English

Minsk City Council approves appointment of Andrey Shorats as head of Minsk city government

The Minsk City Council of Deputies on November 10 voted to approve the appointment of Andrey Shorats as head of the Minsk City Executive Committee.

Mr. Shorats was appointed to the position by Alyaksandr Lukashenka on November 6. He replaced Mikalay Ladutska, who had headed the Minsk city government since June 2010.

Authorities have been given no official reason for the dismissal of Mr. Ladutska.

Prior to the new appointment, Mr. Shorats had served as minister of housing and utilities since June 2011.

Born in Vitsyebsk in 1973, Mr. Shorats graduated from Vitsyebsk State Technological University in 1995 and from the Academy of Public Administration under the aegis of the President of the Republic of Belarus in 1999.

His career has included service as engineer at the Vitsyebsk Instruments Plant (1995-1997), first secretary of the Kastrychnitski District Committee of the Belarusian Patriotic Youth Union in Vitsyebsk (1997-1998), an official with the Vitsyebsk Regional Consumer Societies Association (1999-2002), head of the power generation, transport and communications department at the Vitsyebsk Regional Executive Committee (2002-2005), head of the housing and utilities department at the Vitsyebsk Regional Executive Committee (2005-2010) and deputy minister of housing and utilities (2010-2011).

While introducing Mr. Shorats to the staff of the Minsk City Executive Committee on November 6, Andrey Kabyakow, head of the Presidential Administration, described him as an ambitious, principled and exacting who managed to improve the performance of the utilities sector and reduce costs while serving as minister.