Clouds Gathering Over Belaruskali Former CEO
- Aliaksandr Novikau, Solidarity
- 22.02.2025, 14:21
Grovelling before Lukashenka did not help.
Ivan Halavaty tried very hard to please Aliaksandr Lukashenka. When he was the CEO at Belaruskali, he even personally went to the “battle for the harvest”: he moved to a combine, behind the wheel of which he demonstrated incredible success. It did not help though.
“Many will ask: how can you combine the work of an enterprise CEO and the harvesting work?.. The working day is 16 hours: 8 hours — at the workplace, 8 hours — in the field ... Work, without days off ... Intense persistent work, which proves that this is happiness,” Halavaty said.
However, he did not manage to get Lukashenka sentimental. Last autumn, the contract with the CEO of Belaruskali was not extended.
However, the ruler sweetened the pill: “As for Halavaty. He is not a stranger, there is no need to “throw him out”... We cannot lose such personnel.”
Lukashenka suggested that the Foreign Ministry use the former head of the Salihorsk enterprise “on the external track within the CIS”: “Ivan Halavaty is free. An experienced, intelligent leader.” But the diplomatic department was not impressed by the talents of the harvest leader.
As a result, instead of a sinecure, Halavaty actually received exile. The position of first deputy director of OJSC Nedra Nezhin compared to the chair of the CEO of Belaruskali is a clear demotion.
The Belarusian authorities squeezed this project out of the hands of Russian businessman Mikhail Gutseriev. Now Ivan Halavaty oversees the construction of a mining and processing complex at the Starobin potash salt deposit.
The Nezhin plant is a problematic place in itself. It was supposed to be built back in 2020. But perhaps the troubles for Halavaty are just beginning.
As often happens, after the departure of the leader, yesterday's friends begin to dig under him. One of them, as activists of independent trade unions reported to Solidarity, wrote a report on the purchase of self-propelled mine cars 5vs15m (transport ore in the mine from the tunneling complexes) from the Russian enterprise Rudgormash.
The trick is that similar equipment is available from the domestic manufacturer Niva-Holding. In such cases, export is, to put it mildly, not encouraged by the authorities.
So, Halavaty may soon be asked very unpleasant questions. And his fate may make a much sharper turn than last autumn.
Aliaksandr Novikau, Solidarity