In January-February alone, Russia spent 2 trillion rubles ($26 billion) on defense, which is 282% more than in the same period a year ago.

Rising military equipment production and huge government spending are pushing Russian industry to expand, helping to mitigate the economic impact of Western sanctions.

In the first two months of 2022, 525.4 billion rubles were spent on “national defense”.

The Ministry of Finance stopped publishing individual monthly budget execution statistics in May last year, but has now added statistics for 2022 and the beginning of this year to the portal.

According to new statistics, defense spending in January amounted to 1.18 trillion rubles, and in February – 822.4 billion rubles.

The Russian government spending plan for 2023 provides for defense spending in the amount of 4.98 trillion rubles.

Statistics show that in January-February the country spent just over 40% of the planned annual defense budget.

Statistics released last week showed Russia’s budget deficit widened to 3.4 trillion rubles in the January-April period from a surplus of 1.2 trillion rubles in 2022, as Moscow spent heavily and energy revenues decreased.

Last year, Russia spent 5.51 trillion rubles, or 17.1% of total defense spending, compared to 3.57 trillion rubles, or 14.4%, in 2021.

In January-February 2023, national defense spending reached 36.2% of total budget spending. That is, they were almost twice the amount spent on social policy, and almost four times the amount spent on the “national economy”.

Source: APE-MPE, Reuters.