Putin approves Russia's budget with record spending on national defense

Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the Russian budget on Dec. 1, which plans for record levels military spending over the next three years.

The Russian State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, passed the law on the federal budget for 2025 and the planning period of 2026-2027 in November.

According to the law signed by Putin, in 2025, national defense spending will reach a record 13.5 trillion rubles ($126 billion), more than 6% of Russia's GDP.

Spending on war and law enforcement agencies exceeds expenditures on education, healthcare, social policy, and the national economy combined.

The new three-year budget envisages that military spending will be slightly lower in 2026-2027: 12.8 trillion rubles ($114.9 billion) in 2026 and 13.1 trillion rubles ($122.4 billion) in 2027.

The total expenditures of the Russian budget next year are planned at 41.47 trillion rubles ($387.3 billion), accounting for 19.3% of GDP. This is 1.17 trillion rubles ($15.9 billion) more than the expected revenues.

The budget deficit is expected to be 2.18 trillion rubles ($20.3 billion) and 2.76 trillion rubles ($25.8 billion), respectively, in 2026 and 2027.

On Nov. 28, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed law on Ukraine's own state budget for 2025.

The budget for 2025 envisages spending Hr 2.2 trillion ($53 billion) on Ukraine's defense, which is 26.3% of the country's projected gross domestic product (GDP).

On Nov. 12, Strategic Industries Minister Herman Smetanin said the budget envisages Hr 55 billion ($1.3 billion) for weapons production.

Some Hr 54.55 billion ($1.3 billion) will be directly allocated for the development and implementation of new technologies and the expansion of defense production capacity, according to Smetanin.

The minister added that the 2025 figure is almost Hr 3.5 billion ($84.4 million) more than in 2024.

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The Kyiv IndependentOleg Sukhov