Russia plans to spend nearly a third of next year’s budget on defense and domestic security while slashing funding for schools, hospitals, and roads as it diverts cash to support its military campaign in Ukraine, a Reuters budget analysis shows.
According to Reuters, Moscow is going to spend a total of 9.4 trillion roubles ($155 billion) on defense and security, squeezing out other priorities in a critical year “leading up to a likely re-election bid by President Vladimir Putin in 2024.”
“Security spending alone – including the work of the state Investigative Committee, the prosecutor’s office, the prison service and the National Guard, which has been deployed in Ukraine – will rise 50% compared with 2022. The combined military and security outlay is a record for the Kremlin but amounts to only about 18% of what the United States plans to spend in the next fiscal year on defence and some – but not all – national security needs,” Reuters reports.
