On June 22, 2024, the Belarusian pro-government Telegram channel “ZhS Premium” shared a story by blogger Maxometer from Latvia, painting a rosy picture of life for Belarusian pensioners.
“Let's compare how retirees’ lives look like in Belarus and Latvia. A retiree in Belarus, well, the average retiree, could pay for their apartment or house, well, nearly for 6 months, for a year, for two, for three, for five. All that is real. And the average Latvian retiree, they have, say, a pension of 320 euros, and for an apartment in the winter — 270 euros,” the blogger calculated.
However, the statistics tell a different story. According to the Belarusian Ministry of Labor, the average old-age pension for non-working Belarusian retirees as of June 2024 was around 800 BYN, or about €230.
In October 2023, the Deputy Minister of Housing and Communal Services, Andrey Romashko, reported on the average cost of utilities:
“The utilities, including heating, in a standard two-room apartment of 48 square meters with two residents would be about 153 rubles.”
The actual cost may vary depending on the consumed cubic meters, calories, and kilowatts. Additionally, other services, such as phone and internet, are paid separately.
Doing the math, the average Belarusian pension would cover utility costs for a two-person household for 5–6 months, or a bit longer for a single-person household.
This is a far cry from the blogger's claim that retirees can pay utilities for 3–5 years with a single monthly pension.
According to official data, last year, the average pension in Latvia was not €320, as claimed by the blogger, but €560 — 2.5 times higher than in Belarus. However, utilities in Latvia are indeed more expensive, reaching up to €250 in some homes during winter.