The Duma adopted the budget in the 2nd reading. Military expenditures will exceed 10 trillion

On Wednesday, the State Duma of Russia adopted the draft federal budget for 2024, as well as for the planning period of 2025-26, in the second, main reading.

The budget envisages record military expenditures in the modern history of Russia. Also, even in comparison with the budgets of previous years, a large part of the budget is closed. In the second reading, it decreased somewhat – about 1.2 trillion rubles were transferred to the open part. However, even after that, the closed part, according to RBC’s calculations, will amount to about 27% of all budgeted expenses.

The revenues of the federal budget in 2024 are planned to be 35 trillion roubles, and the expenses are 26.6 trillion roubles. The deficit will thus amount to about 0.9% of GDP.

About 10.8 billion rubles are proposed to be allocated to the article “national defense”. Within the framework of this article, not only the army is financed, but also the military industry, as well as social payments to participants in hostilities. In the budget for 2023, military expenditures were laid down only in the amount of 6.4 trillion rubles, that is, we are talking about an increase of more than one and a half times. In total, military spending will make up about 6% of GDP, which is one of the first places in the world.

In total, more than 700 amendments were adopted by the second reading, the vast majority of which were introduced by the government. Estimated spending on social programs increased somewhat. In the second reading, money was also found for the indexation of the salaries of military personnel, employees of internal affairs bodies, and the criminal-executive system.
Bloomberg analysts previously claimed that the authors of the draft budget rely on an optimistic scenario for the development of events in the Russian economy: despite the sanctions and military spending, the Ministry of Finance estimates next year’s budget revenues to be 22% higher than in 2023.