Russia has doubled its 2023 defence spending target to more than $100 billion - a third of all public expenditure - a government document reviewed by Reuters showed, as the costs of the war in Ukraine spiral and place growing strain on Moscow’s finances.
The figures shed light on Russia’s spending on the conflict at a time when sector-specific budget expenditure data is no longer published.
They show that in the first half of 2023 alone, Russia spent 12%, or 600 billion roubles, more on defence than the 4.98 trillion roubles ($54 billion) it had originally targeted for 2023.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The figures shed light on Russia’s spending on the conflict at a time when sector-specific budget expenditure data is no longer published.
Rising war costs are supporting Russia’s modest economic recovery this year with higher industrial production, but have already pushed budget finances to a deficit of around $28 billion - a figure compounded by falling export revenues.
Higher spending on defence, as Moscow prosecutes what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine, could widen the deficit further, while the boost in output could cannibalise other sectors and crowd out private investment.
Reuters calculations based on the document showed that Russia had spent 19.2% on defence in the first six months of all initially planned budget expenditure for 2023 as a whole.
Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said in July that the defence industry was now producing more munitions each month than it did in the whole of 2022.
The Bank of Russia forecasts GDP growth at 1.5%-2.5% this year, in line with analysts polled by Reuters last week.
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Almost a fifth of all their budget mid year? If that is right and I understand it correctly, that is just not sustainable.
(cries in American)
Isn’t US military spending around 12% of budget? If I understood that article right, russia is about to spend 40% of theirs on military.
Probably depends on how you count it. It’s around $1T for regular ops, but there’s another 250-400B in veterans services and costs that are spent separately. Last I checked we were spending $6T a year. (I admit I didn’t google to check)
It’s not the same, but I understand Americans that want to spend less on military.
But right now is probably not the right time.