How do authorities get money for parade?

The poorer the country is, the bigger parades it organises.

Economist Leanid Zlotnikau spoke to charter97.org about how Lukashenka got the money for the parade in the difficult economic situation in the country.

“It's clear that the money is not from the personal fund of Lukashenka or his cronies. This is the money of the country. There is a special budget item called 'expenses on state administration'. The expenditures under this item have been increased this year. I think it might be a sponsor's money. Lukashenka could have pressed on big Belarusian businesses. It is only a hypothesis. I cannot say exactly if it was so.

The money that would be enough to build two more ice arenas was spent on the parade. Taking into account the number of already constructed ice arenas, I don't think holding a parade is a problem for the country,” the expert thinks.

– But plants don't work, people have working shorter weeks, workers are being fired and wages are being delayed. What do people think about the parade?

– There are different opinions. Yes, our country urgently needs money. But Lukashenka looks at the situation from all sides. The economic situation in Russia worsened drastically due to sanctions and oil prices, but Russia spends more on the annexation of Crimea, arms and supporting the war than our country spends on the parade. Putin cultivates patriotism and pride for “great Russia” in the Russians. And people stop noticing their poverty! The main thing is that we are “great”! If we return to Belarus, few people worry that our plants don't work. If a country is in a difficult economic state, if standards of living are declining, if people don't know how to get money to pay loans, something is needed to distract attention from these problems. People forget economic problems. They don't notice them. In this sense, the parade was important for the government to give people spiritual momentum. It want people to say, “We won this big war, we freed the world.” People can feel themselves a part of something great.

– The hungrier the people the brighter the fireworks are?

– Let's look at North Korea. What parades it organises! And people live on the verge of poverty.

The military parade in Minsk on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Victory was held on a large scale. It was the first time when Belarus has demonstrated its modern military hardware: Polonez multiple rocket launch systems, an analogue of Russian Smerch, and Lis armoured vehicle. A record high number of Russian troops and hardware participated in the parade.