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Russia’s defence spending at highest level on record
October 8, 2024 - The Kremlin’s new budget for 2025 is a blueprint for war, with plans to increase military expenditure to its highest level since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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Defence spending is set to increase by 22.6% compared with this year, a staggering 58% rise from the original budget drafted in late 2023. This signals that Vladimir Putin’s ambitions in Ukraine remain as entrenched as ever. Far from scaling back, the Russian president appears willing to absorb rising costs in his fight, which he views as existential to his regime’s survival.
Added together, defence and national security spending will now surpass 8 percent of Russia’s GDP and account for 40% of all federal expenditure. Although projections for 2026 and 2027 suggest a slight reduction to 5.6% and 5.1% of GDP respectively, this does little to ease concerns.
From a fiscal perspective, military expenditure seems like an obvious candidate for cuts. But in Putin’s Russia, the war drives the economy. Other key sectors – education, healthcare and even social policy – are seeing minimal growth or outright decline, despite Kremlin rhetoric about prioritising social welfare, the FT said.