8/29/20
As political protests sweep across Belarus following a presidential election that the opposition has called rigged, citizens aren't only lining up in the streets to show solidarity with opponents of the country's strongman leader. Nearly three weeks into the turmoil, Belarusians are starting to line up for a different reason: to withdraw or buy foreign currency amid concerns the standoff with President Alyaksandr Lukashenka could doom the economy and the national currency. The protests, which are the largest of Lukashenka's 26 years office, have already resulted in at least six deaths and the detention of thousands. They have also caused new friction between Russia and Europe, adding to the economic uncertainty. In recent days, a growing number of reports on social media and Telegram channels have pointed to a shortage of U.S. dollars and euros at ATMs in various cities. On top of that, the official Belarusian ruble rate has lost about 11 percent since mid-June, when signs appeared that the August 9 election could turn out to be troubled. On August 27, the currency closed on August 27 at 2.66 per $1, a historic low.
A week earlier, on August 20, a popular opposition-aligned Telegram channel claimed the government was considering freezing deposits in state banks to stop foreign currency withdrawals. here was no independent confirmation of the claim, but it appeared to spook some Belarusians, as ATM shortages were reported. Dzmitry, an IT specialist in Minsk who continues to convert his salary from Belarusian rubles into foreign currency, said people "long ago" stopped taking Lukashenka's statements seriously. He asked that his last name not be used amid concerns over a state crackdown against people who criticize the president. "Before every economic crisis, Lukashenka says there will not be a crisis and then [after it occurs] he pretends there isn't one," Dzmitry told RFE/RL. An RFE/RL Belarus Service correspondent who visited about 10 bank branches in Minsk on August 26 said some were imposing limits on currency conversion. In the Tekhnobank branch inside a Minsk shopping mall, clients could use rubles to buy a maximum of $300 and withdraw a maximum of $300 from their foreign currency accounts.
