Croesus from Minsk

“How Lukashenko earned billions,” headlines Rzeczpospolita, after Wikileaks released a cable from the US embassy in Minsk estimating the Belarusian president’s wealth at some nine billion dollars. “That is close behind the ten richest men in Europe”, notes the Warsaw daily. At the moment however, “nobody can prove anything” as officially Alexander Lukashenko earned a mere 22,500 euros in 2010. Russian experts quoted by Rzeczpospolita, are convinced that Belarusian leader has stashed his “savings” in foreign accounts opened in other people’s names and invested heavily in “safe assets abroad”. Lukashenko has dismissed these allegations with humour, telling journalists that once they find the hidden money they could “return to him one percent and keep the remaining 99%”. “We’ll give women a bit more than men,” quipped a man who sports a wristwatch worth some 10,000 euros and has several luxurious residences in the country’s national parks. It is said the source of Lukashenka’s wealth are two state institutions controlled by him and only him: the Presidential Reserve Fund and the Presidential Auxiliary Household. The former is supplied with profits from arms sales, the latter from the state lottery among other sources.