MINSK, Belarus – Cash-strapped Belarus announced Tuesday that it would allow its beleaguered national currency to float, effectively permitting its devaluation in a bid to ease a spiraling currency crisis.
International financial institutions have been calling for a sharp devaluation of the Belarusian ruble to help the former Soviet republic’s foundering economy. The move was the latest blow to authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko’s attempts to show he can still deliver economic stability after 17 years in power.
The currency crisis, an increasingly severe crackdown on the opposition — including the arrest Tuesday of a human rights activist on suspicion of involvement in a subway bombing last week — have spawned a sense of rising panic and disorder in this nation of 10 million, often labeled the last dictatorship in Europe.
Belarus’ first post-Soviet leader, Stanislav Shushkevich, told The Associated Press that Lukashenko’s political survival now hinges entirely on another Russian loan.
“He will be able to ease social tensions if the Kremlin gives him another loan,” Shushkevich said. “Otherwise people will start protesting. What we are seeing now begins to resemble the collapse of the Soviet system.”
The government’s hard currency reserves plunged 20 percent in the first two months of the year to less
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