Context: In mid-May 2026, local media reported that Latvia may ban all regular passenger bus services to Belarus and Russia. A ban on irregular bus services is already in effect. The proposal was developed by the Ministry of Transport. The stated reason was that transport connections with Belarus and Russia facilitate threats to national security.
The Belarus-RTR TV channel dedicated a separate episode of the talk show Mneniya to the Baltic States. On May 24, 2026, Aleksejs Rosļikovs, a former member of the Latvian Saeima who had left for Belarus, criticized Latvia for the size of its bureaucracy. He said that one out of every six people in the country is a government official.
“There are 438,000 pensioners and 340,000 children. According to their statistics, this accounts for 40% of the population. ... Additionally, there are 300,000 government officials. They claim that half a million people are employed, but the actual number is much lower. In other words, today, the entire country of Latvia is supported by approximately half a million workers — hear me out — plus European Union subsidies,” Rosļikovs said.
Even presenter Igor Poznyak was surprised by this figure:
“Wait, 300,000 government officials?” he asked.
“300,000 government officials,” Rosļikovs confirmed.
The figures he gave for the retired and children are nearly identical to the official statistics. Together, they account for about 40% of the population. However, Rosļikovs downplayed the size of the working population. In 2025, 800,000 employees in Latvia had social contributions paid on their behalf.
The number of government officials in Latvia is also significantly lower than Rosļikovs claims. It appears he has included all public sector employees in his count. There are indeed about 300,000 of them. However, this category includes state and municipal institutions, public education, healthcare, the police force, the military, and firefighters, as well as enterprises controlled by the state or local governments.
There are approximately 11,000 actual government officials in Latvia. These are state apparatus employees who make, implement, or enforce government decisions. This figure is about 30 times lower than what the former of the Latvian Saeima member stated on Belarusian TV.
For comparison, the Belarusian statistics agency does not publish the exact number of officials. But it can be roughly estimated. Belstat reports that approximately 180,000 people are employed in public administration. Of these, approximately 37,000 people hold civil service positions. This is the figure Aleksandr Lukashenko announced back in 2018.
