“Cheap” parade costs a pretty penny

Only an hour of a fighter jet's flight costs $10,000.

Economist Leanid Zaika spoke to charter97.org about the statement by the Belarusian Ministry of Defence about the “priceless parade on July 3”.

“There is an opinion that the military have nothing to do. As far as I remember, army officers can always find a task for a solder resting on a bench. It may be 'funeral of a cigarette stub', marching, etc. There's nothing strange. Marching, dressing left and parades is the work for the military,” the analyst says.

The expert noted that expenses of the Ministry of Defence on the parade is marked as “education” in the Ministry's budget.

“The expenses also include blocking traffic in the town and marching drills instead for weapon training for soldiers. Plus the fuel they used. One hour of a combat aircraft costs $10,000. I personally noticed that they have been flying for the third day. Six planes fly for an hour – we have $60,000. By the way, Belarusian pilots have 400 hours of sorties. Training of one pilot costs 4 million dollars. The minimum cost of the parade (with expenses on fuel for military vehicles) is 300,000 dollars. I propose to buy 2,000 bicycles ($150 each) for Minsk's children on this money. Taking into account this sum and the figure of 0.2% we can congratulate our military agency on the ability to hold such 'cheap' parades,” the economist stressed.

The military parade on July 3 will involve more than 3,000 personnel and 150 military vehicles.