Russia plans to sharply increase defence spending, cut funding for education and raise taxes next year as costs mount in its war with Ukraine, draft budget documents show.
But the budget documents show big cuts in non-military sectors, including social policy. Here’s what we know about the plans, which have been submitted to Russia’s lower house of parliament for approval: The government plans to spend a record 17.1 trillion rubles on defence in 2027, around 26 percent higher than last year’s forecast for 2027, according to the draft budget. Among the planned cuts are the federal government’s anti-cancer programme, which is set to lose around 97 percent of its original budgeted funding, the documents show.
Actual spending on defence is classified and could rise even further, said Alexander Kolyandr, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis. “The published totals are merely an opening bid in the negotiation between the finance ministry and the security establishment,” he said in an article last week. Unveiling the draft budget last week, Russia’s finance minister Anton Siluanov described both funding for social welfare and defence spending as a “priority”. “The government is cutting back on civil servant pay and reducing their numbers, while slashing infrastructure projects, including construction and roadwork,” columnist Boris Grozovsky said in an article for the Important Stories media outlet on Tuesday.
