Lukashenko and Control Over Business in Belarus

Pavel Latushka, Deputy Head of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus, Representative of the Cabinet for the Transition of Power, Head of the National Anti-Crisis Management, Leader of the "Latushka Team and the Movement 'For Freedom'" faction within the 3rd convocation of the Coordination Council.

How the Regime Extracts and Plans to Seize Capital from Belarusian Businesses

For years, the dictator has kept private business in an iron grip, using sophisticated schemes to siphon off money.

Back in August 2021, we reported how the KGB, under the leadership of then-chief Vakulchyk, made a bold promise to Lukashenko in 2014: to extract $1 billion from entrepreneurs.

What followed was a wave of repression: dozens of the country’s top businessmen were imprisoned. They were held for weeks or months while backroom “negotiations” took place. Freedom came at the cost of millions, transferred to accounts controlled by the regime.

Since then, Lukashenko’s attitude toward private business and entrepreneurs has not changed. The only difference is that the mechanisms for seizing money and property have become more refined. On February 10, 2025, Lukashenko held a meeting on pricing policy, once again stressing the need for tight control over businesses, including private retail chains.

Just a few months later, on May 15, the Financial Investigations Department (DFR) detained several top managers of Evrotorg—the legal entity behind the Euroopt retail chain. Witnesses reported that the arrests were carried out in the regime’s usual brutal manner: masked raids with doors being broken down. Searches were also conducted at the company’s offices. No official statements were released by the illegitimate authorities.

Soon after, it became known that similar searches were conducted at another major retail chain in Belarus—Dobronom. A few days later, reports emerged that security forces had detained 11 managers from one of Belarus’s second-hand clothing chains (presumably Clothing from Europe). The State Control Committee accused them of tax evasion through business splitting schemes.

Clearly, the crackdown on business is intensifying.

Belarusian entrepreneurs must prepare to defend themselves and protect the results of their labor.

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