The Honorary Consul of Russia in Belarus, General Director of the largest Belarusian-Russian holding company for the production of footwear JV "Belwest" Yuri Sumaneev is a Russian. Born in the Urals, until 2003 he worked in Moscow and has been living and working in the city on the Dvina for about 20 years. Belarussia were closely intertwined in his fate. Recently, Yuri Sumaneev’s worries have increased: on December 14, 2021, the office of the honorary consul was opened in Vitebsk.

Yuri Gennadievich, what do you see as your mission as a people's diplomat and what has already been done in the first month of the consulate's work?

Yury Sumaneev: The range of duties is wide: development of business, cultural, scientific, public relations, military memorial work... Russians, heroes of the First and Second World Wars, the Patriotic War of 1812, found eternal peace in Belarus. To perpetuate their names is our sacred duty and task. Even in the summer, before the official opening of the consulate, I happened to help a resident of Russia, who was looking for a relative who died in the Liozno region during the Great Patriotic War. You have to give credit to the local authorities. A couple of months later, the name of the hero-liberator was already put on a memorial plate in the agricultural town of Babinovichi. Historical justice restored.

Since the opening of the office of the honorary consul, we have already received more than 20 applications. The most frequent ones are about granting citizenship, drawing up certain documents, and just for military memorial work, for which I am responsible.

I know that you were among the first to respond to the accident near Vitebsk. Then more than 40 Russian tourists who went on an excursion to Belarus suffered…

Yuri Sumaneev: It's hard to imagine what these people had to endure. They dreamed of rest, but got into trouble. But they quickly realized that they were not left alone with her: the Belarusians began to help immediately. Doctors, government officials, law enforcement officers... It was really teamwork within the framework of the Union State. For each of the victims, Vitebsk doctors held video consultations with Russian colleagues from the Main Military Clinical Hospital named after Academician N. N. Burdenko. Then it was decided to send people home, taking care of their safety as much as possible. The "farthest" patient was first taken by reanimobile to Moscow, then in a train compartment to Arkhangelsk.

A touching moment - calls, SMS, which flew to my phone after the Russian tourists got home. Of course, with words of gratitude to all Belarusians who extended a helping hand to them.

As the head of the largest shoe holding, we address you the question of our reader from St. Petersburg, Lyudmila Chumak. She walked through St. Petersburg shops and asked: "Where are the Belarusian shoes?"

Yuri Sumaneev: More than 20 of our branded stores are open in the city on the Neva and the Leningrad Region. Their addresses can be found on the company's website. There you can also study the assortment, order the model you like, choosing our outlet closest to the buyer as the delivery point. Fast and convenient.

There is definitely no shortage of Belwest products in Russia. We are focused on the Russian market, supplying 70 to 80 percent of our footwear to it. You see, the legs of Belarusians and Russians are the same - more filled than, for example, those of Asians. But we stand firmly on our feet!

Are there any pitfalls on the way of promoting products to the Russian market?

Yuri Sumaneev: On the border with the Russian Federation, our trucks can wait for weeks. Anti-record last year - forty 40 days. Working in this mode is fraught with a longer turnover of goods. We may not fit into the season: the products simply will not reach the buyer on time.

The integration programs approved last year by the presidents of Belarussia are called upon to expand the possibilities of production workers. Their implementation will make it possible to create a single economic space of the Union State. How do you think this mechanism should work?

Yury Sumaneev: Unification of taxation and legislative acts is undoubtedly a plus. For my part, I am interested in the growth of our industrial integration. So, with a capacity of two million pairs a year, we still sell more shoes than we make: we found an option in cooperation with European factories.

To control and ensure the quality of our products help ... robots

To independently reach three million couples, you need to involve another 800-1000 workers. Belwest has the status of a Belarusian-Russian enterprise, why not teach our profession to people in the Russian regions? An appropriate integration program from the Union State would come in handy.

I can't help but ask: how did the pandemic affect the work of the enterprise?Yuri Sumaneev: The consequences of the lockdown, when our stores were closed for four months, are still "reverberating" to this day. But we took a strategically important move: we did not stop production, we saved the team. One of the first organized a vaccination center on the basis of the enterprise. 360 people were vaccinated in it on a voluntary basis. By the way, robots help to control the quality of our products. A unique robotic line - the development of our scientific and technical center "Lacit".

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