[D_Alex]

You are right about the arbitrary government and red tape. I think you are wrong about "virtually no access to EU markets", but I will not argue it here. You are wrong about "lack of workers skilled in post-1950s technology", and completely wrong about the implication that there could be a shortage of suitably skilled labour to run the factories.

In the former Soviet union, Belarus had a very significant and comparatively modern industrial sector, producing vehicles, consumer electronics, machinery etc. Minsk in particular is heavily industrialised, and according to the Wikipedia entry:

After the last war the development of the city was linked to the development of industry, especially of R&D-intensive sectors (heavy emphasis of R&D intensive industries in urban development in the USSR is known in Western geography as 'Minsk phenomenon').

So I suspect if there is a recent history of "R&D intensive industries", finding workers to man even advanced factories should not be an issue.