Belarus has appointed a new Director General at state-owned nitrogen producer Grodno Azot. The appointment of Igor Lyashenko to the post was approved by the country’s President, Alexander Lukashenko, on Jan. 26, according to a report by state news agency BelTA.
Lyashenko since May 2020 had been in charge of the Minsk-based representative office of Gomeltransneft Druzhba, Belarus’ main oil pipeline operator, before which he was Belarus’ Deputy Prime Minister since August 2018, according to the report. In government, he supervised the country’s petrochemical complexes and industry, prior to which he headed up the Belneftekhim chemical concern for several years, of which Grodno Azot is a member company.Lyashenko replaces Igor Bobyr in the new role at Grodno Azot, and the personnel change is clearly an attempt by the Belarus authorities to tighten control of the company.
Belarus’ President was cited by the BelTA report naming the new Director General as highlighting “the strategic importance” of Grodno Azot and “the importance of discipline” and establishing order at the company, “both technological and organizational.” He also cited the danger to the company if something were to happen. He said “no one can be spared or pitied” for a breach of discipline, according to the report.
There have been reports of concerns about safety at the company as a consequence of, for example, the absence of supervisory staff of key manufacturing processes, allegedly as a consequence of worker strike action. The company in mid-September suffered a shutdown of its Ammonia 3 unit as a result of alleged worker sabotage, and three urea units were also forced to halt operations as a consequence, according to local media reports (GM Sept. 18, 2020).
Striking workers at the company’s key raw material production workshops, Ammonia-3 and Ammonia-4, have been dismissed and replaced by workers from other Grodno Azot production units, and also by students and strike breakers from elsewhere, the latter at higher rates of pay than Grodno Azot employees, according to reports.
In December, the atmosphere at the Belarus producer was reported to be “very tense” as workers “split off,” leaving the official trade union and taking strike action, according to Belarus pro-democracy and pro-human rights news site Belarus Charter’97, citing a company employee (GM Dec. 17, 2020)