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Lukashenko’s potato racket sparks outrage from regime opponents
Politico EU ^ | 6/26/2025 | GREGORY SVIRNOVSKIY

Posted on 06/28/2025 4:32:25 AM PDT by marcusmaximus

The Belarusian ruler’s price controls have backfired.

Alexander Lukashenko’s stubborn grip on the Belarusian economy plunged the potato-happy country into a spud shortage this spring.

Critics of the authoritarian ruler, who in January grabbed a seventh term in power, say he has warped the economy with strict price controls on staples like potatoes — while encouraging citizens to snitch on grocery stores that flout regime rules.

The limits, launched by Lukashenko in October 2022 as he aimed to keep prices low and stave off inflation, instead made potatoes far less profitable for farmers to produce.

Opponents say that decisions made by Lukashenko’s team stunted production last year and pushed many cash-strapped farmers to sell their produce to neighboring Russia, humiliating the Minsk regime and crippling grocery stores expected to sell potatoes on the cheap.

Paltry potato price increases weren’t keeping up with rising costs for farmers and retailers, and the country's demotivated farmers in turn planted fewer potatoes. Belarus harvested 3.1 million tons of potatoes in 2024, down from more than 4 million a year prior.

“If you know from the history of the Soviet Union, when people don’t have motivation, you cannot really force them to do work very well,” said Lev Lvovskiy, academic director at the flagship Belarusian BEROC economic think tank.

The irony: Lukashenko himself once led a collective farm in Gorodets, in the east of modern-day Belarus, during the twilight years of Soviet communism.

The price controls instituted by Minsk made selling to Russia a highly profitable proposition. Potatoes cost over twice as much in Russia as in Belarus in March, according to BEROC data. And Belarus exported about 200,000 tons of potatoes to Russia in 2024, making it the No. 1 supplier of the staple crop to its neighbor.

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.eu ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: anotherpotatoharbor; axisofmugasm; axisofpotatoes; axisofspuds; belarus; chronicmucusdisease; cmd; gregorysvirnovskiy; lukashenko; mugamugamugamugamuga; polutico; potatoes; potatomania; prematuremugasm; russia; sendmoremoney; spudsandspam; vodkacuresmucus; zeepharderforvictory

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1 posted on 06/28/2025 4:32:25 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
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To: marcusmaximus

Remember to put the potato in THE FRONT of your Dnepr assault Speedo, not THE BACK.


2 posted on 06/28/2025 4:41:27 AM PDT by kiryandil (No one in AZ that voted for Trump voted for Gallego )
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To: kiryandil
The Crackpot is up bright and stupid this morning


3 posted on 06/28/2025 4:51:27 AM PDT by JonPreston ( ✌ ☮️ )
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To: JonPreston

The heartbreak of Chronic Mucus Disease.


4 posted on 06/28/2025 4:55:31 AM PDT by kiryandil (No one in AZ that voted for Trump voted for Gallego )
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To: JonPreston

He relies upon the ignorance of zeepers.

“In Belarus, the new potato harvest, including white potatoes, is typically available in stores starting in June.”

I used to be a wholesale produce manager - I would actually read the source of the produce on the boxes and bags.

I find that mucus clouds your vision.


5 posted on 06/28/2025 4:59:59 AM PDT by kiryandil (No one in AZ that voted for Trump voted for Gallego )
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To: marcusmaximus

Monetary inflation can’t be remedied by price controls. It is really sad that nobody learns from history and societies go through these insanities over and over.

The classic example is probably the French during their Revolution. They decreed that a loaf of bread could cost no more than X, which they decided would mean bread for everyone. Well the cost of flour and yeast was more than that. So there wasn’t any bread to be had at all.

The French, the Soviet Union, etc, was proof, Socialism cannot be made to work, even at the point of a gun and a pile of skulls. But this time will be different!


6 posted on 06/28/2025 5:29:36 AM PDT by Freedom4US
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To: marcusmaximus
"“If you know from the history of the Soviet Union, when people don’t have motivation, you cannot really force them to do work very well,”

AKA .. "They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work."

7 posted on 06/28/2025 5:35:41 AM PDT by The Duke (Not without incident.)
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To: kiryandil
He relies upon the ignorance...“In Belarus, the new potato harvest, including white potatoes, is typically available in stores starting in June.”

LOL, everything is fine in Belarus, that's why they needed to ban the export of potatoes. Okay

"Due to the resulting shortage, however, the regime temporarily banned the export of potatoes — including to Russia — absent a license beginning in December 2024. Many farmers have responded to the restrictions by labeling healthy potatoes as spoiled, and continued to funnel them to Russia, Lvovskiy told POLITICO."

8 posted on 06/28/2025 6:08:42 AM PDT by tlozo
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To: kiryandil
I would actually read the source of the produce on the boxes and bags.

This is our problem, k. We read and understand things. Occasionally, I even remember things! These are missing elements among our Zeepers.

9 posted on 06/28/2025 6:23:51 AM PDT by JonPreston ( ✌ ☮️ )
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To: tlozo
LOL

You open most of your comments with LOL therefore you are officially known as:

tlolzo

10 posted on 06/28/2025 6:26:49 AM PDT by JonPreston ( ✌ ☮️ )
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To: marcusmaximus

Potato Racquet

The Russian answer to Pickle Ball?


11 posted on 06/28/2025 6:41:16 AM PDT by Yardstick
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To: tlozo

The new potato harvest is also in, in Russia, idgit.


12 posted on 06/28/2025 7:05:14 AM PDT by kiryandil (No one in AZ that voted for Trump voted for Gallego )
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To: marcusmaximus
There is not one incidence in the history of Man where price controls worked, yet we still find idiots who think they are smart enough to outsmart the market. The hubris of thinking you can solve millions of simultaneous equations per second is on a scale that can't even be measured. Just like welding the lid shut on a pressure cooker and turning up the heat looks like it's working for a short period of time, eventually parts of the vessel traveling at mach speeds will find you and only then might you realize what a bad idea controls were.
13 posted on 06/28/2025 7:14:53 AM PDT by econjack
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To: marcusmaximus

“The limits, launched by Lukashenko in October 2022 as he aimed to keep prices low and stave off inflation, instead made potatoes far less profitable for farmers to produce.”

no one could have EVER predicted such an outcome, not even in a million years, even with will all the best AIs grinding away at Warp 11 speed ...


14 posted on 06/28/2025 8:09:37 AM PDT by catnipman ((A Vote For The Lesser Of Two Evils Still Counts As A Vote For Evil))
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To: marcusmaximus

15 posted on 06/28/2025 8:13:08 AM PDT by Allegra (Thank you for your attention to this matter. )
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To: Freedom4US

Let them eat cake


16 posted on 06/28/2025 9:36:50 AM PDT by Nifster ( I see puppy dogs in the clouds )
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To: Yardstick

Ba da bing


17 posted on 06/28/2025 9:39:47 AM PDT by Nifster ( I see puppy dogs in the clouds )
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To: Nifster

What I read, the translation of that isn’t the way we think.

“Cake” was the odds and ends, bits of burnt stuff remaining in large bread pans, not the bread itself. So if Marie actually said that, which is in some dispute perhaps, she wasn’t talking about Betty Crocker chocolate frosting yellow birthday cake.


18 posted on 06/28/2025 7:17:35 PM PDT by Freedom4US
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