Context: In the first quarter of 2026, the average nominal salary in Belarus reached 2,800 Belarusian rubles. Belstat’s figures show that this is slightly lower than in the fourth quarter of 2025, mostly due to the usual high wages in December. The country’s GDP has also declined since January. At the same time, Aleksandr Lukashenko claims that Belarus “has real opportunities to live better and even well.” He made these comments on April 17, 2026, during an interview with RT, a Russian state-funded television channel that has been banned in the European Union and the United Kingdom.
On April 23, 2026, on the Budni talk show on SBTV and Alpha Radio, host Polina Konoga suggested to her guest, political scientist Aliaksei Dzermant, that they discuss the talking points from Aleksandr Lukashenko’s “high-profile” interview with the Russian TV channel RT. In response, Dzermant contrasted Belarus with Europe:
“What freedoms and self-expression [in Europe] can we even talk about? It’s just a distortion and a distraction from more important issues, because if you have unemployment of 20–30%, as in some European Union countries, then what the hell do other human rights even matter? People have nothing to live on! Where are they going to make money?”
This statement does not align with the actual unemployment figures in the EU. According to Eurostat data, Spain had the highest unemployment rate in the EU in 2025, at 10.5%. Finland and Greece followed, with rates of 9.7% and 8.9%, respectively. The EU’s average unemployment rate was 6%. This means that Aliaksei Dzermant exaggerated the actual figures by two or three times.
Furthermore, the situation is gradually improving — rather than worsening — in many countries with the highest unemployment rates. For example, unemployment was noticeably higher in Spain and Greece a few years ago than it is now.
Against this backdrop, Belarus stands out as a country with record-low unemployment. Official statistics show that the rate is only 0.1%. However, this figure is largely explained by the peculiarities of the unemployment registration approach, rather than by the absence of unemployment itself. Many people see no point in registering as unemployed when the monthly allowance is only about 40 Belarusian rubles (just over $14 at the time of publication) and is paid for only three months. If calculated using the International Labou Organization methodology — the one used by Belstat and applied in EU countries — the unemployment rate in Belarus is actually higher, at around 2.5%. According to this indicator, Belarus is closer to countries like the Czech Republic and Poland, which have unemployment rates of 2.8% and 3.1%, respectively.
Thus, on SBTV and Alpha Radio, unemployment in EU countries was presented as a massive social disaster, with people supposedly having nothing to live on. However, the actual data does not support this. Even the highest figures in the EU are significantly lower than those announced in the studio.
