Russia plans to increase its defence spending by around 30% next year while shifting more resources to fund its offensive in Ukraine, draft budget plans show.
Moscow has already increased its military spending to levels not seen since the Soviet era, producing missiles and drones to shell Ukraine and paying lucrative salaries to the hundreds of thousands of soldiers fighting on the front lines.
The latest planned spending increase will boost Russia's defense budget to 13.5 trillion rubles ($145 billion) in 2025, according to a document posted on the parliamentary website.
This figure does not include some other resources that are being directed to the military campaign, such as spending that Russia labels "internal security" and some spending classified as top secret.
Combined defense and security spending will account for about 40 percent of Russia's total government spending, which will total 41.5 trillion rubles in 2025.
Before sending the draft budget to the Russian parliament, Moscow announced that along with higher military spending, investment and social security would also increase.
The "main priority" of the budget is "social support for citizens," Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at a televised government meeting last Tuesday.
"The second priority is ensuring defence and security spending, providing funds for the special military operation and support for the families of the special military operation participants," he added, using Russia's official language for its offensive in Ukraine.
But the data show that military spending has crowded out spending on other areas of the economy.
Planned spending on "national defense" is more than double that allocated to areas Moscow labels "social policy." | BGNES
