Rzeczpospolita: China turned its back on Lukashenka
The problems that the Lukashenka regime is experiencing due to the imposition of sanctions by the West hit the Chinese investors who risked investing in the Belarusian the economy... If Minsk does not take the necessary steps, the country may be left without investment from outside, the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita believes.
"Belaruskali" planned to build a plant for the production of potash fertilizers, for which the business structures of the Russian oligarch Mikhail Gutseriev were involved. He, in turn, attracted Chinese loans in the amount of about $ 1,5 billion under the guarantees of the government of Belarus. It was planned that the new enterprise will sell its products to the EU countries and to China.
The problems began after the introduction of economic sanctions by the EU and the US, which reacted to the "dishonest" from their point of view, the presidential elections in August last year in Belarus. The sanctions restrictions also affected the potash fertilizers sector. Gutseriev's enterprises also fell under these measures.
According to the portal "Nasha Niva", the Chinese investor withheld the last loan payment in the amount of $ 580 million. One of the subcontractors, without revealing himself, noted that the Chinese were offered to build objects "at their own expense", taking loans, which are subsequently repaid by the Russian oligarch. The interlocutor of Nasha Niva claims that the Chinese side was not paid, and therefore it refuses to build. Thus, according to Rzeczpospolita, China has actually turned its back on Lukashenka.
The project, in which the Chinese have invested, has lost profitability, and there is a risk that it will turn into a large undeveloped object on the map of Belarus
- Belarusian economist Yaroslav Romanchuk emphasized in an interview with the Polish edition.
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