A Shameful Fact About Lukashenko
- 17.10.2026, 8:13
Because of his grandstanding, the dictator was denied a loan from Putin.
State media refer to the Palace of Independence as the main symbol of modern Belarus. Lukashenko says he built it not for himself, but for the entire Belarusian people.
Find out how much this “gift” cost the Belarusian people and how it prevented Lukashenko from securing a loan from Putin in the new episode of the program (In)Stability on the YouTube channel “Belarusians and the Market”.
“The national symbol of Belarusian statehood is the Palace of Independence. This week, it celebrated its first anniversary. Alexander Lukashenko said that he personally had to oversee the construction. Initially, the building was not intended to be the president’s residence, but a friend’s advice changed everything,” the program reported, marking the palace’s tenth anniversary in 2023.
Since the building was not originally intended to be Lukashenko’s personal residence—but rather a gift from Lukashenko to the entire Belarusian people—it was designed from the outset to include Alexander Lukashenko’s private office, offices for his eldest and youngest sons, bedrooms, a sauna, a swimming pool, a winter garden, and a gym. The area of Alexander Lukashenko’s private quarters in the palace—which he built not for himself at all—is 500 square meters, gleaming with gilded details.
In total, the palace contains several hundred different rooms. The total area of this gift from Lukashenko to the Belarusian people is 50,000 square meters. It’s a shame no one has calculated the cubic volume yet. Because in some places, the ceilings practically disappear into the clouds.
“The Grand Hall. Well, when they were building it, every time I’d walk by and look at that ceiling, I’d think, ‘They must have aimed way too high.’ The architects would reassure me, ‘Don’t worry, Alexander Grigoryevich, it’ll be fine. It’ll be fine, it’ll be beautiful.’ I looked at these windows—we’ll need curtains right away. ‘And we’ll sew all the curtains,’ they said. “Well, I like it,” Lukashenko admitted.
And when you like something, it somehow feels awkward to even bring up the topic of money. Especially since Lukashenko himself said that his palace didn’t cost the people a single kopeck. In other words, not a single ruble from the budget was spent on its construction; everything was paid for by some unknown sponsors. Lukashenko didn’t say who this generous sponsor was, whose money was used to build the palace, or—most importantly—where he got that kind of money.
In reality, however, the people had to chip in—and quite a bit. Based solely on publicly available decrees allocating funds for construction, the total amount of budget funding came to $135 million.
In reality, the palace cost much more. Based on indirect estimates, the total construction cost was estimated at between $300 million and $700 million.
The artistic installation of parquet flooring alone, covering an area of 3,600 square meters, cost between 3 and 7 million.
The same Russian company that laid the parquet also installed 260 gilded doors in the palace. In 2013, the cost of a single such door could reach up to three thousand dollars.
And the parquet flooring and doors are just a tiny fraction of the opulence with which the palace is meant to dazzle anyone who steps inside.
“The largest chandelier in the Palace of Independence weighs about two metric tons. A very common question is: ‘How do they maintain them, how do they manage, and how do they change the light bulbs?’” said Lukashenko’s press secretary Natalia Eismont.
How they’re maintained and how much it costs is indeed a question. Lukashenko himself has said that the palace’s staff consists of literally just a couple of people. Apparently, back in 2013, the palace purchased 140 wardrobes full of uniforms and more than 100 computers for this pair of people.
In other words, the palace’s total staff numbers in the hundreds. And if they’re paid even the average Belarusian salary, the annual payroll alone amounts to millions of dollars. Taking into account utility and engineering bills, repair costs, maintenance of the surrounding grounds, and the property’s special protected status, it would not be an exaggeration to estimate the annual maintenance costs at at least a couple of tens of millions.
So the goal has been achieved. The palace truly boggles the imagination.
However, this once backfired on its owner. In October 2013, just as the palace was being completed, Lukashenko hosted a summit of Eurasian Union heads of state in Minsk. And, of course, he wanted to show off his new home to them.
And it was precisely at that time that he was asking Putin for another $350 million loan to ensure his financial stability. Because construction of this grandiose palace had begun in June 2011. This was in the midst of the most severe financial crisis in modern Belarusian history, when inflation in the country exceeded 100 percent. At that time, Lukashenko was begging for money wherever he could to keep the Belarusian ruble’s exchange rate stable.
That is why, in 2013, he specifically asked Putin for those 350 million to overcome the consequences of that very crisis from two years earlier. And now, malicious tongues are saying that everything was already in the bag, that the loan issue was almost settled—right up until the moment Putin saw the palace’s interiors. But after seeing the palace’s interiors, Putin abruptly changed his mind.