West invested $700 million in 5 years into Belarus’ democratisation

Most of the money was received by the state and international mediums and not by "the fifth column".

"A tenth of the money was spent directly on the civil society," one of the authors of the analysts of EU donor support Andrei Yahorau said. "The state or organizations close to the state received 30% of the money."

The rest was spent both on the state and the civil society in 2006-2010, Yahorau claimed. But it was done in a strange way.

Andrei Yahorau: "Most of the money (donor support for Belarus. – Euroradio’s note) is used by international institutions for covering the expenses of the countries and institutions in EU member states using the money for Belarus."

There are also mediums and money goes through them on the way to financing projects. Does it mean that most of the "Belarusian" money does not even reach Belarus?!

Andrei Yahorau: "Most of the money does not even cross the Belarusian border. Only 30% of the resources can reach Belarus."

It means that…

Andrei Yahorau: "The Belarusian state and international mediums receive most of the money. The Belarusian opposition and civil society get much less."

Belarusian officials’ statements about "crazy financing" of the Belarusian opposition are groundless, Yahorau claimed.

The analysis made by experts of the European Transformation Centre does not show who received the money in Belarus and for what projects. The European documents they worked with do not show it either. But they show that donors started allocating… less money on human rights protection after 2010.

Andrei Yahorau: "Part of the money was spent on supporting democratic institutions directly. The money still exists but it was allocated to another target group. This is strange."

It is also surprising that the former main donors of "democratization processes in Belarus" reduced financing after 2010 while others increased it. Sweden has replaced Germany and Poland. However, this is not a relay.

Andrei Yahorau: "Sweden is gradually developing its civil society assistance. It is expanding the channels used for this assistance through the civil society. Germany is focused on the things needed in the process of the country’s modernization and evolution and chooses state and transparent channels for money allocation."

Some of "the channels" were blocked by the Belarusian authorities after the Square and the reaction of the West to it. Germany refused from some of them too – it was decided that their usage was unethical.

There is no information about the money the West spent on Belarus last year. However, we will probably see a change there: the state will receive less and the civil society – more, Euroradio’s interlocutor thinks. But how much money hasn’t reached Belarus?