Lukashenka skips across
- Iryna Khalip, "Novaya gazeta"
- 18.05.2010, 8:40
According to Austrian journalists, Lukashenka's visit to the Alpes was outside the framework of the Austrian National Olympic Committee. It was "Casinos Austria" that was an inofficial cashier of the Belarusian dictator.
On May 1, 2004 in Hrodna the Chairman of the Belarusian strike committee of entrepreneurs Valery Levaneuski was incarcerated. First for 15 days for organising a meeting. But he left prison only two years after. That happened because in the leaflets with the call to come to trhe meeting on May 1 there was a phrase: "Come and say that you are against "somebody" going on holiday, skiing in Austria and having a good time at your cost". And two years before the meeting Alyaksandr Lukashenka and his people went skiing to Austria. And while Levaneuski was serving his 15 days term, the prosecutor's office opened a criminal case under Article 368 of the Criminal Code ("Insult to the President of Belarus"). The verdict was 2 years of imprisonment. No early conditional release or amnesty was offered to him. Notable, there were no names in the leaflet, and the regime imprisoned Levaneuski according to the principle " an uneasy conscience betrays itself".
Only now it becomes clear why Lukashenka considered himself insulted: it turned out that Lukashenka was skiing in Austria not only at the expense of Belarusian taxpayers, but at the expense of Austrian casinos and the National Olympic Committee of Austria. And taxpayers have paid just a minimum, for flights and motorcades only. But in the Alpes even a cup of tea was paid by the receiving side through a secret bank account of the Austrian National Olympic Committee in Rеiffeisen Bank. All Belarusians except Levaneuski could have forgotten about this holiday, if there was no investigation by an Austrian journalist Erwin Roth (Die Presse).
According to the official version, in 2002 Alyaksandr Lukashenka visited Austria as the chairman of the Belarusian Olympic Committee. He could not visit the country as the leader of the state. In 2002 European visa sanctions already were imposed against him. The chairman of the Austrian National Olympic Committee than was the owner of Casinos Austria network Leo Wallner.
It was clear Lukashenka wanted to go abroad. There were even versions that he paid Wallner for invitation to ask for visa. But it emerged that it wasthe opposite.
Recently an auditing of the National Olympic Committee was held in Austria. Erwin Roth got interested by its results. It turned out that back in 2001 the chairman of the NOC Leo Wallner created a secret account of the organisation in Rеiffeisen Bank, and on March 3, 2002 Alyaksandr Lukashenka and his entourage arrived to Austria. About 200,000 Euro from the secret account were spent on skiing pleasures of the Belarusians.
Erwin Roth has collected a full folder of tickets, receipts and hotel checks of the Belarusian delegation. It turned out that Alyaksandr Lukahsenka and 16 persons more lived in a five star hotel Klosterbräu. Lukashenka lived in a lux room at 700 Euro a day, and his people in more modest rooms. The bill of the Belarusain delegation left for the NOC to pay, there are also names of the mother of his younger son Nikolai, Iryna Abelskaya (Nikolai was not born yet then, and Abelskaya was a personal doctor of the president), Vice Speaker of the lower chamber of the "parliament" Uladzimir Kanaplyou (he became a speaker later, and now he is in disgrace), president's aide Uladzimir Makei (the head of the administration now), Head of the department of Presidential affairs Halina Zhuravkova (later arrested and condemned, but pardoned by Lukashenka), elder sons and guards and servants.
The bills disclose all secrets of the holiday. He has a receipt from a hospital where Lukashenka was takenwith a hip injury. He was transported on a helicopter - 7,260 Euro, 100 Euro for examination by the doctor, 200 Euro for digital x-ray examination, 585 Euro for a magnetic resonance image of the hip. The bill naturally was sent to the Austrian NOC. And before that there were reciepts for strong drinks: 70 bottles of liquors were bought for 1006 Euro. Everything is clear: after such a binge it's better not to ski. Tremor, headache and loss of concentration in the best case would bring you to the nearest hospital.
According to Austrian journalists, Lukashenka's visit was outside the framework of the Austrian National Olympic Committee. And Lukashenka and Wallner were unlikely to discuss a form of hockey clubs and even doping control. Roth writes that Casinos Austria is an inofficial cashier of the Belarusian dictator. After the presidential election in 2001 the European Union banned official contacts of its officials with Lukashenka. But as the NOC chairman he could be smuggled through the border.
Leo Wallner is excusing himself now: "We acted in the interests of the Austrian economy". That is, the Austrian business needed to look for new business contacts in the Eastern Europe. Wallner's second hand Gerhard Skoff stated that the visit of Lukashenka was needed by some Austrian companies, not only casinos, and the businessmen who were interested in cooperation paid for Lukashenka's holiday. To the question who those people were, Wallner and Skoff answer: "We do not want to discuss that publicly".
However, they would be pressed to answer this question anyway: Austrian prosecutor's office now is dealing with the secret account with Rеiffeisen Bank through which dozens of millions Euro have flown in a few years. Edwin Roth is ready to offer all the documents found by him to the prosecutor's office. However, protocols of interrogation rarely go public. And Roth (who has become somebody like Batman for Austria now) promised that he will find answers himself: who are the inetersted businessmen and whom Lukashenka met during his visit to Austria. Almost all Austrian mass media joined him in his investigation. So soon Valery Levaneuski is to find out who is to blame for his 2 year imprisonement.