Russia plans to significantly increase its defense budget in 2025, maintaining high levels of military spending as the war in Ukraine continues, Bloomberg News reports based on draft budget documents it has reviewed.
The increase in military spending comes as Russian forces are reportedly making advances in eastern Ukraine. The draft budget reportedly leads to the conclusion that Putin’s government does not expect the war in Ukraine to end soon.
According to the draft three-year budget proposals, Russia intends to raise defense spending to 13.2 trillion rubles ($142 billion) in 2025, up from 10.4 trillion rubles ($112 billion) projected for this year. This would bring military expenditure to 6.2% of Russia’s gross domestic product.
“Spending on national defense and domestic security is projected to consume around 40% of Russia’s total budget disbursement in 2025 as Putin continues to shift the economy to a war footing,” Bloomberg reports.
This allocation surpasses the combined spending on education, healthcare, social policies, and the national economy.
The documents reveal that while military spending is expected to decline slightly in subsequent years – to 5.6% of GDP in 2026 and 5.1% in 2027 – it will remain at elevated levels.
Bloomberg reports that secret expenditure on classified or unspecified items will rise, reaching 12.9 trillion rubles ($138 billion) in 2025. This represents about 30% of total budget spending.
Despite the massive increase in military spending, the Russian government projects a shrinking budget deficit. The draft documents indicate an expected deficit of 0.5% of GDP in 2025, down from the revised 1.7% projection for 2024.
To achieve this, the government is counting on higher non-oil and gas revenues.
Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree earlier this month to increase the size of the Russian armed forces to 2,389,000 personnel, with the number of military servicemembers rising to 1.5 million.
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