Context: Amidst youth protests in France and Italy, Germany is preparing for similar demonstrations. They are scheduled for October 31, 2026, in more than 20 cities. Organizers expect tens of thousands of participants. Their demands include improvements to the education and healthcare systems, stronger climate protection measures, and a more affordable cost of living. Participants also oppose the return of mandatory military service.
On October 20, 2026, during the program Azaryonok. Napryamuyu on the YouTube channel Grigory Azaryonok. Belarus, host Ryhor Azaronak claimed that Germany had increased its military spending manyfold. He linked this to Aleksandar Vučić’s statement about the inevitability of a world war.
“Vučić made a new statement today, saying that a world war is inevitable. He says, ‘Look at the share of spending on defense, at Germany’s military-industrial complex. It has increased 17-fold in recent years! Seventeen, he said! He even emphasized it. He gave an interview to Sobchak, by the way. He emphasized that it wasn’t 17%, but 17 times.”
On October 21, Azaronak repeated his comments on the CTV program Taynye Pruzhiny Politiki:
“Germany is increasing its military spending by a factor of 17 — not by 17%, but by a factor of 17.”
However, during his interview with Ksenia Sobchak, Vučić discussed something else: the profits of the German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall.
“I know someone from Rheinmetall. The Germans have made exceptional progress in this industry. He’s a very smart man. They’ve increased their profits 17-fold. Not by 17 percent, but 17-fold,” said the former president of Serbia.
In other words, Azaronak presented the profit figures of a single company as data on the military spending of an entire country. Vučić did not specify the time period during which Rheinmetall’s profits allegedly increased seventeenfold. The company’s financial reports for recent years do not show such growth. Its operating profit was €1.841 billion in 2025, compared to €1.389 billion the previous year — a 33% increase. Rheinmetall’s operating profit was €594 million in 2021. By 2025, it had risen to approximately 3.1 times that amount. The company reported an operating profit of €786 million for the first half of 2026, up 74% from €453 million for the same period in 2025.
While Germany’s defense spending has increased significantly, it has not increased by a factor of 17. In 2021, the defense budget totaled €46.93 billion. In 2026, total appropriations rose to €108.2 billion, comprising €82.69 billion from the Ministry of Defense’s main budget and an additional €25.51 billion from the Bundeswehr’s Special Fund. This is approximately 2.3 times the 2021 figure. Total planned expenditures for 2027 are €139.6 billion, including €109.7 billion from the main budget and €29.9 billion from the special fund. Compared to 2026, this represents a 29% increase.
