order for Lukashenka. But something went wrong.
“This is a very convenient menu for any visitor. Look, here we have burgers. Beef: beef burgers. Chicken: you can choose chicken. Fish. And then usually we still have… Well, let’s try. Let’s make a big order,” Danko explained and demonstrated.
Lukashenka pretended that he was seeing such a “miracle” for the first time.
“So you just poke with your finger and pay?” Lukashenka asked questions like a neophyte and warned that he had no money.
“By chance,” the money was with First Deputy Prime Minister Mikalai Snapkou. But for some reason he let slip that they had “agreed” that he would be the one to pay.
With Lukashenka joking along the way, the order was nevertheless completed and the moment of payment arrived. Snapkou held his card up to the terminal.
“They probably charged you more than… You see, you see…” Lukashenka continued trying to joke.
“Operation interrupted,” Snapkou said and began examining the receipt.
“Interrupted!” Lukashenka exclaimed.
Snapkou tried again to make the payment with his card.
“Oh, you can’t even… Why are you paying twice! You’re paying for one…” Lukashenka continued joking, not understanding what was happening.
“Paid?” Snapkou asked the terminal loudly and looked around.
“It’s still processing. Wait, maybe,” Lukashenka said hopefully.
“Aliaksandr Hryhoravich, the piquancy is this. The most difficult task was that the software was American…” the first deputy prime minister began explaining gently.
“But you made your own?” Lukashenka could not resist asking.
“Yes, everything is ours, the guys just [inaudible],” Snapkou continued and pointed his finger at a young man standing behind Lukashenka.
“Well done for that,” Lukashenka praised them.
“Dima!” Viktoryia Danko reacted nervously, addressing the same young man.
“What, not paid again?! An error… Well, never mind. We’ll pay later, don’t worry,” Lukashenka said and moved on with his entourage.
“That really was a feat. That’s cool. The software is all ours,” Snapkou continued praising the work of MAK.by.
***
So who accomplished this “feat”?
The main character, “Dima,” can be seen in the video. This is Dzmitry Khramtsevich, director of information technology at MAK.by. He had been working with IT in the restaurant chain even when it operated under the American franchise — he joined the company in July 2019.
Before that, he worked for a year at the mobile operator Life, three years at the Development Bank, and then another three years as deputy director of the service enterprise BR-Consult.
Dzmitry studied at the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics from 2001 to 2006, and from 2007 to 2011 he earned a law degree at the Belarusian State University.
