Is Russia’s Current Soaring Defense Spending Unsustainable?

Jamestown Foundation: Russia’s Skyrocketing Defense Spending, 2022–2023 

 1) Russia’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine has forced the Kremlin to ramp up defense spending in a big way. 

2) The turbulence in Russian defense spending will probably increase in 2023. 

3) The skyrocketing defense budget means less flexibility and efficiency for Russian government spending. 

Russia’s continued aggression against Ukraine and the Kremlin’s attempts to escalate the political situation and prevent defeat on the battlefield through mobilization, nuclear blackmail and possibly even sabotage on gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea raise the question: How do all these factors influence the Russian defense budget? 

Since May 2022, the Russian government has not released much data on the defense budget. Nevertheless, defense spending from January to April totaled almost 1.6 trillion rubles ($26.4 billion), with about 500 billion rubles ($8.3 billion) of spending per month for March and April. Considering these dynamics in comparison with Moscow’s defense spending in previous years—roughly 300 billion rubles ($5 billion) per month—and the fact that the original defense budget in 2022 was 3.85 trillion rubles ($63.6 billion), the true amount for Russian defense spending in 2022 may well reach as much as 5.5 trillion rubles ($90.9 billion) by the end of the year (Budget.gov.ru, May 2022).  

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WNU Editor: The last thing that is on the Kremlin's mind right now is balancing their budget. Their priority and focus right now is to win the war, and to spend what is necessary to achieve it.