Every second ruble went to the army. Russia's spending on the war with Ukraine has set a new record
Compared to the same period last year, spending on the army and weapons production increased by 29.9%, and compared to January-March 2024 – by 68.7%. compared to 2023 – by 129%, and compared to the first quarter of 2022 – by 4.6 times.
As a result, for the first time since the beginning of the conflict, the share of military expenditure in the budget reached 46%. In other words, every second ruble went to the army — Kluge emphasizes.
According to his calculations, Putin's war machine “consumed” on average about 2.7 billion rubles (PLN 137 million) per hour and 65 billion rubles (PLN 3,286 million) per day – an amount comparable to the annual budget of the Novgorod or Orlov oblasts. Monthly war spending – approximately 2 trillion rubles (PLN 101 billion) – exceeded the annual budget of the entire higher education system in Russia (1.7 trillion rubles, or PLN 86 billion) and all Russian regions except Moscow.
The main increase in military spending concerned classified items: their volume increased from 3.4 to 4.9 trillion rubles during the quarter. As a result, 38.2 percent all budget expenditures (12.8 trillion rubles in the quarter) were classified.
It is worth noting that war expenditures are increasing, even though the budget assumed their slight reduction – from 7.8 percent. up to 6.2 percent GDP, Kluge points out. In fact, however, the military budget increased to 12 percent in the first quarter. GDP.
Russia is looking for help for its budget
As the expert notes, it seems that military spending in 2026 will be much higher than last year, reaching 9-10 percent GDP per year. This causes an increase in the budget deficit, which amounted to 4.6 trillion rubles in the first quarter and reached 6 trillion at the end of May.
To cover the rising costs of the war, the Ministry of Finance is proposing to freeze civilian spending this year at 2.9 trillion rubles, sources told the Financial Times. If expenditure is not reduced, according to the ministry's estimates, the budget overrun in the “negative scenario” may reach 4 trillion rubles by the end of the year.
According to “FT” data, the Ministry of Finance proposes budget sequestration, i.e. cutting expenditures, for the entire current three-year period in all items, except for the military. In addition to almost 3 trillion rubles this year, spending of 5.4 trillion rubles in 2027 and 7.1 trillion in 2028 is to be “frozen”.
According to Kluge, the war in Iran and the sharp increase in oil prices will bring additional revenues to Russia, but their amount will be much less than 3%. GDP, necessary to eliminate the “hole” in defense positions.
According to his calculations, since 2022, the war with Ukraine has cost Russian taxpayers a total of 53.079 trillion rubles (). This amount covers 28 years of current budget spending on health care, 30 years of spending on education, and 100 years of annual budgets of large regions such as Krasnoyarsk Krai and Sverdlovsk Oblast.
