The Price of Loyalty to moscow: belarus’ Entire Public Sector Earned a Meager $6 Million in russia

For years, minsk relied on the russian market as its primary and only option. The results for 2025 showed what that cost.

The combined net financial result of belarus’ 43 state-owned holding companies in russia amounted to approximately $6 million. This is precisely the price of the lukashenko regime’s long-standing strategy.

The total revenue of 67 state-sector sales entities decreased by 17% over the year, having fallen from 480 to 400 billion russian rubles, or approximately $4.8 billion. Performance declined for 25 out of 43 holding companies. Without exception, the entire machine-building sector slumped: BelAZ, MAZ, MTZ, “gomselmash”, “belkommunmash”, “amkodor”, and others.

But the main failure is not in revenue. Total net profit plummeted 2.8-fold: from 11.4 billion to 4.1 billion rubles. BelAZ, which for years remained the main contributor to the state sector in the russian market, lost nearly half of its profit.

In parallel, losses increased 24-fold. The chronically unprofitable “pinskdrev” and “keramin” were joined by heavyweights: MAZ and “belorusneft”. The latter’s subsidiaries racked up a record loss of 2.85 billion rubles in the history of the belarusian oil industry. The total losses of the state sector reached 3.6 billion rubles ($43 million) and were only by 500 million rubles less than the total profit earned.

There were some positive exceptions, but they were few and far between. Revenue increased for alcohol producers, sugar manufacturers, and construction companies under the presidential “administration of affairs”. “integral”, which became part of the russian defense-industrial complex, also showed growth, albeit from a zero starting point. Some companies boosted sales through dumping.

The bottom line is grim: the russian market, for the sake of which minsk had been ignoring diversification for decades, no longer sustains the economy.