Фото: пресс-служба Лукашенко
Aliaksandr Lukashenka said he does not trust the government on financial and economic issues. He complained that the government “is drowning in bureaucracy and lacks efficiency,” and that almost all major documents require revision.
“Almost every major systemic document requires repeated discussion or revision. I no longer trust the government, especially on monetary and economic issues. You constantly see me gathering executors and members of the government and discussing one or another decree at the president’s level. And almost all presidential decrees are sent back for revision. That is, we discuss them together and find weaknesses in these drafts,” Lukashenka said.
He criticised the government for failing to promptly resolve issues related to insolvency administrators and individual entrepreneurs and demanded that they be settled within six months.
“Just recall your years-long fuss with insolvency administrators, the transformation of individual entrepreneurs into organisations or the distribution of rental housing. By the way, all these issues must be resolved once and for all in the first half of the year, Mikalai Hienadzevich [Snapkou – ed. Reform.news],” Lukashenka demanded.
Lukashenka urged the government not to conceal problems.
“Another shortcoming of the government is the desire to disguise, hide or talk away a problem. It was not for nothing that I told you at the beginning — an honest conversation. There is no need to fear that tomorrow the ‘runaways’ will start criticising us on issues that we see today and have uncovered. We no longer care about their criticism. They have nothing better to do than overhear something somewhere and then make noise about it for a week until we say something else. What matters to us is our population, so that it is convinced that the authorities see the problems,” he said.
As an example, Lukashenka cited staffing in the agro-industrial complex. At the end of 2025, the government reported that organisations were staffed with livestock specialists and veterinarians at 80%. Lukashenka said such data appeared strange, as livestock losses continue.
“So why is the cattle dying? And they propose removing the instruction from oversight as fulfilled in 2025. Who are you helping with such reports? Do you not know? The main complaints of our population are roads, capital repairs, housing and water quality. You have all the tools to effectively resolve all issues under this state programme, special powers,” Lukashenka said.
At today’s government report, Lukashenka also expressed dissatisfaction with the work of Deputy Prime Minister Natallia Piatkevich and the head of the Academy of Sciences Uladzimir Karanik, warned officials by recalling 2020 and spoke of pressure on the Belarusian economy from both the West and the East.
In 2025, Lukashenka instructed that a special group be formed under the leadership of the head of the National Bank Raman Halouchanka to analyse the economic situation. The group was involved, among other things, in revising the development programme for 2026–2030. Halouchanka has spoken of disagreements with the government over the programme.