Former presidential candidate and ex-banker Viktar Babaryka in a new
episode
of TOK assured that he did not make any deals with anyone in Russia when he was running for president.
Павялічыць
Viktar Babaryka. Photo: Nasha Niva
On the day Babaryka planned to announce his intention to run for president, he had a conversation with the bank’s management.
“I warned my shareholders, I warned the chairman of the board of directors about my actions. I did everything I had to do (…) I said that there were two options – to let me go on vacation or to fire me.”
“A pause was taken, which eventually ended with my resignation of my own free will. And after I received the decision that I was being dismissed, I wrote this post with a clear conscience,” Babaryka recounts.
At the same time, he admits that he violated rules and procedures:
“Imagine, you have a manager who is responsible for a sufficiently effective asset. And without warning, he comes to you and says, ‘well, I’m sorry, I don’t really want to work for you starting today’.”
From my point of view, it’s not exactly a violation, but not entirely correct behavior. (…) It wasn’t a very correct step towards the shareholders, because, in theory, time was needed to somehow hand over affairs.”
In this regard, he didn’t count much on “Gazprom” management to defend him in any way. And that’s how it turned out.
The 2014 Conflict
At the same time, the former banker claims that his decision was not a big surprise for the board of directors.
As he explains, back in 2014, he had “the biggest problem and the biggest discussion” with the board of directors, which occurred after the banker’s speech at the opening of the exhibition “Ten Centuries of Belarusian Art.”
“And at that exhibition, I concluded my speech with the slogan ‘Long Live Belarus!'” he recalls. “This was 2014, just in case. This was already after Crimea. And I was still a Russian manager. This was a very difficult period with quite serious potential consequences and big discussions regarding me both within Belarus and among our shareholders in Russia.”
Павялічыць
Viktar Babaryka speaking at the opening of the exhibition “Ten Centuries of Belarusian Art”. In the background is the then Minister of Culture Barys Svetslov
According to Babaryka, at that time he was asked to resign:
“I was offered to write a letter of resignation. To which I said that I had no such desire. And if you have a desire to fire me, you can just do it. (…) I understand that neither I nor my shareholders had such a desire in 2014.”
As Babaryka recalls, he explained his actions and position as follows:
“I simply said: ‘I don’t understand why love for Belarus, which translates to Russian as ‘Да здравствует Беларусь’ (Long Live Belarus), can be perceived as offensive by anyone.”
“‘Long Live Belarus’, from my point of view, is something that, in theory, does not belong to any person, or any particular movement. It belongs to people who love their country. ‘Long Live Belarus’ is simply because I love it and I want it to live.'”
“To win in 2020, the support of the Belarusian people was enough”
Answering a question about possible attempts to gain support from Russia in 2020, Babaryka stated that he considered it unnecessary.
“I believed – and still believe – that to win in 2020, the support of the Belarusian people was enough. And that’s all.”
To Nasta Rovda’s question whether it wasn’t worth making an agreement with Moscow in advance to deprive the current government of external support, Viktar Babaryka replied:
“That would mean that we don’t respect our own people. It means that you don’t believe in the ability of the Belarusian people to do everything with their own hands. (…) In 2020, I was confident in the strength of the Belarusian people. But the acting government did not believe its own people. They didn’t believe anyone. No one. That’s why they went for support [to Russia]. This is the difference.”