Russia presents the highest defense budget since the Soviet Union. The state budget is designed for a long war and permanent occupation of Ukraine.
Moscow – Russian President Vladimir Putin is continuing to arm himself for the war against Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Finance announced on Thursday (September 28th) that military spending would increase to the equivalent of around 106 billion euros in 2024. This would be around six percent of Russia’s gross domestic product. The Russian business portal, which has been published from exile since 2022 The Bell quotes Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov: “Everything for the front, everything for victory.”
Last year it was $86.7 billion, according to the Swedish research institute SIPRI, and about $82 billion, according to the Russian Ministry of Finance. Since parts of the military budget in Russia are secret, the information cannot be independently verified. However, given the war rhetoric and the numbers, it is clear that the Kremlin is preparing for a longer war.
Highest military budget since the Soviet Union
It is the first military budget planned for war since Putin’s renewed attack on Ukraine. In 2022, the Russian Finance Ministry had to “hands-on” increase military spending. This is what Russia expert Boris Grozovski writes in a current analysis for the US think tank Wilson Center. According to him, one thing is certain: “Post-Soviet Russia has never spent so much money on the military.” Since the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine, military spending has more than doubled. The money is likely to flow mainly into the defense industry, writes Grozovski.
According to Grozovski, the production of military hardware was already massively increased towards the end of 2022. The Ukrainian General Staff regularly releases figures on Russian losses. The Russian army is said to have already lost thousands of tanks, vehicles and guns. The fighting is currently raging mainly in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. Military analyst Pavel Luzin from the Fletcher School of Diplomacy in the US said The Bell, Russia also has to replace imports of sanctioned goods in arms production, which is now having an effect.
Occupation of Ukraine enshrined in the budget
The rest of the budget draft for 2024 does not offer any particular hope for an early end to the war in Ukraine. According to the Russian daily newspaper Vedomosti, the Russian Finance Ministry plans to spend the equivalent of around 37 million euros on tying the occupied Ukrainian territories to Russia. The newspaper also wrote on Wednesday that additional funds from other sources were available for the Russian occupation.
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