Russia Has Classified A Record 32% Of Its Budget

• 14.05.2025, 19:36

Virtually all classified spending is related to military needs.

The Russian government continues to increase secret budget expenditures, hiding in the "shadows" a trillion-dollar bill for the war in Ukraine, which has already cost Russian taxpayers more than Br20 trillion.

In the first quarter, Br3.6 trillion was spent from the federal treasury on classified items, a researcher at the German Institute for International Security Problems Janis Kluge calculated on the basis of data from the Ministry of Finance and materials for amendments to the budget law.

Compared to the same period last year (Br2.5 trillion), classified spending jumped by 44%, or Br1.1 trillion, and its share reached a new record - 32% of the Br11.2 trillion spent by the budget in three months.

As a result, classified spending became the second largest budget item after "social policy" (Br4.4 trillion). They were more than 7 times higher than the spending on health care (Br0.5 trillion) and almost 9 times higher than the spending on education (Br0.4 trillion). While total budget expenditures increased by Br2.2 trillion in the first quarter year-on-year (+24%), every second ruble of this increase went into the "shadow budget."

Almost all secret expenditures are related to defense, and their growth in the first quarter is probably explained by accelerated financing of contracts for the production and purchase of weapons, notes Kluge. According to open defense items, the budget spent in January-March 810 billion rubles, follows from the materials posted on the Duma website. Total defense spending thus reached Br4.4 trillion, or 40% of the budget, in three months. On average, the military machine "ate" 338 billion rubles each week - an amount that is comparable to the annual budgets of rich Russian regions such as Novosibirsk or Rostov (333 and 336 billion rubles, respectively).

Growing secret spending points to further militarization of the budget, Kluge notes. This year, the government has planned to spend 13.2 trillion rubles under the "national defense" item, or almost every third ruble, which has never happened since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Secret spending, according to Bloomberg, is planned at 12.9 trillion rubles for the year - 16% higher than it was in the 2024 budget. Their share should amount to 30%. For comparison, last year it was 27.6%, in 2023 - 22.6%.