How Arms Oligarch Nearly 'Drowned' Lukashenka
- 17.11.2023, 13:38
The future dictator could have been "slaughtered" at the stage of the 1994 elections.
Aliaksandr Lukashenka himself and a number of propagandists in his service have been claiming for years that it is impossible to "bend" him. However, history records many cases where this has happened.
One of them concerns the name and surname of the gradually forgotten oligarch-armourer Vladimir Peftiev, writes planbmedia.io.
In 1993 and 1994, on the eve of and during the presidential election campaign, the deputy Lukashenka "burned corrupt officials with napalm". This was usually a compilation of high-profile cases announced by the authorities themselves.
One of these "exclusives", obtained thanks to the "spies" of the future head of the Customs Committee, Aliaksandr Shpileuski, concerned one of the country's most famous businessmen. Co-owner of the private company "SEN" and head of the arms dealer Beltechexport, which was created with his participation, Vladimir Peftiev did not hide whose side he was on. This was enough to unleash an escapade of "revelations" on him from the TV screen.
According to Lukashenka's version, which was kept as a transcript, his interest in Peftiev and Beltechexport was aroused by the arms trade licence issued one day (24 February 1993) before the company itself was registered (25 February 1993).
Peftiev and Beltechexport did not turn a blind eye and reacted almost immediately to the "informer".
They examined every fact from the sensational "exposé". And it turned out that the dates of registration and obtaining the licence of the participant of foreign economic activity were deliberately mixed up. And the company itself has existed since 16 January 1993.
"One of the favourite tricks is to accuse someone without a trial and say: if it is not true, sue me," commented MP Peftiev's attack. And promised to meet in court soon.
Unfortunately, there was no trial. Only the low-circulation newspaper Belarusian Entrepreneur agreed to print the accused's opinion.
Beltechexport was the first company to be investigated under the presidential decree. It found no evidence of Lukashenka's "revelations". But Peftiev had to be dismissed.
After a very short time, however, when all his schemes collapsed and the necessary contacts were lost, he was reinstated. And in the 2010s, Lukashenka himself publicly defended and supported his critic.
Peftiev was even allowed to leave Belarus with much of his capital. He was allowed to quietly buy property in London and write books on military history.