826
Photo: Unsplash
The price of the war with Ukraine for Russia's budget reached a new record
Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, now in its third year, is costing Russian taxpayers more and more.
In the first half of 2024, the federal budget of Russia spent a record 5,3 trillion rubles on defense items. This was reported by The Moscow Times on Friday, September 13, with reference to calculations based on the data of the "Electronic Budget" system by Janis Kluge, a researcher at the German Institute for International Security Problems.
Thus, compared to the first half of 2023, Russia's military expenditures increased by 36%, or 1,4 trillion rubles.
"On average, the government spent 203 billion rubles per week, 29 billion rubles per day, or 1,2 billion rubles per hour, according to Kluge's calculations, to maintain the army and purchase weapons," the publication indicates.
As a result, in six months, the military machine "ate" almost one and a half annual budgets of the national economy support program (3,89 trillion rubles), more than three annual budgets of the entire system of higher education in the country (1,546 trillion rubles), 18 annual budgets of the national project " Health care" (290 billion rubles) and more than 90 annual budgets of a typical poor region — such as, for example, the Republic of Tiwa (56 billion rubles).
"Particularly sharp", Kluge points out, "secret costs", which go mainly to the purchase of weapons for the front, jumped. They amount to about 1 trillion rubles per quarter. In the open part of the budget, funding for state defense orders increased by 54% compared to last year and by 126% compared to 2022.
Expenditures for payments to the military, in particular the massive recruitment of "volunteers" and contractors, with which the Kremlin compensates for front-line losses, have increased by 25% compared to last year and by 175% compared to 2022.
"Expenses for international military-technical cooperation have skyrocketed, which may include financing purchases of ammunition and missiles in Iran and North Korea," Kluge notes.
According to his estimates, almost 120 billion rubles were spent on this from the budget in the first quarter and more than 150 billion in the second.
As Kluge estimates, by the end of the year, the Kremlin's military expenditures may reach 13,3 trillion rubles, or 7-8% of GDP, which corresponds to the level of military dictatorships in Africa (8,2% of GDP in Algeria, 6,3% of GDP in South Sudan).
The Polish government has approved a draft budget for next year with record spending on defense: almost 187 billion zlotys (about 48 billion dollars).
