What is the reason for IMF allocated one billion dollars to Lukashenko

Gennady Charodeyev

They say that the “main oppositionist” of Belarus Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was furious when she learned that representatives of the leading Western countries, who made the decision at the IMF to allocate money to the Lukashenka regime, voted for it unanimously. The Washington Post explained the actions of the IMF shareholders as follows: “The opposition is confident that the Belarusian authorities will spend the money for other purposes”.

The IMF just threw up their hands: they say, there is nothing to be done, the international community continues to interact with the Belarusian government and politics has nothing to do with it.

The same The Washington Post recalled that earlier the IMF planned to send $ 650 billion to various countries for their recovery after the pandemic. Belarus has a quota of 0.14 percent of the total (about $ 910 million).

By the way, a year ago, the IMF officially refused President Lukashenko to pay funds to fight the pandemic, because then the Belarusian leader refused to stop the work of enterprises during the pandemic, cancel mass events and sports competitions. And he, if you remember, offered Belarusians to be treated with vodka and butter.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that Minsk will receive financial assistance and this will happen as a result of the entry into force of the decision on the distribution of the so-called "special drawing rights" among the IMF member states.

Political scientist Andrey Suzdaltsev reminded "Novye Izvestia" that the Fund does not deliver all over the place "cash" in cases or suitcases. It has its own "currency" - SDR. It is a specially designed means of payment settlement by the IMF. Its exchange rate is determined based on the exchange rates of a basket of currencies - the dollar, euro, yen, British pound and yuan. The last time the IMF turned to the SDR instrument was in 2009 to support the global economy in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Then about 190 member countries of the organization received these funds in an amount depending on their quota in the IMF and the size of their economies in relation to the world.

This year, financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund in the form of SDR will be received by Russia (in the amount equivalent to $ 18 billion), Ukraine (about $ 2.8 billion), Kazakhstan (about $ 1.6 billion). ), Uzbekistan (about $ 0.8 billion).

At the same time, according to Deutsche Welle, the IMF restricted access to SDR to countries such as Venezuela, Myanmar and Afghanistan, arguing that "the issue of the legitimacy of the authorities there is not completely resolved".

Sergey Zhavoronkov, senior researcher at the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy , told NI that in this case the IMF had made a politically neutral decision. This international structure has founders. More than 50% of its authorized capital is formed in the USA, Japan and the countries of the European Union. This is a kind of pool of rich countries that decide to provide assistance to various countries. And they could “hack to death” the very idea of allocating money for the dictatorial regime of Lukashenka. But the US didn't move. Today, the White House is pursuing a policy of appeasing dictatorial regimes. President Biden calls to be friends with Lukashenko, with Nazarbayev. The old man will receive the money and what exactly he will spend it on - no one at the IMF will ask. I admit that he will spend most of the billion received on strengthening his own security, on salaries for security officials, on propaganda. But not to fight the coronavirus, the expert emphasized.

Political scientist Andrei Suzdaltsev also suggests that Lukashenka will spend IMF money on the KGB and security agencies. The question arises: do they really not know about this in Washington and Brussels? They know this very well, as well as the fact that while Alexander Grigorievich is in power, there will be no Union State with Russia, and there will be no Russian military bases on the territory of Belarus. Lukashenko has never supported Moscow in any way. But he supported the Western sanctions against Russia in 2014. All this is accepted with joy in the West. Over the past 20 years, Lukashenko has received $ 137 billion in economic aid from Russia! Such an ally is important and needed by the United States and Europe. Lukashenka is an ideal weapon against Russia, which she herself pays for.