Russia has set aside 13.5 trillion roubles for national defense in 2025, a figure Al Jazeera converted to $145 billion when the draft budget reached parliament on September 30, 2024. That is 6.3 percent of GDP, the heaviest military outlay since the Soviet era, and 25 percent more than in 2024.
The State Duma approved the three-year budget for 2025-2027 on November 21, 2024. Meduza reported the defense line at “13.5 trillion rubles ($133.7 billion), or 6.31 percent of Russia’s GDP.” A second category, National Security and Law Enforcement, adds 3.5 trillion rubles ($34.6 billion). Together the two take over 40 percent of the federal budget.
A reversal and a comparison
The jump is sharp because the previous year’s draft had pointed the other way. It projected a 21 percent cut in defense spending, according to Al Jazeera. Defense and security combined come to 17 trillion roubles, nearly 41 percent of all state spending and eight percent of GDP.
Set against the rest of the budget, the gap is wide. Defense will run to more than double the 6.5 trillion roubles allotted to social needs such as pensions and subsidies. Education gets 1.58 trillion roubles, or 0.7 percent of GDP, and healthcare 1.86 trillion roubles, or 0.87 percent. Meduza quoted the reporting on the approved budget: “Funding for the military and security forces exceeds the combined expenditures for education, healthcare, social policy, and the national economy.”
Pay and revenue
Roughly 10 percent of the defense line goes to soldiers’ pay. Front-line personnel now earn a minimum of 3.25 million roubles a year.
The Finance Ministry said money “will be allocated and have already been allocated” for arming the forces. On revenue, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said oil and gas will make up 27 percent of budget receipts, adding: “we are moving away from oil and gas dependency in our budget revenues.”
Sources
- Russia to hike defence spending by a quarter in 2025 (Al Jazeera)
- Russia's State Duma approves 2025 federal budget allocating 6.31 percent of GDP to military spending (Meduza)
