Belarusian government to raise additional funds from large businesses

Last week, Members of the upper chamber of the Belarusian parliament voted to strip of immunity Senator and influential businessman Andrei Pavlovsky from Grodno region. Over the past year and a half, this is the third case when a member of the Council of the Republic, who was a successful entrepreneur was stripped of immunity and faced criminal charges. The Belarusian authorities are likely to use such a fundraising tactics when they target a particular successful businessman, for instance Pavlovsky, and let him out of the jail after he pays an acceptable compensation to the state. Moreover, amid dwindling public resources, regional influence nomenclature groups may engage in a fight for resources, markets and assets, which would be mostly invisible to the broad population. As a result, some of them may face criminal charges. It should also be noted that Pavlovsky, being a major supplier of feed for agriculture, was a member of the influential agribusiness lobby, and his arrest could indicate a loss of influence by the group.