Russia's weekly war spending exceeds annual budgets of 80% of its regions

The Moscow Times reported the information.

The outlet reported that at the end of September, the Russian government published a draft budget for 2025, which includes record military spending of 13.2 trillion rubles (approximately $136 billion), amounting to 38 billion rubles per day.

This year, budget spending on the army and security forces amounted to 11.1 trillion rubles, or about 210 billion rubles per week, which exceeds the annual budgets of 80% of Russian regions. 

Only 18 out of 83 subjects of the Russian Federation have annual budgets that exceed weekly military spending. These include Moscow, St. Petersburg, as well as the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Kemerovo and Chelyabinsk regions, and other industrialized regions.
 

Instead, 64 regions have budgets that are less than a week's military spending. In almost a quarter of them, the annual budget is less than a third of the weekly cost of war. Among the most vulnerable are the national republics of Kabardino-Balkaria, Tyva, Mari El, North Ossetia, Kalmykia, Karachay-Cherkessia, Mordovia, Khakassia, Altai and the regions of Tambov, Kostroma, Oryol, Novgorod, Tambov, Pskov.

In addition, four regions - the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Ingushetia, Kalmykia, and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug - have annual budgets that are less than Russia's daily military spending. The Jewish Autonomous Region has the smallest budget - 15.3 billion rubles.
 

• Earlier, analysts from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) estimated that the Russian government plans to significantly increase military spending in 2025, hiding it behind social programs.