ARTICLE
Putin approved record increase in spending on Russian army since time of USSR, - Moscow Times
Censor.NET War in Ukraine
28.11.23 08:52
https://censor.net/en/n3458171
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin signed the law on the budget of the Russian Federation for 2024-2026. Next year, almost a third of all expenses will be directed to the maintenance of the army and the defense-industrial complex.
This is reported by Censor.NET with reference to THE MOSCOW TIMES.
For one year, the budget will spend 10.775 trillion rubles under the article “national defense” - 70% more than in 2023 (6.8 trillion), 2.3 times more than in 2022 (4.7 trillion), and three times higher than the pre-war indicators of 2021 (3.5 trillion).
The share of military expenses in the Russian budget, the total amount of which will be 36.66 trillion rubles, will reach 29.5%. At the same time, initially, only 19% of defense expenditures were allocated to the current year’s budget, and 17% in the first year of a full-scale war.
The publication reminds that the USSR spent a third of the defense budget in its last years: in the 1990 budget, 71 billion rubles, or 29.4% were allocated for military purposes.
Read more: If Putin could arrange another Holodomor in Ukraine, he would do it, - Zelensky
In addition, Russia will spend 3.338 trillion rubles under the article “National Security” (the budget of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Russian Guard, special services, and the FSEP system). Thus, in total, almost 40% of the budget will be spent on power structures.
At the same time, the Russian Federation will cut spending on supporting the national economy and small businesses, and funding for education and medicine will be frozen.
But state propaganda funding will remain at a record level - 121.3 billion rubles.
“The share of military expenses in the Russian budget (for 2024), the total amount of which will be 36.66 trillion rubles, will reach 29.5%.” (Tripled from 2021)
While expenses skyrocket, the Russian Ministry of Finance reports that their total oil and gas revenues have dropped about 70% from 2021, before the current invasion and sanctions. That is in ruble terms. In dollars, the drop in revenue has been even greater, because the ruble is worth just half of what it was in 2021.
Unable to borrow Internationally because of sanctions, Russia is on a disastrous financial trajectory. In typical Putin fashion, they keep doubling down on their bet on the war, accelerating the financial burn rate as they speed toward exhausting their National Wealth Fund (next year at these rates).
They are likely going to keep things going like this to get past Putin’s “re-election” in March, and then (like Turkey, after Erdogan’s re-election) some jarring emergency financial course corrections will be needed - slashing civilian spending, confiscatory taxation, wild printing of more rubles (already quite excessive), likely to ignite hyperinflation. Russian interest rates are already 15%.