Soldier Ration Costs Less Than Food For Prisoner In Belarus

How the authorities care about the Belarusian soldiers.

It is planned to spend 45 million rubles on food for regular soldiers in 2019. This follows from the tender announced by the Ministry of Defense, Euroradio informs.

The Ministry of Defense allocates 21.8 million rubles for food for 9,850 soldiers of the military units of Minsk region and the city of Minsk. Divide the last figure by the number of servicemen, then by 365 days – and you’ll get that, on average, 6 rubles per day are spent on food for the Belarusian soldier. Approximately the same amount is obtained when calculating for other regions.

Is this really so? The press service of the Ministry of Defense says to Euroradio that it’s impossible to calculate how much money is spent on one military man in the canteen...

– It is unlikely that you will be able to calculate the amount spent on one person, – Defense Ministry spokesman Uladzimir Makarau says. – The calorific capacity of our standard military ration is not inferior to that of NATO. This is the only thing I can confirm.

The Ministry of Defense announces the tender because the Belarusian army is gradually refusing of food preparation in army kitchens in favor of catering organizations. According to Uladzimir Makarau, this makes it possible to improve the quality of food for soldiers and not to tear them away from military training. Today, soldiers are fed by civilian catering organizations in 70% of canteens of the military units.

An interesting fact: the state spends almost two times less on food for soldiers than it spends on food for those detained. In 2016, the Interior Ministry claimed that three meals a day for prisoners in a temporary detention center cost 10 rubles 50 kopecks. At that time, it was half of the basic unit, which has increased from 21 to 24.5 rubles since then.