At The Bottom
- 18.12.2025, 14:32
The authorities brought the Belarusian river fleet to Tsushima.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Belarusian authorities have been living with the dream of having their own maritime fleet. And under Alexander Lukashenko they dreamed so much about oceans and seas, ports in Murmansk and Oman, that they brought almost the entire river fleet inherited from the USSR to the end of its tether.
It became a shame
And to the end of its tether. As Plan B. pointed out, a bankruptcy procedure was initiated a couple of weeks ago in relation to the state enterprise "River Shipping Company", which manages over 160 motor ships and barges and 5 ports in the Dnieper-Bug basin.
Probably out of shame or so that no one could guess where this "economic Tsushima" happened, the adjective "Belarusian" was removed from the name of the company on the eve of the application to the court.
"Belarusian River Shipping Company" (from September 2025 - simply "River Shipping Company") is a continuer of traditions, which take their written history from the origin of the "way from Varangians to Greeks". Next was the Mogilev merchants of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The carpenters and capitalist steamboatmen of Pinsk, Gomel and Vetka. A new short-lived heyday in 1970-1980s under the Soviet Union. And gradual decline in the newest period of the national history.
In the 2000s "Belarusian River Shipping Company" lost transportation of potassium to Nikolaev and all four ship repair plants. It switched to transportation of construction sand and crushed stone. And pleasure and excursion passenger voyages.
Before 2022, some cargoes were transported to and from Ukraine. There was even a project to intensify the direction with the involvement of private capital - oilman and co-owner of "Hippo" Vasily Varfolomeyev. But after 2022 all the projects went down.
At the bottom
The steamship company went there together with them. Having reached the bottom by the end of this year.
First, by order of the only founder, the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the steamship company was deprived of its "national identity". That is, they removed the word "Belarusian" from its name. And then it was ordered to go to court with a "sincere confession" - with a statement of economic insolvency.
The court hearings were held in an accelerated mode in late November and early December. At them it was once again confirmed that the river steamship company "lacks the ability" to pay the salaries of almost 400 employees and all mandatory payments.
The steamship company has accumulated 18.5 million rubles of debts along with non-mandatory (settlements with counterparties and banks). And it has already received 300 enforcement proceedings for the return of 9.3 million rubles. At the same time, as of December 1, 2025, there were only 35 thousand rubles in the accounts of the "River Shipping Company".
That is why it is proposed to freeze payments within the framework of bankruptcy proceedings, and in the future to carry out rehabilitation of the debtor.
The decision on how to raise the national river fleet from the bottom will be made in March next year.
Frankly speaking, there are no prospects to revive the glorious past in today's political and economic situation. Especially, taking into account the current level of competence in politics and economics.