Putin approves russian budget with 40% of spending on war and security forces - media

Russian president vladimir putin signed the law on the budget for 2026 and the next three years.

This was reported by the Moscowtimes website.

According to the document, which was approved by the Duma on November 18, and by the Federation Council on November 26, next year the government intends to collect RUB 40.27 trillion in taxes and spend RUB 44.06 trillion. Thus, the treasury will have a deficit of RUB 3.78 trillion, or 1.6% of GDP.

Almost 30% of the budget, a record share since the times of the USSR, the Kremlin intends to spend on the army and the purchase of weapons - RUB 12.93 trillion. Another RUB 3.91 trillion are earmarked for the "national security" item, which includes the budgets of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the russian Guard, special services and the Federal Security Service system. In total, the security forces will receive RUB 16.84 trillion, or 38% of the budget. Compared to pre-war 2021 (24%), the share of security spending will increase by 1.6 times.

The share of social spending of the treasury will decrease to 25.1% (before the war – 38.1%), and the share of spending on supporting the national economy – to 10.9% (before the war – 17.6%). Both indicators will become the lowest in 20 years of available statistics from the Ministry of Finance.

The budget's oil and gas revenues, which fell by 20% this year, will not grow significantly next year, the law states: RUB 8.9 trillion versus RUB 8.6 trillion. The government intends to "squeeze" new taxes – RUB 2.9 trillion– from the non-raw material sector of the economy.