Another Painful Humiliation For Lukashenko
- 18.01.2026, 9:50
On the example of MAZ trucks and buses.
The fact that Lukashenko and his officials are increasingly calling it the "main problem" in the economy has received another confirmation in the figures: by the end of 2025, sales of new MAZ trucks in Russia decreased 1.7 times.
The Russian market, which the ruler has been calling bottomless for several years now, continues to shrink for Belarusian products.
For the sake of justice, we should note that ten years ago Lukashenko blamed the employees of Minsk Automobile Plant for the loss of the Russian direction, claiming that the situation could be easily remedied. With the help of figures and quotes, we checked how much he managed to do so.
2016
At the end of 2016 MAZ sold about 3,300 new trucks in Russia. This allowed the Minsk auto giant to take its place among the top three market leaders, although sales in this segment fell by 9.5% year-on-year.
That year was successful for Minsk buses, of which 812 units were sold in Russia - 55.6% more than in 2015.
Visiting MAZ in April 2016, Lukashenko once again set the task of developing new markets:
"I demand it from you. Before I could come here, you started telling me about Russia. We have been an independent state for 25 years. Russia has its own problems. Yes, there is a market there, which you gave up. Today it's very easy to reclaim that market. But you have to sell there high-quality, beautiful, reliable equipment at a competitive price. (...)
You are a state enterprise. The minimum that is asked of you is to keep your workforce, pay wages, produce good goods and sell them."
2017
MAZ sales in the Russian Federation grew by 17.4% according to the Russian agency Avtostat. A total of 3,882 new trucks were registered. Despite this MAZ lost market share, moving from the third to the seventh position.
That was the time when the products of Minsk Automobile Plant in the Russian market were squeezed by the Western giants: Volvo, Scania, Mercedes and MAN.
Minsk buses not only failed to repeat the success of the previous year, but also lost leadership positions, reducing sales by half. That year, Russians bought 359 units.
Minsk buses began to surrender their positions to market newcomers Chinese brands Yutong and Higer.
2018
MAZ improved its truck sales figures by 9%, having delivered 4,237 units to Russia. The Minsk plant took 7th place in the ranking of the best-selling truck brands on the Russian market.
Sales of new MAZ buses increased by 64% (579 units).
The year was characterized by a general slowdown in the truck market, which played into the hands of the Belarusian carmaker.
MAZ sold 3,991 new trucks in Russia, with sales down 9.3% compared to 2018. At the same time, the company retained its place in the top ten best-selling truck brands, continuing to compete with Russian and Western manufacturers.
Bus sales fell by almost 27%, with a total of 466 units sold in Russia. MAZ continued to lose the market to both Russian competitors and the Chinese.
2020
The year, significant for the world and Belarusians, was marked by another decline in sales of MAZ trucks. A total of 3,745 units were sold. At the same time, Minsk Automobile Plant retained its place in the top-10.
But Minsk was lucky with buses that year: a total of 639 of them were sold in Russia (+49% growth over the previous year).
2021
MAZ set a sales record for the last seven years, having sold 5410 units of new vehicles (+44.5%). As a result, the share of the Belarusian brand in the truck segment increased from 5.0% to 5.5%.
MAZ closed the top five best-selling truck brands in Russia, behind KAMAZ, GAZ, Scania and Volvo.
And a new success of Minsk buses - 802 units. The result: 4th place in the all-Russian rating of brands.
"Look, we lived without the European Union and will live for many more years. Apart from you, the world is huge. It may be small, but it is huge. And what we need to sell (the main issue is to sell what we produce), all elementary can be consumed by Russia. One Russia," - from Lukashenko's interview with CNN
The beginning of a full-scale war in Ukraine affected the sales of Belarusian trucks on the Russian market: 4,388 trucks were sold (-20.6%).
At the same time, 1,120 new MAZ buses were sold. The brand's share in the Russian market of new buses increased from 4.1% to 8.7%. But MAZ continued to lose to competitors, including Chinese ones.
At a meeting with the governor of Penza region Oleh Melnichenko, the governor of Belarus recalled the attempts to cooperate with Western companies:
"We didn't really go for launching foreigners here. Therefore, the sanctions imposed on us did not hit us as hard as, for example, on Kamaz. Germans entered there, first of all. We did not spoil our machine builders in this area. Germans also worked for us. And MAZ - MAN and Neoplan once worked at MAZ.
The contract ended, I shook hands with them and said: "Thank you, we will develop ourselves from now on." Whatever it costs us, these difficulties, difficulties."
2023
The Russian market is being abandoned by Western brands. It would seem that the star hour of Minsk Automobile Plant has come, which showed a significant growth in sales - 6333 units (+43.8%).
But the market share of Minsk has decreased due to the active inflow of Chinese manufacturers. SITRAK, Shacman, FAW and other brands from China now compete with Belarusians in Russia.
And sales of new buses slightly decreased against the background of the overall market growth in this segment - up to 925 units.
2024
Chinese companies are actively replacing Western manufacturers that left Russia. Sitrak, Shacman and FAW have taken leading positions in the market. Against this background, sales of MAZ trucks fell by almost a thousand units - to 5,309 units.
At the end of 2024, against the background of the growing market, sales of buses of Minsk Automobile Plant in Russia fell by 45.5% - to 504 units.
At the same time, the dependence on the Russian market continued to grow - it accounted for more than 62% of all exported MAZ products.
"BELAZ, MTZ, MAZ and so on - they can't not have a quality mark for some of their goods. But this product must be unique, it must be competitive on international markets. The machinery must be flawless. We will check it. We will not stamp a quality mark on your cab, hood or glass, otherwise we will disgrace the country," - from Lukashenko's speech at the meeting dedicated to the "Quality Mark"
2025
Sales of MAZ trucks in Russia in 2025 decreased by 43% - to 3,274 units.
Visiting MAZ, January 2025
With this background, a 1% drop in bus sales looks like a success: 499 buses of the Minsk plant were sold in Russia last year, which is only six units less than in 2024.
"I am ready to help your team, you are my relatives, my children, you might say, whom I once rescued like drowned people. I am ready. But only for the result. If there is a result, I will be glad to help you," Alexander Lukashenko, visiting MAZ in January 2025.
Sergei Vasilevsky, "Salidarnasts".