Gaidukevich: Lithuania and Latvia Inflate Military Budgets, Belarus Does Not We compared the rates of military budget growth

The President and the Defense Secretary of the United States have pledged to allocate one trillion dollars for military spending. This amount is a record high—four times greater than China's defense budget. Discussing this topic on April 10, 2025, on Gomel's radio and television company, Oleg Gaidukevich, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus, criticized the increase in military budgets of Belarus's European neighbors:

"What looks more ridiculous is EU's efforts to increase the military budget. Because in reality, Lithuania and Latvia are doing this at the expense of their own citizens and their economic health. Belarus will never go down that path. That’s precisely why we’re not inflating our military budget."

The WTF team compared the defense budgets of Lithuania, Latvia, and Belarus. Our country's budget turned out to be the smallest. In 2025, the Belarusian military budget is close to Latvia's at €1.36 billion compared to €1.6 billion, while Lithuania spends 2.5 times more on defense—€3.2 billion. Relative to GDP, Belarus has the lowest proportion of military spending among these three countries, at about 1.5% in 2024. Latvia's military spending comprises 3.3% of the country's GDP, while Lithuania's is 3.1%.

However, since 2022, Minsk has been increasing its military spending at a faster rate than its neighbors. In Lithuania and Latvia, defense expenditures over the last four years have grown less than twofold, while in Belarus, they have increased by 2.6 times. When converted into euros, the Belarusian budget is growing at a rate roughly equivalent to the budgets of both Baltic countries.