Lukashenka is dissatisfied with Vice-Premier Natalya Petkevich — 'stalling'.
Alexander Lukashenka expressed dissatisfaction with the work of Vice-Premier for Social Issues Natalya Petkevich, noting that she 'stalls' in making important decisions.
Screenshot of video from May 22, 2025
During the government's report for 2025, Lukashenka demanded an immediate reduction in the number of redundant state structures, which he called 'budgetary leeches'. According to Lukashenka, such organizations only serve as a place for former officials to get jobs and do not benefit the economy.
"Look at what specialists in calculating various benefits, scholarships, and pensions are busy with," Lukashenka gave one example. "They chase people for a bunch of certificates that have long existed in state systems anyway, and they can be obtained on the spot with a single request. One and a half hundred organizations and more than 4,000 people work just on the pension system. You gather pensioners in queues to accept an application for another recalculation hand-to-hand. There are half a million working pensioners in the country. When are they supposed to walk around your offices? Where is your lauded digitalization?"
He set the task to get rid "of incomprehensible organizations, structures, and bureaucrats".
In this matter, according to him, the third Vice-Premier is already stalling — Natalya Petkevich, following Igor Petrishenko and Vladimir Karanik, "not making decisions where there is an immediate tangible effect for the budget".
Lukashenka says he is ready to consider proposals for optimizing the system of state bodies. But the proposals being brought to him do not satisfy him.
For example, the proposal to disband the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services and merge it with the Ministry of Architecture and Construction is voiced once again. However, Lukashenka doubts its expediency, especially given that a significant part of public complaints concern problems in housing and communal services, and "the number of ministry employees is quite small, only a few dozens of people, and its liquidation will not yield a significant effect in saving funds," BelTA quotes him.
Natalya Petkevich held key positions in the vertical of power for many years — from Lukashenka's press secretary to the first deputy head of his Administration. After a long career break and living in the USA, where her diplomat husband Valentin Rybakov worked, Petkevich returned to Belarusian politics in 2024, and in May 2025‑she headed the social block of the government as Vice-Premier.
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