In Polatsk 150 entrepreneurs hold strike

On Friday, Polotsk entrepreneurs held a spontaneous strike due to mass paper inspections conducted by the local tax authorities in the markets. Inspections began immediately after the presidential election -- on 13 October. Euroradio learned about it from the Polatsk businesswoman Volha. According to her, every day the tax authorities inspected checked daily six or seven businessmen, confiscating their goods later. People could not stand it and gathered in a crowd at the tax service building.

Volha: "We had a consultation at the tax office. Now we are standing in front of the executive committee. We demand that the deputies come to us. And tomorrow we will have an appointment. People are emotional, they are shouting. But at the tax service they told us: "You are not letting us do our job. We will come and we will check all of you. If you interfere with us, the people who do it will be held accountable."

About 150 entrepreneurs came to the executive committee building. They demanded that the deputies come to them and explaine how to work tomorrow.

The fact that businesses trade with the papers obtained in Russia and that the documents are invalid has been repeatedly discussed in the forums of entrepreneurs conducted by the public association "Perspective". Here is what its chairman Anatol Shumchanka said:

"Tax services came on purpose, they prepared in advance. They checked the papers from Russia, presented by the entrepreneurs, and said that they were false, then started to seize goods. Then people just saw that it would not stop, it's a dead end, and marched to the tax building."

He notes that in Maladzechna also began inspections. Perhaps the inspections were conducted across the country, but not all the entrepreneurs are talking about it.

"Before the elections, it was quiet, and after the elections inspections started. We think they need money. And the situation will get worse. After all, instead of solving the problem, the government is trying to run away from them," says Shumchanka.

Photo from archive.