On June 25, 2025, the NATO summit in The Hague concluded with leaders agreeing to raise defense spending to 5 percent of GDP, up from the current 2 percent. Commenting on the decision, expert Alexander Tishchenko said that “you’ll have to take money away from someone” to do it.
"And you can only take it from the socially, shall we say, vulnerable segments of the population — pensioners. They’re already considering a basic pension starting at almost 85 in some countries," Tishchenko said on SB TV June 30.
The expert was likely referring to Latvia, where a parliamentary committee did indeed approve a basic pension plan for people over age 85. However, this is an additional payment to the regular pension received from age 65, not a replacement. Moreover, the new measure has been actively discussed for years and is aimed at supporting older citizens, not subsidizing defense budgets.
According to the Latvian State Social Insurance Agency, at the end of 2024, Latvians under age 65 received the highest average pension of €666, while pensioners over age 89 received the lowest at €532. That is why authorities decided to introduce additional payments of €20 to €40, depending on years of service and retirement age, for this age group. Moreover, the program is planned to be extended to other pensioners in the future.
For comparison, Belarus also provides additional payments to elderly pensioners — about €25 (roughly 87 Belarusian rubles) after age 75 and twice that amount after age 80. The amounts are comparable to those in Latvia, but Belarusian pensions overall average just half of Latvia’s. Most importantly, in both Latvia and Belarus these supplementary pension benefits are aimed at supporting seniors, not cutting military budgets. Contrary to Tishchenko’s allegations, there is no link between these pension reforms and NATO defense spending.
