The Warehouse Mountains of Belarus

Pavel Latushka: Deputy Head of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus, Representative of the Cabinet for the Transition of Power, Head of the National Anti-Crisis Management, Leader of the "Latushka Team and the Movement 'For Freedom'" faction within the 3rd convocation of the Coordination Council

Lukashenka persistently tries not only to turn back the time allotted to him, but also to reverse the course of rivers and control the movement of air. He wants to take nature and the environment under his dictatorial control. None of this succeeds, and it never will. Lukashenka is like the old woman from the fairy tale about the fisherman and the fish…

But what he has definitely managed to do is create real mountains in Belarus. And these mountains consist of unsold products produced by the country’s industrial enterprises. These mountains illustrate the real state of the industry better than any official statements. These are record warehouse stocks, which today reach volumes unseen in at least 12 years.

According to Belstat, from January to October 2025 alone, Belarusian enterprises had 11.311 billion rubles worth of products sitting in warehouses. This is one-third more than a year ago, and more than twice the level of 2020. The ratio of stocks to average monthly output rose to 81% — a level not seen in the country for more than a decade.

This means that the economy is not working for the market or demand, but into a void. Factories continue to produce, but they cannot sell what they make. Huge sums of money turn into mountains of unsold goods simply sitting in warehouses.

11 billion rubles is not just goods — it is money. Money that should have been working. Money that could have gone to salaries, raw materials, modernization, and new developments. Instead, it just sits idle. The economy loses circulation, enterprises lose liquidity, the country loses development.

When stocks grow at such a rate, it means one thing: the market does not buy Belarusian products. Belarus has lost the markets of the EU, other Western countries, and Ukraine; key export routes are inaccessible; in Asian markets, Belarusian goods are uncompetitive; and Russia itself is drowning in its own low-competitiveness products.

Lukashenka always destroys everything he touches. In industry, he has consistently created conditions where enterprises are forced to produce what nobody needs, yet must show plan fulfillment on command from above.

Producing into a void is expensive. It requires raw materials, energy, and wages. And when there are no sales, it is all financed through debt — bank loans. Loans are taken, a new mountain of unsold products is produced — and this automatically creates new mountains called debts, arrears, losses, and responsibilities. Yes, the mountain of responsibility also grows.

The dictator never takes responsibility for his decisions and demands; he shifts it onto those who diligently carry them out. But his decisions are generally ineffective for the economy and aim for personal enrichment. Lately, they have also become almost absurd — about air and rivers. Therefore, fulfilling these orders is impossible, unless you are a fairy tale character, yet someone still must answer for it. On paper, production grows. On paper, it’s a success. In reality, this growth simply accumulates as unsold warehouse stock.

Source: трактор.бел

This is not an economy. This is a simulation of an economy, where reporting is more important than selling. But after reporting comes the next problem — warehouse stock becomes obsolete, especially in mechanical engineering. Equipment sitting in warehouses for years loses value, standards fall behind, models become outdated, and it is no longer needed.

To sell anything, enterprises are forced to dump prices, which guarantees losses, revenue collapse, and new debts.

Instead of acknowledging the problem, Lukashenka continues tightening the screws of demands, blackmail, and threats. He orders state structures to buy up stockpiles, unload warehouses by administrative methods, manually distribute products “somewhere,” force enterprises to meet plans at any cost, and threatens with imprisonment.

But he has no mechanism to pressure buyers and partners. And these record stocks create a pressure point in the regime system.

If these mountains of unsold products are not sold soon, Lukashenka will be forced to choose between two risky scenarios:

1. Launching massive credit issuance to rescue unprofitable state enterprises, which will lead to inflation, or

2. Acknowledging their effective bankruptcy, which carries social and political risks.

Both options are dangerous for the regime. Lukashenka understands that the record level of warehouse stocks is not an accident or temporary fluctuation, but a direct consequence of his decrees and rule. Yet he refuses to understand that an economy run by fear and coercion always ends the same way — with stagnation, debt, and catastrophe. Reality will force him to acknowledge it.

Perhaps Lukashenka truly needs all these mountains of produced but unwanted goods?

Author: Sviatlana Belous. Source: money.onliner.by

Maybe he has long seen himself as the fairy-tale Koschei the Immortal, forever sitting over his treasures that no one dares touch. Koschei is not just an evil old man from folklore: he symbolizes greed, stagnation, and destructive power, keeping a country in chains. He steals princesses, hides them in dark dungeons, terrifies whole kingdoms… and himself withers over his gold — immobile, dead, meaningless.

So it is with Lukashenka: instead of a living economy — stockpiles of unsold products; instead of development — numerous decrees and orders; instead of the future — attempts to revive what has long lost value. And the larger these stockpiles grow, the more the image of the dictator turns into a caricature of Koschei over a rusting throne, guarding not wealth but evidence of his own impotence.

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