Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: “The other day the director of a store in Mahilyow was given a suspended two-year imprisonment sentence for raising the price of cheese by 26 kopecks [10 cents]. It did not take long for the absurd ban on price increases to be used as another senseless repressive instrument.
When I heard this, I was caught by the prosecution’s statement that by raising the price in his store, the man “undermined the government’s authority.” It seems like the regime itself understands how much its authority costs – 26 kopecks. What I want to say is that it was not the store manager or the price tag on the piece of cheese that damaged the regime's authority. Instead, it was decades of political irresponsibility, corruption, and mismanagement. The state apparatus undermined its own authority when it gave up on the law, turned away from the people, and betrayed the national interests of our country.
And to win this authority again, instead of waging war against entrepreneurs and basic laws of the free market, politicians should listen to Belarusians and hear them, support private businesses and civic initiatives, and work for the benefit of the people, not for their own selfish interests.”
