To further finance state spending on the war against Ukraine and the work of law enforcement agencies, which already account for 40% of the federal budget, Russia needs to free up a reserve of 2 trillion rubles per year by cutting “ineffective spending.”

This was stated by Anatoly Artamonov, head of the Russian Federation’s budget and financial markets committee, The Moscow Times reports .

” The redistribution of expenses in 2025 alone allows us to find up to 2 trillion rubles to finance priority areas, primarily defense and security ,” said Artamonov, who last week already called for the abolition of a number of tax breaks to plug the “hole” in the Russian budget.

According to him, the authorities could seek the same amount (approximately 1% of the total GDP) every year in 2026-2028 . To do this, in his opinion, it is necessary to abandon ineffective state spending, “ineffective benefits”, concessions for the construction of social facilities, and also review the financing of non-core property, such as football clubs with “crazy salaries” and unprofitable sanatoriums.

“We have one task for the entire country. And we will have to add money to solve it in order to finish it faster. You can’t see the problem, but it seems like you can’t notice it,” Artamonov said in the article, referring to the full-scale war launched by Russia against Ukraine, on which the Russian budget is spending every third ruble – a record share since the times of the USSR. 

Officially, Russia is spending 13.2 trillion rubles on the war against Ukraine in 2025, and another 3.45 trillion rubles are earmarked for “national security,” which includes the budgets of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Russian Guard, the Investigative Committee, and special services. According to summer amendments to the Russian budget for 2025, the total budget expenditures this year will amount to 42.3 trillion rubles.

In Russia, as of the end of March this year, spending on bonuses for those who sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense reached approximately 2 billion rubles ($24.32 million) per day.

Earlier this year, it was reported that the Russian government had changed the procedure for making lump-sum payments to citizens who signed contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry to join Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. Such payments were no longer provided for individuals who signed the contract while in prison or penal colony.

It was previously reported that Putin’s demand to sharply increase payments to contract soldiers going to war against Ukraine turned out to be beyond the reach of Russian regions .

Previously, the German publication Welt wrote that stopping the war would plunge Russia into a deep economic crisis , from which Russia would not be able to emerge on its own.

It was previously reported that the European Union’s new sanctions, which include a flexible price cap on Russian oil, could deprive the Russian budget of every fifth ruble of planned oil and gas revenues.

As a reminder, the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU Member States (Coreper) at an extraordinary meeting on the morning of Friday, July 18, agreed on the 18th package of European Union sanctions against Russia .

The package of sanctions against Russia approved by the EU countries includes measures that are intended to deal an additional blow to the Russian oil industry, as well as the financial sector.

Author:  Halyna Yalivets Джерело: https://censor.net/n3564879

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