Pomerantsev resigns from National Tourism Agency

Gregory Pomerantsev is no longer the head of the National Tourism Agency - a state body to promote the country abroad. He served as the acting director of the agency from the summer of 2015. Recently, Pomerantsev was told he could be approved as CEO on condition that he closes down his bank accounts abroad and re-registers his Latvian company in his wife's name but he refused, reports tio.by.

The former Belarusian tourism official says he accepted to run the agency not for money (salary fluctuated between 1.5 and 10 million Belarusian rubles - not more than 500 euros) but just wanted to help the Belarusian tourism industry. He stressed he made no secret about his banks accounts and a firm in Latvia. But he cannot refuse from them, because he has three children and he "needs to provide for them."  

"I joined the National Tourism Agency because I had confidence that I could help," says Gregory Pomerantsev in an interview wth tio.by."But I felt that being within the system I cannot change the system. Rather, the system will change me. To me, that sounded like a direct threat. I reckon I can be effective and help tourism in Belarus from outside the system."

Gregory Pomerantsev is a Russia-born graduate from the Minsk State Linguistics University. He worked at SAS (Scandinavian Arlines) office in Belarus, studied in Denmark and Sweden. He was the first accredited head of airBaltic Corporation office in Belarus. He moved to Riga to become a Vice President of airBaltic. Later, Gregory set up the Live Rīga tourism agency. From June 2015 through January 2016, Gregory Pomerantsev served as the acting director of National Tourism Agency.