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Russia’s Military Expenditure During Its War Against Ukraine

This SIPRI Insights paper is devoted to an analysis of military spending by the Russian Federation during its war against Ukraine, and the sources of funding for that spending. Russia’s total military expenditure has increased since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but not dramatically. Despite difficulty in accessing information on budget spending, total budgeted military spending in 2023 can be estimated at 6648 billion roubles. This represents 4.4 per cent of forecast Russian gross domestic product. While military spending in early 2023 seemed to accelerate beyond the budgeted amount, the rate of spending can be shown to be similar to that in early 2022 and does not suggest any unusual surge.

The Russian government is attempting to restrain spending on the war to minimize the domestic impact and enable the pursuit of policy goals set before the invasion. The Russian economy can afford this level of spending notwithstanding severe sanctions, while leaving open the possibility of increased war-related funding if the government considers it necessary in the future.

Table of contents

I. Introduction

II. The budget for 2022: Expectations and implementation

III. The federal budget for 2023–25

IV. The military budget for 2023

V. Looking to the future: The 2024 federal budget and beyond

VI. Conclusions

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)/EDITORS

Professor Julian Cooper is an Associate Senior Fellow with SIPRI's Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.