In the first quarter of the Federal Treasury, 3.6 trillion of rubles (approx. PLN 170 billion) was spent on classified items, as calculated by the researcher Janis Kluge from the German Institute of International Security Problems based on the data of the Russian Ministry of Finance and Materials to the amendment to the budget act.
Compared to the same period of last year (2.5 trillion rubles, or approx. PLN 118 billion), secret expenses increased by 44 percent, and their share was reached by a new record – 32 percent. from 11.2 trillion (approx. PLN 500 billion) spent by the budget during the first three months of the year.
As a result, hidden expenses became the second largest item in the budget after social policy. They were more than seven times higher than health care expenses and almost nine times higher than education expenditure. While total budget expenditure increased by 24 percent. In the first quarter, every second ruble from this surplus went to the “shadow budget”.
Almost all secret expenses are related to defense, and their growth in the first quarter is probably explained accelerated financing of contracts for the production and purchase of weaponsnotes Kluge. According to the materials published on the Duma website, the budget spent 810 billion rubles (approx. PLN 38 billion) during January-Marzec.
The total defense expenses therefore reached 4.4 trillion of rubles (approx. PLN 207 billion), i.e. 40 percent. budget, within three months. On average, every week, the military machine “ate” 338 billion rubles (approx. PLN 16 billion) – an amount comparable to the annual budgets of rich Russian circuits, such as Nowosybirski or Rostowski.
Growing secret expenses indicate further militarization of the budgetsummed up Kluge. This year, the Russian government plans to spend 13.2 trillion of rubles (about PLN 620 billion), which is almost a third to national defense, which did not take place since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
According to Bloomberg, secret expenses are planned at 12.9 trillion of rubles (approx. PLN 608 billion) per year – by 16 percent. Therefore, more than in the budget for 2024, their share is to be 30 percent. For comparison: last year it was 27.6 percent, in 2023 – 22.6 percent.
