Russia's parliament approves budget with a record amount devoted to defense spending

Russia's parliament approves budget with a record amount devoted to defense spending

Russia's parliament has approved a federal budget that increases spending by around 25% in 2024-2026 and devotes a record amount to defense

ByThe Associated Press

November 22, 2023, 9:12 AM

In this photo released by The State Duma, Russian lawmakers attend a session at the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament in Moscow, Russia, on Friday, Nov. 17, 2023. The lower house of Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, has passed a record federal budget which aims to increase spending by around 25% in 2024, with record amounts going to defense. (The State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament via AP)The Associated Press

Russia's parliament approved a federal budget Wednesday that increases spending by around 25% in 2024-2026 and devotes a record amount to defense.

The budget was passed unanimously by the Federation Council — the upper chamber of the Russian parliament — and will be sent to President Vladimir Putin to sign it into law.

The budget for 2024-2026 was developed specifically to fund the Russian military and to mitigate the impact of “17,500 sanctions” on Russia, State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said after the lower chamber approved it on Nov. 17.

Under the budget, the country’s largest, defense expenditure is expected to overtake social spending next year for the first time in modern Russian history. It comes as the Kremlin is eager to shore up support for President Vladimir Putin before a March presidential election.

Record low unemployment, higher wages and targeted social spending should help the Kremlin ride out the domestic impact of pivoting the economy to a war footing but could pose a problem in the long term, analysts say.

The budget “is about getting the war sorted in Ukraine and about being ready for a military confrontation with the West in perpetuity,” said Richard Connolly, an expert on Russia’s military and economy at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

“This amounts to the wholesale remilitarization of Russian society,” he said.