Aberdeen City Council will continue to transfer money electronically to Belarus despite concerns that the “autocratic” government in that country takes a 13% cut.
The council’s finance committee met yesterday to debate whether to continue sending the cash to the Gomel trust, despite the regime taking a “local tax” from monies transferred electronically into the country from abroad.
The former Soviet state has been ruled by Alexander Lukashenko since 1994 and has been widely criticised because of its draconian controls on political freedoms.
The trust was established in 1991 to assist with “medical, nutritional, social and spiritual problems” in the former Soviet state’s second largest city and receives annual funding of £22,000 from the common good fund.
Electronic transfer had begun after safety concerns for charity representatives travelling to the country carrying thousands of pounds.
But yesterday, the SNP group moved an amendment to stop the transfers which provoked a heated debate.
SNP leader Stephen Flynn argued the council’s money should not be given to Belarus, while administration and Liberal Democrat members said that if the cash was withdrawn, it would affect the vulnerable.
The trust’s vice chair Alan Donnelly provoked outrage among opposition members when he commented that Belarus was safe, due to it being “a police state”.
When Mr Flynn said there was “irony in a Tory supporting a Stalinist regime”, Mr Donnelly shouted: “You support Milosevic” – in reference to the SNP policy at the time of the Balkans crisis.
Mr Flynn answered he was “about ten” when the conflict in the 1990s was ongoing.
The administration motion was carried.