Russia’s war spending set new record despite secrecy
Russia’s war spending hits a new record (Photo: REUTERS/Sergey Pivovarov)
Russia’s military budget expenditures in the first half of 2025 hit a new all-time high — 8.48 trillion rubles ($105.5 billion), The Moscow Times wrote on Aug. 27.
These figures come from calculations by Janis Kluge, a research fellow at Germany’s Institute for International Security Affairs.
Compared to the same period last year, Russia’s spending on the army and weapons production rose by 31%; versus January–June 2023 it increased by 95%; and compared to the first year of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, it has tripled.
On average, Russia’s war machine burned through 1.4 trillion rubles ($17.43 billion) per month and 46.9 billion rubles ($583.69 million) per day — a sum that exceeds the annual budgets of poorer Russian regions.
Nearly two-thirds (62%) of the military budget is classified. In the first half of the year, 3.2 trillion rubles ($39.85 billion) was spent under open defense lines, and 5.28 trillion rubles ($65.74 billion) under secret ones.
Year on year, the secret budget rose by 41%, and compared to January–June of the first year of the full-scale war — by almost four times.
From 2022 to 2024, the Russian government spent over 20 trillion rubles (over $249.03 billion) on the military and the state defense order, and the 2025 budget earmarks another 13.5 trillion rubles (about $168.10 billion) under “national defense” — 30% of all expenditures, the largest share since Soviet times.
If the active phase of fighting ends, Russia’s military budget may shrink starting in 2027, though “a return to pre-2022 levels should not be expected.”
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