The research centre BIPART has published a new study entitled “Technocrats under pressure: career trajectories and state control in Belarus’s economic ministries”, examining the institutional design and personnel practices of the government’s economic bloc between 2005 and 2025. The research shows that economic ministries operate under conditions of strong power centralisation and personalised control, with key appointments driven by loyalty and internal political balances rather than institutional autonomy.
The study also highlights a decline in the influence of the economic bloc since 2025, alongside the growing role of the financial bloc, particularly the National Bank, which has effectively emerged as a parallel decision-making centre. An analysis of ministers’ and deputy ministers’ career trajectories reveals the closed nature of Belarusian public administration and uneven levels of institutional stability, with Belstat remaining the most stable body, while the Ministries of Industry and of Agriculture and Food have experienced the highest leadership turnover.
The full study is available here: https://bipart.eu/picture/library/econom_bloc_final_eng.pdf