2023-08-06 08:28:10
The Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus informed about his death.
Leonid Kozik was born in 1948 in Borisov. His career began with a turner, a driver. In 1977 he graduated from BSU, and in 1985 from the Belarusian State Institute of National Economy. Doctor of Economic Sciences (1999), professor. Academician of the International Academy of Informatization, Economics and Law.
He worked as an assistant prosecutor, chairman of the trade union committee of BATE, director of a sewing factory in Barysau. He was a deputy of the Supreme Council of the 12th convocation – the chairman of the Commission on economic reform, achieving economic independence and sovereignty.
From 1995 to 1998, he worked in the structures of the CIS, the Union State of Russia and Belarus. In 1998, he was the deputy prime minister of Belarus for a short time. In 2001, he was also the deputy head of Lukashenka’s administration for a short time.
From 2004 to 2008, he was a deputy of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the III convocation for Barysau rural district.
From 2002 to 2014, he was the chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus. Under Kozik, trade unions became one of the pillars of power. Thus, in 2010, on the eve of the presidential elections, Leonid Kozik, on behalf of trade unions, supported Alexander Lukashenko and declared his readiness to collect signatures in support of Lukashenka’s nomination for the presidency.
He fell under the sanctions of the European Union, but after leaving office, the sanctions against Kozik were canceled.
In October 2005, an independent UN commission published a report on fraud in the oil-for-food program for Iraq. Kozik appeared there as the head of Lukashenka’s administration and was named as one of the beneficiaries of the contracts between the Belneftakhim concern and the British company Fossdik, which bought 9 million barrels of oil from Iraq during the time of Saddam Hussein.
On September 22, 2014, Kozik resigned from the post of chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus. At that time, the chairman of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions, Aleksandar Yarashuk, said that, according to his information, “Mr. Kozik wrote a statement – most likely, they were forced, or, to put it mildly, suggested.”
According to Yarashuk, “the last drop that overflowed the cup of patience of the authorities was that he attacked the General Prosecutor’s Office – accusing him of illegal actions.”
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