Belarus president visits farm and sends owners to gulag

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered during a visit to a farm that its owners end up in a punishment centre, according to accounts of the episode. The word "gulag", repeated in reactions, refers to a Soviet system closed more than sixty years ago.

## Lukashenko and an order without paperwork

**Alexander Lukashenko**, president of Belarus since **1994**, ended a visit to a farm with an order: send its owners to a punishment centre. No file, no court and no deadline.

It is not the first time he has settled by decree what in other countries ends up in court. Inspection, reprimand and immediate punishment are a familiar repertoire. There is no judicial resolution or official confirmation of the order, so what circulates are the accounts of those who trinc the visit.

## Why "gulag" is not the exact word

The gulags were the Soviet Union's forced labour camp system, active between **1930** and **1960**. **Belarus** has penal colonies and administrative detention centres, heavily criticised by international bodies.

Calling any of them a gulag is hyperbole. The fact is different: an owner can lose his business by a verbal order, and that was what spread.

## The cost for anyone wanting to invest

Much of the Belarusian countryside is still organised into farms inherited from the Soviet collective system, with the state as owner or dominant partner. The margin for an agricultural entrepreneur was already narrow before the visit.

When property depends on the mood of those in charge, capital thinks twice. It is enough for the owner of the neighbouring farm to see what peine.